Hope Springs from Field PAC volunteers have been chomping at the bit. “When are we getting started?” they would ask (ever since i returned from the NY-03 special election). When i tried to explain that the calendar (more than the cold weather) was the biggest impediment, i got eye rolls. “Don’t you know….” The stakes, i’d be told, were high! And i would be told in the most serious fashion, like i was utterly unaware.
We started knocking on doors in Arizona and Florida on March 2nd, but postponed scheduled canvassing in Georgia and Texas for that day. Like every year, we have no idea what to expect and the weather drives some decisions. but we had cut an enormous amount of turf, just in case. It’s like a marathon, preparing for the first canvass.
This week (last Saturday), though, organizers responded to the pressing need to get out there, to start knocking on doors. Let the kraken loose, as it were. Organizers really don’t want to hear complaints about why didn’t we canvass? It wasn’t that cold. So, Saturday the 9th, we did. And while we didn’t get the kind of response we would have had the temperature been better, we got volunteers started for 2024.
Hope Springs from Field knocked on doors in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas last Saturday, in-person voter contact in preparation for the November elections. These states have Senate races and/or have been classified as competitive in the Electoral College (Florida lost that distinction late last year). Having said that, we must acknowledge that Florida is not as important as Arizona, or Texas as important as Georgia, in terms of Senate races or the Electoral College. Arizona, you could say, is rife with opportunities in 2024 whereas Florida is, well, just Florida. Georgia is difficult, while Texas is a spec state (not yet a reach state) with regards to the Senate. This matters less to volunteers, though; every state is important to those who live there.
Our core mission is protecting a Democratic Senate (and the Electoral College) and our core tactic is face-to-face voter contact through canvassing. The term most often associated with this approach is “Deep Organizing” but Early Organizing is equally appropriate. The model or system we have been using has been derivative of old Democratic machine tactics as well as the old (and apparently no longer used) system of 5 rounds (or touches) of voters by political campaigns. City Democratic machine precinct captains endeavored to knock on doors twice a year in off years and 4 times a year during an election year. So Democrats used to have a lot of face-to-face contact with voters; now many (probably most) precinct captains never knock on the doors of all the voters in their precincts.
Campaign field programs used to get their volunteers to knock on doors as well, and targeted areas could expect someone to show up at their door 5 times before GOTV started. Before voter databases became more computerized (and models more sophisticated), the first round was generally dedicated to list clean-up duty, making sure voters still lived where they lived in the last election cycle, registering new voters who might have moved in (or were now eligible to vote) and making them aware of government services, especially those things that fell under the candidate’s auspices. Neither of these two things are as typical in urban areas, and are virtually unknown in the areas that Hope Springs from Field targets: swingy areas that tend to be suburban and where new building is often common. They tend to have more people moving in than urban areas and we often meet people who are yet to register at their new address. But these are the areas that are deciding elections in the 21st century.
On March 8th, Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 62,137 doors and talked to 4795 voters in five states. 3063 voters filled out our Issues Survey, at least in part. They registered 23 new voters and re-registered 90 voters at their current address. 234 voters completed Constitute Service Request forms and eight voters filled out an Incident Report.
On the 2nd, Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 24,217 doors in Florida and Arizona, talked to 1912 voters, of whom 1212 took our Issues Surveys. 12 new voters were registered and 38 voters re-registered. 100 voters completed Constitute Service Request forms and one voter filled out an Incident Report.
Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 2nd in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of Democrats and unaffiliated voters with a systematic approach that reminds them not only that Democrats care, but Democrats are determined to deliver the best government possible to all Americans.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors — and we didn’t register new voters (while Republicans dud). We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be (and can be) cured.
We began knocking on doors again in Florida and Arizona on March 2nd, talking to voters, raising the Democratic banner and collecting data that will help Democratic candidates get voters to the polls in 2024. In Florida, we are knocking on doors in Osceola, Volusia and Duval counties. 172 volunteers came out last Saturday, knocked on 12,005 doors and talked to 911 voters. 585 Issues Surveys were conducted, with 3 new voters registered and 14 voters re-registered (all using the Secretary of State website). 82 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms and 3 voters completed Incident Reports.
The “top” issue in Florida for the 8th was Economic Uncertainty. Inflation or Prices was still a concern, fear of Layoffs, and whether the area would get a boost from Spring Break. Housing Issues, especially wrt to Insurance or Insurance Prices was second and Spring Break Concerns was cited third most often.
39% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden is doing in Florida. 16% disapproved. 9% approved of the job Rick Scott was doing; 43% disapproved. 14% approved of the job Ron DeSantis is doing; 41% disapproved.
In Arizona, 184 volunteers came out to knock on doors last Saturday in the western and southern suburbs of Phoenix and Tucson. We knocked on 13,211 doors in Arizona and talked to 1,076 voters. 697 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on our Issues Survey. We registered 5 new voters and re-registered 13 voters. 51 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms and 1 voter completed an Incident Report.
The Economy was the Top Issue in Arizona. Border Security was second. Prices was third.
Biden Approval among the Arizonans we talked to was 36% last Saturday. Remember that we are knocking on doors of Democrats or unaffiliated voters; we endeavor not to knock on any doors where all voters in the household are Republicans (and will ask for a specific voter when it is a mixed household). We only rarely talk to Republicans given how we cut turf (which i get to do again tomorrow!). 19% of the voters we talked to disapproved of the president. 8% approved of Sinema, while 51% disapproved. We also ask about the likely Democratic Senate nominee, Ruben Gallego; 53% of the voters we talked to on Saturday approved of Gallego. 52% approved of the Governor, Katie Hobbs. 7% disapproved.
In Georgia, 312 volunteers came out to knock on doors last Saturday in the Atlanta suburbs and in southern Georgia Blackbelt counties. We knocked on 22,245 doors and talked to 1,675 voters. 1,050 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on our Issues Survey. We registered 7 new voters and re-registered 48 voters. 86 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms and 3 voters completed Incident Reports.
Economic Uncertainty was the Top Issue in Georgia on Saturday. Political Stability was second (there are still lingering suspicions in the Atlanta area about the upcoming Trump Trials). Prices was third.
Biden Approval among the Georgians we talked to was 44% last Saturday. 12% of the voters we talked to disapproved of the president. 26% approved of the Governor, Brian Kemp. 27% disapproved.
83 volunteers came out to knock on doors last Saturday in North Carolina. We are focusing on the new North Carolina Congressional District map, Districts 1 and 7, this year — all new areas. We knocked on 5,685 doors and talked to 428 voters. 278 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on our Issues Survey. We registered 2 new voters and re-registered 4 voters. 17 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms.
The Economy was the Top Issue in North Carolina on Saturday. Political Extremism was second. Reproductive Rights was third.
Biden Approval among the voters we talked to was 39% last Saturday. 12% disapproved of the president. 46% approved of the Governor, Roy Cooper. 15% disapproved.
127 volunteers came out to knock on doors last Saturday in Texas. All our volunteers here were veterans from our canvasses in Texas in 2021 and many of them had requested Hope Springs return this year, but we intend to get into TX-15 as well. We knocked on 8,991 doors and talked to 705 voters. 453 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on our Issues Survey. We registered 6 new voters and re-registered 11 voters. 31 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms and 1 voter completed an Incident Report.
We are canvassing in Texas because of the Senate race. We didn’t canvass there last year because we got push back from local Texas groups who thought Hope Springs was competing with them for volunteers. But our absence was linked to their ability to feed VAN with data and that (apparently) did not happen. Democratic candidates need this data, Democratic voters need to get that kind of voter contact. So it’s an experiment.
Border Security was the Top Issue in Texas. Prices was second and Abortion was third.
Biden Approval among the Texans we talked to was 33% last Saturday. 23% of the voters we talked to disapproved of the president. 4% of the voters voiced approval of Ted Cruz; 44% disapproved. 21% approved of the Governor, Greg Abbot. 45% disapproved.
If you are able to support this kind of intensive grassroots organizing and voter contact, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
We canvass with an Issues Survey that is our jumping off point of conversations with voters. We find this is an easy way to begin the canvass season. All the data we collect will be entered into VAN, the Democratic database.
We knock on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters. At every door, we leave a piece of “show the flag” lit, something that tells them we were there and hopefully reinforces the Democratic brand. The lit focuses on the things voters told us were important to them last fall, aiming to appeal to every voter. We also ask voters if they have an problems that local, state or federal governments need to address in their neighborhoods.
But the main focus of our canvassing right now is the Issues Survey, asking voters for their input and concerns. We find that most voters who aren’t in a hurry or in the middle of something are willing to answer at least a couple of these questions, especially their top issue or concern and their views of President Biden. Voter responses to the questionnaire are entered into VAN and made available to all Democratic candidates who use VAN in the state after the primary. Creating this kind of data isn’t done with a specific goal in mind but has the purpose of engaging voters and creating a dataset that any Democratic candidate can use in opposition to a Republican.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has a hybrid approach. We aren’t interested in competing with regular campaign field organizing. We are in the field before they get there and then move on when the Democratic campaigns start their intensive field work. Indeed, when we wind up the typical field work by Labor Day, we will encourage all the volunteers working with us to move over to the Senate campaigns in their states (and hope that our field organizers will be hired on by those campaigns). After Labor Day, we will begin organizing our Election Protection Project.
As you can see from the very first question in the Issues Questionnaire, making sure that voters are registered from their current address is a major function of early canvassing. In Florida, given the current laws, we offer up a tablet with the Secretary of State website up so that voters can register or update their information themselves. Part of this is making sure that voters are registered in compliance to the new, confusing and frustrating Election law that is particularly onerous for people who change residences more frequently than normal. But registering new voters (and re-registering existing voters at their current address, in compliance with HAVA) at their door is also critical to our approach. Arizona has a much more friendly voter registration system, including the ability to opt in to permanent early voting. Of course, canvassing is the hard way to do voter registration, but we catch people that our voter registration campaigns can miss because of their emphasis on larger-scale or mass voter registration.
In Florida, though, the new law requires voters to provide, in addition to their date of birth, the last four digits of their Social Security number OR their driver license OR state ID card number to make an address change. Which is par for the course this year, but here’s the part that is likely to stump people who move around. You have to remember which one you provided, because you have to provide the same one every single time you interact with your local Supervisor of Elections, or your request won’t be granted. Supervisors of Elections won’t have access to other databases, so they can only "verify” a request by the information the voter has provided. But this is something we have learned to track so that if the voter registration was not successful, we can go back.
We also ask voters if they have any concerns about the upcoming elections. Last year, we walked with lit about the changes in voting laws, but we also asked voters about their fears and experience in prior elections. So far there haven’t been significant changes in the laws but we still ask about fears and experience vis-a-vis elections. Voters who say they have experience voter intimidation or other problems with voting are asked to fill out Incident Reports.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or the Electoral College in 2024, as well as districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year (specifically those where a Republican won a Congressional District that voted for Biden in 2022). There is a lot of work to be done! Especially since we have had to expand the map this year.
By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with these really, really onerous provisions, Hope Springs from Field PAC seeks to undermine that strategy, while informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them. There’s a lot of work to be done, but fortunately, the three states that are making it most difficult are also states in which you can knock on doors at least 10 months out of the year. And, with your help, we will be there, getting our people to super-comply with these restrictive provisions.
We are also — this being an election year — adding the Post Cards to New Voters component back into our Voter Outreach, both New Voters we find at their doors as well as New Voters we target in the Voter File.
Our biggest expense is the Voter File. But it is also a fixed cost. That won’t change as we raise and spend more money. Printing literature is our second largest cost. Printing and mailing our our Post Cards to New Voters is our third cost and paying the fees for ActBlue is the smallest of our monthly costs.
Hope Springs is a seat-of-the-pants grassroots-driven operation. We don’t have employees but we realize that to formalize and professionalize this effort that will have to change.
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
If you would rather send a check, you can follow that link for our mailing address at the bottom of the page. Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!