In the final stretch before the 2024 election, nine student athletes from seven swing states posted PSAs on Halloween morning, encouraging youth voter turnout on election day. Each athlete pointed their followers to Vote Save America’s ballot ready tool, a place where voters can research where to vote, how to vote, and the positions the candidates on their ballots hold on key issues like housing, the economy, and reproductive rights.
These last nine posts were part of a larger Vote Save America campaign with The Ascendant Athlete that saw student athletes from 16 different colleges or universities, 11 different sports, and eight swing states post a total of twenty-six PSAs since Voter Registration Day on September 17. Each PSA was 30-60 seconds and either explained a motivating reason to vote or shared information about how to use Vote Save America’s ballot ready tool to check voter registration, find polling locations, and learn about candidates’ policy positions.
As of 8pm on Election Day, these PSAs were viewed more than 264,000 times on Instagram! In total, Vote Save America’s campaign generated 3.7 million hits on Vote Save America’s website, and a quarter million people used the VSA ballot ready guide to prepare for the election!
Vote Save America rolled the campaign out in three rounds, beginning on National Voter Registration Day, when ten student athletes from six swing states posted PSAs that drove 50,000 individuals to the VSA site. The second round, launched on October 8, featured seven student athletes spotlighting VSA’s ballot ready tool; it directed 112,000 viewers to the website. On October 31, the campaign concluded as nine student athletes posted a final call to action and encouraged their followers to vote on November 5th. That last round of PSAs reached 102,187 views within a twenty-four window.
Vote Save America is a civic initiative that provides tools for voter registration, ballot information, and election resources. Over the last six years, VSA has raised more than $55M for progressive causes and candidates, recruited more than 30,000 poll workers, and supported nearly 1M people to research their ballots or check their registration. The Ascendant Athlete is an independent advisory group that supports athletes, teams, and leagues to have a sustainable social impact.
In the final round of PSAs, Beau Bartlett, a wrestler at Penn State, guided his followers to the VSA website for last-minute voting information. His PSA served as a powerful reminder that the stakes of this election are high, particularly for his generation, who will shape the future on issues like “the economy, LGBTQ rights, body autonomy, and the environment.”
Delanie Harkness, a gymnast at Michigan State, highlighted the critical role of state and local elections, and urged her audience to “show up for the change.” Chandon Smith, a track & field athlete at Queens College, literally brought his followers along as made his way to early voting in North Carolina. He reminded his followers that “filling out your entire ballot means protecting our freedoms at the state and local levels, where all of these rights and fights are happening right now.”
“This was a unique campaign with stunning results,” explained Ben Orbach, the CEO of the Ascendant Athlete. He continued, “NIL deals for cars, fast food, beauty products, and clothes have become commonplace. This campaign was the first or one of the first to support student-athletes to speak up in support of progressive and common sense action on the issues that shape their lives today – things like climate change, reproductive rights, fair housing, and gun violence prevention. It was great to see student leaders embrace the opportunity to include social justice and civic action as part of the brand that they are building and monetizing. The student athletes that participated in this campaign are courageous and thoughtful individuals, people who have the character that we hope to see when we talk about “authentic” brand ambassadors.”