​The Hometown Project​ inspires voter turnout in local elections and helps elect progressive local candidates by connecting well-known actors, musicians and athletes, called ​Hometown Energizers​, with candidates and campaigns in their hometowns. Together, we seek to elevate the message of local campaigns and motivate voter turnout in local elections where a few hundred votes can make a big difference.

The overall goal is to provide an elevated platform in hometowns across America so that exciting local candidates have access to and can connect with a larger community. The Hometown Project helps garner an expanded audience for candidates, translating to greater name identification, candidate recognition and higher voter turnout.

This dynamic forum brings more candidates and constituents together and is a means to build an informed and educated electorate in each and every election. 

The Need

We are in a new phase in American politics. Radical forces are working to strip away many of the human rights hard-earned over the last 60 years and leaders with these ideologies currently control Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court. In this current environment, we cannot simply focus on the federal government as the center of power. State and local elected officials must act as a powerful bulwark against the rising tide of authoritarianism. The decisions and values of local leaders can have a profound impact on the lives of their constituents, including, but not limited to, women’s rights to bodily autonomy and the defense of immigrant families in our communities. 

However, voter turnout plummets in local elections, particularly when there is no race at the top of the ticket. Worthy local campaigns are often overlooked and underfunded. Local campaigns and candidates have difficulty in reaching voters and ensuring their message is heard by the right individuals within their district, voters who will be sure to remember to vote “all the way down the ballot.

The Hometown Project offers an innovative solution to reaching local voters and volunteers in a unique and creative way. By utilizing the authentic connections between celebrities and their hometowns and home states, our strategy actively engages voters and elevates the message of state and local campaigns and initiatives.

Mission And Concept

The Hometown Project seeks to bring positive energy to the local campaigns by strategically working with community leaders and enhancing their reach by introducing them to Hometown Energizers.  Hometown Energizers are notable individuals, celebrities, who hail from the community and who evoke a certain sense of pride. The Hometown Project works with local partner organizations, leaders and candidates to identify individuals who are excited to return to their hometowns to bring attention to local issues in a meaningful way. 

We work with national and regional partners like Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Lead Locally and Run for Something, in addition to state tables and parties, to help identity and align key campaigns and districts with Energizers to advocate for causes and candidates both online and in person. These cultural leaders may endorse issues or promote local candidates running for city council, school board, state legislature, and more. This unique approach garners an expanded audience for candidates that can really make a difference in small races that are often decided by a small number of votes.

Campaigns and candidateS

The Hometown Project and our electoral partners elevate the platforms of progressive, diverse candidates who are connected to their communities and have a proven record of constructive, positive work within their districts. We are promoting candidates who we believe will work on behalf of their community to seek solutions to help all of their constituents, and not to serve the interests of national organizations and agendas. We make a dedicated effort to ensure diversity of our candidates from many perspectives including gender, age, and ethnicity. Our goal is to ensure that our candidates are informed, balanced representatives and reflections of the community they serve.

2025 GOALS

As the nation braces for incoming policy changes and adapts to shifting socio-political climate, we continue to focus our attention and priorities on important state and local elections.

This year, Hometown will continue to support turnout initiatives and candidates running in state and local races. There are more elections happening across the country in 2025 than in 2024.  Hometown is assessing and prioritizing from the more than 5,000 cities that will hold mayoral elections, over 22,000 open school board seats, 31,000 city council seats, and roughly 160 elections for prosecutor and sheriff positions on the ballot in 2025. 

We are cultivating new relationships, building on existing partnerships and working to identify organizations that research and prioritize competitive seats in state and local elections. Ranking the importance of local races and determining which races have the most potential for impact is a major information gap of the progressive movement and we are investing time and research in this key area in the 2025 year.

Hometown is also exploring programs to increase voter turnout for sheriff races and supporting voter education initiatives around sheriff accountability. Hometown is in communication with partner organizations supporting important races for Sheriff, in Erie, NY and in New Orleans, LA– and reviewing the roughly 160 prosecutor and sheriff positions to prioritize. Dependent on funding, collaborations could also include expanding voter education around how to hold sheriffs– elected positions– accountable to the communities they serve. This extends to holding sheriffs accountable to protect and defend immigrant communities amidst federal attacks.

The Hometown Project will build on our long standing relationships with partner organizations in Virginia,  like Clean Virginia and New Virginia Majority, a continued bellwether state in odd election years like 2025. There are at least 10 competitive districts in the Virginia House of Delegates in addition to down ballot races across the state. Hometown will revisit our partnership with the New Jersey Democratic Caucus, with a focus on holding and growing majorities in the state.  New Jersey is a key state to invest in. While it is often misconceived as a safe blue state, data shows that if we do not invest in crucial states like NJ, we will quickly see progressive gains slip.