Well, it looks like i will be spending thanksgiving in Georgia. But i feel good!
Like you knew that i would.
Last night, at 7:02 (eastern), my wife sent me a text. You know the one, because you may have sent a few of these yourselves in the last few days. “Good luck tonight!” Another Election Night apart. (This is why we have kitties, right?)
Did i mention? I feel good!
Hope Springs from Field PAC started knocking on doors (as weather and primaries permitted) in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin since June 2021 (Arizona, Nevada and Ohio were added this year). These were all critical states that would determine the Senate majority for the next two years, all but Ohio obvious from the map (i admit that i had — still have! — Ohio projection syndrome, having been burned in 2004, 2008, 2016 etc). Nothing was more important this election than maintaining a Democratic Senate, and hopefully expanding upon it. But we didn’t just look at the map. We were also focused on redistricting. Most of these states had Republicans in control of the redistricting process, and we knew that there would be line changes that were intended to given the GOP total control of the U.S. House.
So we looked at the map really closely, identifying those Congressional Districts in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin that, by definition, should be considered swing districts. So we had a plan.
Wow, i feel good!
So good, so good, (Georgia) WE got you! Arizona-01, Arizona-06. Florida-07, Florida-09. (Remember that this map is in the courts and may drastically change in 2024. Want to know the reason why Hope Springs from Field won’t be abandoning Florida? Thar ya go. Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio, too.) Georgia-02. Nevada-01, Nevada-02, Nevada-03, Nevada-04. North Carolina-13. Ohio-01, Ohio-09, Ohio-13. Remember, i didn’t want to go to Ohio. DKos commenters kind of nagged me into it. So i took a look, and, to be honest, i was impressed by Tim Ryan’s campaign and campaign plan. And, remember, Obama alums drove hours in the initial canvasses to organize Ohio volunteers to knock on doors there in June. Pennsylvania-01, Pennsylvania-07, Pennsylvania-17. Wisconsin-02 and Wisconsin-04 (the only wholly safe Democratic seats in the bunch).
Outside of Wisconsin, every one of these seats were GOP targets (even Georgia-02 — like, what???) and, in every case, people told us Republican candidates would win. And when volunteers would bring that response back to us, the answer was always the same: we aren’t focused on the House, we want to retain the Senate. These districts were the targets, they weren’t the focus.
And the campaign field directors in these districts weren’t always happy. “Can i get your volunteer list?” i was asked. “Didn’t you say that after the primary...” But we had a plan. Every single one of you who have read my diaries will recognize this. We walked with an Issues Survey (and entered the responses into VAN). We offered up Constituent Service Request forms (and made sure those we collected were sent to the right public servant). We registered voters — and then spent considerable time and money making sure those newly registered voters turned out to vote. We gave voters a reason to have hope and — more importantly — confidence that Democrats could win. And the fact that our volunteers — not our organizers — asked to extend canvassing THROUGH Labor Day and set their own goal of 3 million doors was a sign. It wasn’t my sign. It wasn’t our sign. It was the volunteer’s sign. The grassroots made this happen. We just pretend i am in charge.
So what happened last night? I can’t speak about what happened outside of these districts but we do have signs of what happened inside of these Congressional Districts (where our lit never mentioned the candidates, but focused instead on President Biden’s accomplishments and the Senate (or likely) candidate). But as i continue to do this work, specifically by emphasizing what used to be the First Round of a traditional 5 Round canvass, we continue to see positive results.
And, just as importantly, this is where we were registering voters. For all the DKos volunteers who sent out Post Cards for our Newly Registered Voters effort, these are the districts where they were sent.
738 volunteers agreed to send Post Cards to the 15,737 new Voters we registered in these Congressional Districts in the last 16 months. I wanted to piggy back on existing postcard programs, but i couldn’t convince any of them to adopt this program. Not only did we expect (and get) volunteers to send cards to the same voters 3 times (right after Labor Day, right before Early Voting began and right before Election Day). Each one of these waves triggered additional voter contact with these new voters (Robocalls, texts, live calls, visits by GOTV mentors).
Every one of our volunteers can take some credit for the results in these congressional races. Every. Single. One. And our volunteers had to endure some of *my* mistakes. I bought glossy postcards, not knowing better. I wasn’t completely clear about deadlines for sending out the postcards because they were different in every state. The whole postcard thing was new to me and while Hope Springs from Field wanted to utilize this new, critical tactic, i certainly could have done better! So these volunteers deserve extra thanks because (as my wife will gladly point out) i’m not perfect.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First Round of a traditional Five Round Canvass. 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, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterpostcards
Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that repeated voter interactions are critical. 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.
It is important to note that postcard writers understood from the beginning that they were part of a bigger program. The most important additional element of our Post Card effort was that we were continuing to knock on the doors of these Brand New Voters to encourage them to use their Superpower to vote yesterday.
After the second postcard went out, postcard writers let us know because that triggered the drop off of a Virgin Voter Card by a canvassing volunteer. I can’t express how important this particular element of voter contact is, because volunteers — who weren’t expected to say anything if they didn’t want to engage in this lit drop — reported that they had lots of conversations with new voters while doing so. This was a soft canvass/lit drop to approximately 50,000 addresses of people who were new to this year’s polling place (so not all brand new voters — some were existing voters who were “re-districted” into a new polling location).
On average, less than 24% of the newly registered voters actually cast a ballot that counts in their first election. We are hoping that we can double, even triple that amount with these voters, but last night’s results seem to suggest that we have! Of course, we exceeded expectations (which were similar) in the Georgia Senate Runoff in 2021, in some places we exceeded those expectations by more than 5% of the high-end goal that the coordinated committee had established for the runoff. And, yes, we do track whether our new voters actually vote successfully (although i won’t be able to know this for a couple of months)!
Here’s the thing: it’s not over. Georgia is incredibly likely to go into a runoff, which means we need to do it all over again. And we need your help!
Yes, we still need to pay for all this printing but we also need volunteers to write TWO sets of postcards again. In a much more compressed timeline!
Did i mention, i feel good!
Can you help? If you can volunteer to write post cards, specifically in batches of 25 for 2 rounds — meaning 50 postcards for each batch, please sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1x5gKwQZRY740hxNIM_n1E8w0-JXrJUl9RWKh8bF328o
And our list just got bigger! Remember, we are sending these postcards to newly registered voters, largely targeted at Democratic leaning areas. This is a completely different list because of the pressures of being a runoff. And we need your help!
Our final GOTV Post Card (below) reminds everyone that Voting is our superpower. This card was inspired by a DKos commenter who wanted us to know to Make a Plan — Ready. Set. VOTE! I loved that.
I know it seems like a lot. Two more sets of postcards in less than a month. Ideally, we are hoping that participants (who can sign up here) will be able to send 2 post cards to the list we provide of newly registered Georgians. Remember, we aren’t just trying to remind them to vote, but to create a virtual relationship with them to reinforce the narrative that we are, basically, fighting for freedom and to preserve democracy here in America. We are hoping post card writers will share brief stories about their own first voting experience, or their most important voting experience, or why they think it is important to vote — that kind of thing.
If you can volunteer to write post cards, specifically in batches of 25 for 2 rounds before December 1st (Runoff Election Day is the 6th) — meaning 50 postcards for each batch, please sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1x5gKwQZRY740hxNIM_n1E8w0-JXrJUl9RWKh8bF328o
Oh, yeah, i feel good! But, then, you knew that i would! So nice, so nice, Georgia!, we got you!
If you are able to support our efforts to mobilize these difficult, brand new voters to cast their ballots in November, especially in minority communities, expanding the electorate, or just believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please donate:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/voterpostcards
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!