Voting groups sound alarm on funding shortfalls that they say could affect midterm turnout

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several of the nation's largest left-leaning voter engagement and racial justice organizations are facing steep funding shortfalls and staffing cutbacks just as voting is getting underway in an election that will determine control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term.

The shortfalls are setting off alarms among Democratic strategists, who are betting on high turnout and robust voter protection efforts to boost the party's chances this fall. They are worried that many grassroots groups will not be able to mount effective registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, much less protect against the possibility of election interference from the Republican administration.

America Votes, a coordinating hub for more than 400 progressive groups, has fallen “well below” the level of funding it had during the 2022 midterms, Daria Dawson, America Votes’ executive director, said in a statement to The Associated Press. America Votes has acted as a nerve center for the voter mobilization efforts of groups such as the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, the AFL-CIO and SEIU labor unions, as well as local groups focused on racial justice, climate and civil liberties.

“There is still time to reach voters and bring them into this election, but we are no longer talking about a future opportunity,” Dawson said. "The window to engage them is open now, and it is narrowing every day.”

Wealthy donors and philanthropic groups have reduced their support of many liberal causes since the 2024 presidential election. That pullback has been especially stark for voting groups geared toward engaging communities of color.

While multiple organizers said some funders had expressed an interest in adopting different strategies, racial justice organizers have felt that as a betrayal.

A retreat in donor support is “handcuffing our ability to persuade our communities to vote in a year where there is no Voting Rights Act,” said Esosa Osa, a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Onyx Impact, a research group focused on combating misinformation in Black communities.

The Supreme Court this year knocked out one of the last remaining pillars of that landmark 1965 law, essentially gutting it.

“We are watching surrender, not strategy,” Osa said.

A July memo circulated among major Democratic fundraisers warned that “the organizations that registered and persuaded millions of voters to participate in the 2018 and 2022 midterms are drastically underfunded. They have raised nearly 40% less than they had at this point in those cycles.”

It further warned that funding voter mobilization groups was especially critical “given that the Democratic brand is underperforming on generic ballot tests relative to historical comparisons and the president’s approval ratings.”

The shortfalls have led organizations focused on engaging and mobilizing key voting groups to scale back operations and staffing over the last year. That has included programs aimed at registering and mobilizing lower-propensity voters, voters of color, and rural and younger voters.

The Democratic National Committee, which has faced its own funding challenges, has consolidated voter engagement efforts this year partly in response to the ecosystem's past shortcomings. The DNC in a statement said it was making “historic investments” in its organizing but did not address the weaknesses among allied groups.

“We are expanding our voter protection infrastructure to defend Americans’ sacred right to vote, hold Trump and Republicans accountable in court, and register and mobilize voters across the country,” said Angelo Fernández Hernández, a DNC spokesperson.

The reasons for the troubled funding landscape are varied and at times unclear, according to nearly two dozen fundraisers and organizers who spoke with the AP. Some donors, still disappointed with the Democratic Party and some of its allies following the 2024 presidential election, have closed their pocketbooks to liberal causes entirely.

While a small group of liberal megadonors has continued to bankroll progressive causes, most focus their support on liberal legal organizations that have taken the Trump administration to court, rather than political or voter engagement groups.

Others, including major philanthropic institutions, have pulled back out of fear of retribution that giving to political or racial justice causes could draw the administration's ire. Organizers who have engaged with potential donors said the administration’s targeting of political opponents and diversity initiatives seems to have put a chill on fundraising for their causes.

Tameka Ramsey-Brown, founding director of the Michigan Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said multiple donors since the 2024 election had asked whether her group could remove the word “Black” from its name or find financial conduits to mask the source of donations for fear of retribution from the administration.

“Just being Black in this country again has become a bad word, and it has made it that much more difficult just to raise money because funders don’t want the added pressure and stress or attacks on them by funding us,” she said.

Many of the nonprofit groups that traditionally have conducted the registration, voter education and organizing say they are trying to adapt to their new, leaner reality.

Vamos a Votar, an initiative of the largest civil rights and advocacy groups focused on Latino communities, has had to readjust its ambitions this year due to a lack of investment from funders.

“This is shaping up to be a cycle where investments haven't gone to the Black and brown communities that will ultimately decide this election,” said Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a member of the initiative.

In a September pitch circulated among donors, the coalition said it aimed to invest $27.5 million in voter engagement and persuasion efforts this year, but still required $5.4 million from donors to fund voter turnout efforts across 10 states and 17 House districts. Even that investment reflected reduced ambitions from previous pitches to donors early this year.

“It has been extremely disappointing to see that progressive donors are not meeting the moment," said Héctor Sánchez Barba, the CEO of Mi Familia Vota, one of the affiliated organizations. “We are not waiting. We are always on the front lines for our democracy and our communities.”

To counter the funding cutbacks, some groups have begun relying more heavily on artificial intelligence to provide voter registration guides, share information in multiple languages and track potential election issues. Some groups have increased their partnerships with ride-sharing companies to provide free rides to polling places instead of bus shuttles.

With fewer in-person organizers, some groups are also focusing on social media and partnering with liberal content creators to boost their messages.

“In my more than 30 years of organizing, it has never been this bad to raise money to support Black causes of any kind,” said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a nonpartisan civil rights group. “We're going to do the work, our state affiliates are doing all that is possible. ... But the bottom line is that those who believe that democracy matters should make sure they fund the work.”

Jeremiah Simmons looks over information at the Men 4 Choice table at Bridgepointe Church during an event, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Davan'te Jennings with Men 4 Choice speaks to a person at Bridgepointe Church during an event Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Nicholas Burns prepares his table at Bridgepointe Church during an event, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Nicholas Burns prepares his table at Bridgepointe Church during an event Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark's government was cautiously optimistic on Saturday about Donald Trump's announcement of a deal on Greenland to bolster U.S. military presence there but keep the island under Danish control, following months of threats by the U.S. president to seize the semiautonomous territory of a NATO ally.

In Greenland, the Arctic island's top leaders echoed that stance and said the deal, which has not yet been made public, had been long in coming.

Trump said on Friday that the agreement would give the United States “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns.”

Denmark and the U.S. already have a long-standing security agreement that has allowed the U.S. to deploy forces in Greenland, and it was not immediately clear how this deal was different from that.

After Trump's announcement Friday, the office of Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the deal will be signed by all three governments next week during the United Nations General Assembly, but parliamentary action is still needed by the Danish and Greenland governments before it can be enforced.

“Next week could be a good week … for Greenland, Denmark, and the United States alike,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen wrote on Instagram Saturday morning.

“A period of uncertainty will hopefully be replaced by a binding agreement that strengthens security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic — and thus also our shared security within NATO and Europe — while respecting the Kingdom’s red lines,” he added.

Greenland’s government leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen said he was happy about the deal, which he said “benefits not only our collective security, but also the continued development here in the country.”

The foreign minister of Greenland, Múte B. Egede, said he was pleased that “we now have an agreement within reach.”

“It has taken some time,” he told Denmark’s TV2 broadcaster. “I’m pleased that we finally have an end product within reach. And it’s about time.”

Trump said that with the agreement, the U.S. would “immediately” begin the process of developing a larger military presence on the mineral-rich Danish territory.

The U.S. had long held several bases and installations on the Arctic territory through the Cold War, before dialing back its presence.

It still operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951. It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

A U.S. State Department official said the agreement bans any non-NATO base in Greenland, limits adversaries from being able to make investments in Greenland, and guarantees that China and Russia cannot have a base on the island. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Denmark and Greenland did not explicitly confirm any of the specifics in Trump’s statements, nor did they provide details regarding the content of the agreement or the rights and obligations of the parties.

U.S., Greenlandic and Danish officials had quietly negotiated for months behind the scenes, searching for solutions to address some of Trump’s security concerns about a territory of roughly 56,000 residents.

With the announcement of the pact, Trump is able to tout a foreign policy achievement ahead of the midterm elections in the U.S.

After his return to the White House, Trump had called on Denmark to sell the island to the U.S., while insisting Greenland is crucial for U.S. security. He pointedly wouldn’t rule out taking the island by military force, even though Denmark is a NATO ally of the U.S.

Denmark and Greenland repeatedly said the island is not for sale and condemned reports of the U.S. gathering intelligence there. The U.S. push for Greenland was also fiercely opposed by Russia and much of Europe.

Greenland grassroots pro-sovereignty activist Orla Joelsen wrote on X that “our fight against Trump’s ambition to take over Greenland has been won.”

“The new agreement explicitly recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination,” the activist added.

In Denmark, many expressed relief that a deal with the U.S. seemed close.

Michael Burgaard from Gentofte, north of the Danish capital of Copenhagen, was hopeful the crisis was over “because just a fortnight ago, Donald Trump posted this map showing Greenland ... as part of the U.S.”

“We were kind of worried that he would take all of Greenland by force," added the 56-year-old telecommunications worker. "So, the fact that we can settle this in a diplomatic way ... I think it’s good.”

Michael Frees, a 51-year-old high-school teacher in Copenhagen, said he thinks the agreement is “the most realistic solution for us right now."

“We are a small nation and of course we have to cooperate with bigger countries and also the European Union,” he said.

Grieshaber reported from Berlin.

FILE - Two groups from the Poseidon Expeditions tour company look at a glacier in the Scoresby Sund, Sept. 7, 2023, in Greenland. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola, File)

President Donald Trump speaks during an event about healthcare in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday Sept. 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

From right, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and the Faroe Islands' Prime Minister Beinir Johannesen visit Qooqqut, Greenland Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

FILE - Houses covered in snow are seen on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenland's government leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen visit Qoornoq, Greenland on Sept. 6, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)