This past weekend, Hope Springs from Field PAC led canvassing in Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It was the second weekend that we had all the states we are involved with in the field at the same time. Still eager to get to Arizona, but we need people who can lead canvassing there, first.
In Pennsylvania, we’ve started canvassing along the Main Line using the old Obama and Dean volunteer lists we’ve held on to. Which is good, because these are people who are comfortable canvassing and using the Issues Canvass as a means of engaging voters.
It is also an educated electorate, which means they often have well-formed and well-informed opinions about the president, Congress and their governor. As such, it should surprise no one that the Mississippi request to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade made a strong appearance on the question, What Issue do you think is the most urgent? Nor should anyone be surprised that this issue of Choice was raised by women.
In May, SCOTUS agreed to hear Mississippi’s appeal but the issue of Choice hadn’t really been showing up in our Issues Canvassing in Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin (all except for Texas are 2022 Senate races in which we have taken an interest).
But the brief filed Thursday reframed the arguments, taking direct aim at the 1973 Roe decision and a 1992 follow-up, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that narrowed Roe’s scope. Under current precedent, regulations that place an undue burden on women seeking abortion are unconstitutional.
The news about Mississippi’s new argument was widespread and we saw indications of strong interest. One voter (a female) asked a volunteer (a male) if he thought younger women would now start to feel concerned. That says something. It’s pretty obvious that abortion rights and choice will factor into the (open) senate race next year, and it seems highly unlikely that the Mississippi case will be decided before the primary. But what is surprising to me is that, after being relatively absent from the list of determinative issues voters were concerned about, choice suddenly made such a impact. There was also a couple of voters who named judges as their most urgent issue, and this could be connected to last weeks news, as well.
Responses to the Issues Canvass are being added to VAN (the Democratic database) in an open-source manner, which should allow all Democratic candidates who use the database to access them.
We are also walking with Constituent Service Request Forms. Constituent Service Request Forms are used by Democratic officeholders at various levels in their official capacity, but they are rarely taken door to door (which is sad, because they are an effective means for generating support and enthusiasm for candidates). We include them in our canvasses because many of the neighborhoods we are knocking don’t have a lot of contact with their officeholders and we are trying to connect them with their voters. Completed forms are turned over to the Democratic officeholder best suited for the request.
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 remind voters of the differences between Democrats and Republicans, especially with their current fascination with keeping Trump happy.
Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopefield
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate and our cause. 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. 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).
Because many of our canvassers come out more than once, the sudden appearance of choice as an issue of interest was notable to them. Granted, we had not canvassed in Montgomery County yet, and maybe it was just the difference between Bucks and Montgomery, but our volunteers did not buy that. They thought it was completely news-driven, and they felt like there was real surprise in the scope of the new argument. Remains to be seen if we discover similar results elsewhere, or even in future canvasses on the Main Line.
Not only were voters suddenly expressing interest in the issue of choice, but on Saturday they wanted to talk about it. Almost every canvasser experienced a prolonged conversation with a voter on their list, not exactly something we encourage. Performing an issues canvass already requires more time with voters who participate, although we train volunteers to ask voters who decline to fill out the entire issues canvass if they have an “urgent” issue on their mind and an opinion of the president.
So this week really stuck out in the minds of both our organizers (one of whom walked) and our volunteers. Of course, the voters we are talking to are primarily Democrats and Independents. Houses with just Republican voters are excluded from our lists. Here’s the thing: we will really know how important choice will be as a determinative factor in the 2022 elections is we see significant increases of voter registrations and re-registrations where we are canvassing. And Montgomery County is a place where there isn’t a lot of turnover in the electorate. But other than increases in voter registrations, and especially since the primaries will (likely) be before the SCOTUS announces its decision, we just won’t know until the general election in November.
Unless we get a lot of responses on the issue in our future Issues Surveys. Regardless, people who name the issue of choice as their most urgent issue are going to be choice voters for life. They will always have this concern and Democratic candidates will always be able to appeal to them on the issue. Issues Surveys are terrific tools for helping to understand the electorate (as well as train volunteers to canvass and inform political campaigns). But our purpose here is to engage voters. And we certainly did that in Pennsylvania.
Our main expenses (right now) are typical canvassing materials (water, snacks, walk packets, lit and access to VAN) as well as the mobile printers we are purchasing to comply with the voter ID requirements in other states. At this time, all the money we raise is devoted to this. But we are currently relying upon the Obama alumni network for organizers and cutting turf. We want to bring in other field organizers as we are able, especially since many of the people who are cutting turf now will want to devote more of their volunteer time to the candidates and causes they support.
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 do:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopefield
Thank you for your support.
Poll
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How Important Do You think the Issue of Abortion & Choice will be in the 2022 Elections?
32
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How Important Do You think the Issue of Abortion & Choice will be in the 2022 Elections?
Unbelievably Important. Of this I have no doubt
I do think it is Important, but I don't know how critical is will be in the election. Yet.
It's a factor for a key part of our base. But I don't think it will factor in to most of our voting base.
Depends on what the Supreme Court decides. It could work against us.
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