Last Saturday, Hope Springs from Field PAC led canvasses in Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It is the fourth consecutive weekend that we’ve had volunteers out in all the states we are involved with at the same time. But it is also the first weekend where we had a noticeably smaller turnout by volunteers knocking on doors. Could be the heat, but I strongly suspect that is the result of the Delta flair-up. In Harris County, almost 1,700 people were hospitalized for Covid-19 this past weekend. But last summer it was nearly 4,000 people, and the winter surge was more than 3,000 people.
We knocked on doors in masks and those who brought their vaccination card wore the button. People do ask about the button, but those who ask don’t seem to understand the Democratic branding. The (first) special session of the Texas Legislature ended and so did our canvasses with state House Democratic staffers. With that end, our response and open door rates returned to normal. This was really the first time in my experience where we could really test the difference between the response rates in turf where we robocalled on behalf of special canvassers (candidates, or, in this case, legislative staffers) and turf walked in the same area on the same day by volunteers. Not that I didn’t already believe that candidates should canvass, but they can get significantly higher response rates when they do (something we nominally proved in Iowa in 2007 with Barack Obama). And they don’t have to be Barack Obama to benefit from that.
We are asking people who open their doors if they are currently registered at that address, if they will answer a few questions (from the Issue Survey) and whether they need to fill out a Constituent Service Request Form. Now that we have been canvassing for almost two months, I have noticed that people are more likely to be willing to register if the canvasser at their door looks like them. There is no discernible difference for people who re-register (at their current address) — and those are much higher numbers. Maybe it is a quirk in the data, but it is worth paying attention to.
In Harris County, we have been concentrating on areas of Houston and the suburbs that are more transient and where people are less likely to be registered at their current address (as required since 2002 from HAVA). This means minority neighborhoods as well as younger areas. And when we have a sufficiently large list (provided by realtor friends of the cause) we will send out a Voter Registrar Strike Team to those homes, as well. We did this last weekend in Harris County. We started with a list of 82 residences where people have just moved in recently and divided that in half. Two volunteer deputy registrars (and one other volunteer) knocked on those doors. Not a single person we talked to had registered yet at those addresses. Which is understandable. Only one family of those we talked to were too busy to register at the time.
From just those 82 homes, we came away with 42 new voters registered, an overwhelming majority of which came from outside the state or county. Several of these people asked for their VDR’s button!
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights. We are thinking about how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," both informing and helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
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). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured.
One of the questions that people have asked about the button was whether the volunteer had to prove they had been vaccinated. The answer, as indicated above, is yes but I think it interesting that the question is asked in the first place. I remained surprise, though, that people don’t immediately associate the “kicking ass” with the Democratic party.
As I mentioned above, we walked with significantly fewer volunteers this past weekend in every state but Georgia. One of the reasons that was the case in Texas was because the Democratic state House staffers who had walked with us in the prior 3 weeks were not there. That association had allowed us to go down into the RGV, somewhere we would like to return to, given the surprise success that Trump had down there last November. But Hidalgo County has seen as 54% increase since the last time we did canvass there and it has a more vulnerable population that either Harris or Tarrant counties. Sad to say, this is the world we live in at the moment.
But in working with the Democratic House staffers, who were very inquisitive about our canvassing approach — specifically about the use of the issues canvass, the constituent service request forms and robocalling for when their bosses knocked — we gleamed an apparent strategy on their part: to hold out as long as possible so that when the new voter laws were challenged in court — which they are certain they will be — that there won’t be sufficient time to resolve the issue before the 2022 election. Now this could be wishful thinking on their part, but there did seem to be a strategy in place. There is an obvious question here: what happens to redistricting if the Texas House Dems hold out “forever.” There are Congressional seats as well as state legislature seats that have to be re-mapped.
Even with Covid constantly on the news, we are still getting a nice reception at the door. These are homes of Democrats and Independents, so on the one hand you would think they are more serious about protecting themselves from the pandemic but it feels like there is a recognition that we hurt ourselves by not employing an all-out ground game assault in 2020. This may just be confirmation bias, though, because I definitely feel like there are Congressional seats we lost because we didn’t knock on doors or register voters to the degree with wanted in 2020.
And even when people don’t have an issue they want their elected offices to address, we get a lot of pleasantly surprised voters who appreciate the fact we are walking with Constituent Service Request forms. All of these things (voter registration, issues questionnaire, constituent service request forms) are things that great for first round canvassing. Gives you a reason to be knocking on their doors, reminds them that Democrats Care!, leaves positive impressions about the party and our elected officials. And volunteers really feel productive.
These canvasses are organized and led by (mostly) Obama field alums who have volunteered their time in their states to get this effort off the ground. Their work, knowledge and skill sets are invaluable. Our Georgia efforts are organized and led by (mostly) HBCU students (at least one has graduated) at Albany State. They are truly the motivators behind this entire project, largely envisioned by them, because they are determined to not lose the voice(s) they put into the U.S. Senate. They have very big plans for keeping that seat. If you think they are sitting back, basking in the light, you’d mistaken.
Our main expenses (right now) are typical canvassing materials (water, snacks, cooling towels, walk packets, lit, buttons and access to VAN) as well as the mobile printers we are purchasing to comply with the voter ID requirements in several 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 donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopefield
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!
