For the last 2 and 1/2 weeks, I was in the Dallas area, assessing our opportunities in Texas' CD-06 where there is a special election next month. This is definitely a reach district, a promising but difficult suburban/rural area that Democrats did not specifically target in 2020. But it is not without opportunity (as many Democrats in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area point out), as the Republican incumbent Ron Wright received 52% and 53% in the last two cycles, technically making it a swing district in the broadest sense.
Texas CD-06 represents all of rural Navarro and Ellis Counties, and the largely suburban southeastern part of Tarrant, which comprises the largest portion of voters in the district. Although I went into the rural counties, Tarrant would be the primary focus of a Democratic campaign. This is the kind of district where Republicans have tied suburban areas, which are more competitive, with rural areas to dilute chances for Democrats to elect more representatives to Congress or state houses. OTOH, it is also the kind of district where rapid suburban growth and the disillusionment by suburban women with Trump has recently made them much more competitive.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in Tarrant county to boost Democratic turnout in the TX-06 special. Early voting begins on April 19 with the jungle primary on May 1.
We are following the model used in Fairfax County by Democrats for the presidential primary in 2020, where party activists knocked on doors and made phone calls just to boost turnout. There was no advocacy for any specific candidate, just a simple message that voting in the (presidential) primary was important. It worked.
Because this is a jungle primary, the winner needs to receive a majority of the votes cast. The stronger the Democratic turnout, the better chances for a runoff between one Democrat and one Republican.
We gaged potential for organizing the district by talking to voters in the district where they live. Although the Republican incumbent was getting under 55% of the vote, a significant Libertarian vote was evident and a popular mayor in the area was routed in 2020 because his affiliation as a Democrat was exposed (it was a nonpartisan race). But one of the first indicators of potential in swing districts has always been when Democrats start asking, "Do you really think we can win this seat?" instead of declaring, "There's no way we can win here." And we are hearing just that.
We conducted 5 message sessions based around the Tully (or message) box in Arlington, Ft Worth, Waxahachie and Corsicana and then a combined session with 9 volunteers from the first 4. Message boxes try to find convincing contrasts with one's opponents that will move and/or motivate voters. Again, we used the Fairfax VA model here because we were focused on turnout not candidates.
As you can imagine, there was a broad consensus about what Republicans say about Democrats. This is Texas, and Democrats are discussed with almost moral condemnation. But the 4th quadrant is really only important in this context to frame the 1st quadrant. That’s the relevant one, because we are trying to boost turnout.
In all four initial sessions, we heard some version of the old Frasier tag line, "We're listening." That's unusual. Sometimes it was more demand-like ("Politicians should listen to us") or pleading ("Our elected-officials need to be listening;" "Our voices aren't being heard;" "We need people who can listen to us"), but there was always (and multiple) variations of this theme.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is focused on the ground, face to face conversations that have proven effective in turning out voters year in and year out. By knocking on doors and delivering a hopeful, clear message, we want to increase Democratic turnout significantly and force a runoff between a Republican (probably the incumbent's widow) and a Democrat.
Obviously, we need your help. We would like to place 3 more organizers in Tarrant county and perhaps even add another for the two rural counties. These areas are huge.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/tx-06field
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Alums because field organizing was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate. Face to face interactions, even masked and socially distanced, are critical. In areas like Texas, it is even more crucial, since many Democratic voters feel isolated, even surrounded, and are often unaware of the fact that their neighbors and colleagues are Democrats, too!
Talking about listening is important, but we drilled down to what people thought needed to be heard. This was where the 4th quadrant really informed responses. Everyone knew that “God, guns and babies” drove Texas Republicans, especially in the rural areas, but we were repeatedly told how negative it was. Moral condemnation, remember? "I can't tell you how often my neighbor likes to say that this is a Christian nation -- like he wants to repeal the First Amendment!" "I just wish Democrats would remind everyone we're not going to take away their guns." There was a strong desire to move away from conservative talking points to something not just positive but hopeful. "Isn't that what Joe Biden promised?"
3 of our initial sessions developed another theme that can be boiled down to one response: "I want to see the people I vote for fighting for me and my family, not just the special interests." Our volunteers were well-informed, and this kind of thread led to discussions of specific types of legislation currently before Congress (eg, HR-1) but we reminded folks that this effort was to develop a broad theme that everyone could understand. Democrats will fight for you. Democrats are fighting for you. We need to turn out and vote in this special election so that Democrats can fight for you.
Our 4 initial sessions left us with 19 large (5' to more than 6') sheets of ideas and suggestions to be synthesized in the final session. 10 people, including 3 from Navarro and Ellis Counties, agreed to participate in the final session -- 9 showed up. We highlighted the similar ideas by color in the attempt to make it less overwhelming (but 19 sheets is still overwhelming). We started off by reminding our volunteers just what we were trying to do: develop a message that will inspire, motivate and mobilize Democrats to vote in this special Congressional election.
Volunteers focused really quickly on the themes of listening and fighting for us. So we spent most of our time trying to build out a message around those two themes. Much of the time was spent around discussion of whether we could separate "fighting for you" with "and your family." Even though the person who had formulated the "Democrats are fighting for you and your family" phrasing was not at the final session, this was something that really spoke to most, if not all, of those who did attend. But in the end, there grew a consensus around this message:
- Democrats care about you and your family.
- We're listening.
- Democrats are fighting for you.
- Please come out and Vote Democratic on May 1.
Last weekend, we started knocking on doors with this message. The "We're listening" theme fit with the second aspect of our efforts in TX-06, which I will get into next. But it starts with message, and we feel like this is a good, strong message that will succeed in the 6th.
If you would like to support our efforts to increase Democratic turnout in the May 1st special election and force a runoff, please do:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/tx-06field