Identify & Document — MCCDBC Black Voter Initiative
PA Democratic State Committee — Meeting Presentation

Identifying & Documenting Montgomery County's Black Voters

A four-year field initiative from the Montgomery County Chapter Democratic Black Caucus to close a data gap the Party has never filled — and the plan to keep closing it.

PresentedSeptember 19, 2026
Initiative LeadRecruitment Director, MCCDBC
Cycle2022 – Present
Background

A growing constituency the Party hasn't kept pace with

Between 2010 and 2020, Montgomery County's Black population grew more than twice as fast as the county overall — yet outreach never scaled to match. All figures are from the U.S. Census.

7%
Growth in Montgomery County's total population, 2010–2020 (799,874 → 856,553)
18%
Growth in the county's Black population over the same decade (69,351 → 81,786)
8.7% → 9.6%
Black residents' share of the county's total population, 2010 vs. 2020
The gap: the data documents a Black population rising in both absolute numbers and share of the electorate — a natural voting affinity for the Democratic Party that the Montgomery County Democratic Party has failed to adequately reach.
The Initiative

Build the list the Party never built

The MCCDBC initiative to identify and document the Black voters of Montgomery County corrects that failure at the source: canvass by canvass.

Over time, the system puts real information in front of the organizations that need it — for Voter Appreciation, GOTV, and candidate and volunteer recruitment, among other uses.
As Recruitment Director for the MCCDBC, I led the effort to identify and document, to the fullest extent possible, every Black voter in Montgomery County. The ask of campaign volunteers, Area committeepersons, and volunteers is simple: document it, every time, when you come face to face with a Black voter while canvassing — either a selection in MiniVAN or a checked box on the paper canvass sheet.
One selection. One box. Every canvass.
The Implementation Process

What it takes from HDCC, SDCC, and Coordinated Campaigns

Three steps carry the activist code from concept to canvassing script — and the cycle repeats every election.

01

Create and share the activist code

Distributed to committeepersons and local groups organizing across all 15 MontCo Areas, backed by direct presentations to those groups.

2022
7
2023
6
2024
3
Total
16
02

Gather every campaign's contact information

Working with the MCCDBC to collect names and contact info across all Montgomery County campaigns, so state organizers can assign access efficiently.

42 candidate campaigns
03

Get it into the canvassing script

Communicate the Black activist code to every campaign — HDCC, SDCC, and Coordinated Campaigns — and get it built into their canvassing scripts.

Identifying and documenting Black voters in Montgomery County began with the 2022 election cycle — and it continues through every cycle after it.

In The Field

What the ask looks like on a canvasser's phone

In MiniVAN, the MCCDBC outreach question sits alongside the questions canvassers already ask about candidate support and volunteering — one more toggle, in the same script, on the same door.
  • Strong Support / Strong Interest — recorded the same way as any other canvass response.
  • MCBC Outreach — "Would you be interested in learning more about the MCBC?" — the documentation question itself.
  • No extra app, no extra visit — the ask rides on a canvass that's already happening.
Example MiniVAN canvassing screen showing the MCCDBC Black voter outreach question added to a standard canvass script
Example canvass record, MiniVAN — the MCCDBC outreach question is the same weight as any other field on the script.
PA Montgomery County Chapter Democratic Black Caucus — pamccdbc.com
Prepared for the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee