“Have you seen this?” A North Carolina volunteer sent me a month-old article because he didn’t think we were doing enough in the state. “A true swing state, ‘the smallest margin of all the states he lost.’” I didn’t have to mention that Hope Springs from Field PAC is already in North Carolina because he’s *ahem* already a volunteer!
But there is no doubt that North Carolina is a target rich environment, for a number of reasons, and that was before Dobbs. Biden lost North Carolina by a mere 1.3% in 2020. The rapid growth of Charlotte and the Research Triangle, anchored by Raleigh and Durham, has shifted more Democratic in the era of Trump just like other suburbs in the country. A solid majority found support for either keeping the state's previous law, which restricted abortions after 20 weeks, or expanding abortion services in the Meredith poll.
There are definite signs that the Biden campaign sees the potential. The president has made six trips to North Carolina. North Carolina has seen television ads touting the president’s substantial achievements. And Biden's narrow loss in North Carolina in 2020 came in the face of a massive voter registration and turnout operation among “Trump's core supporters: 81% of registered Republicans and 79% of white voters went to the polls, and there was historic turnout among rural voters and white voters without college degrees.” Democrats greatly curtailed these kinds of operations in 2020.
But we are back in the saddle again. GOP determination to suppress voters who don’t think like Republicans are matched by our own, and we are witnessing voter eagerness to return to normalcy. “These people are crazy.”
This is Hope Springs third year knocking on doors in North Carolina and we are witnessing the effects of GOP voter intimidation at the doors (and from our partner Black churches in the state). The new voter photo ID laws are shocking to many voters we talk to. This month we added more than a dozen Black churches who wanted to join our efforts to get their voters free Photo IDs.
So far, we have found 709 voters at the doors who told us they need photo IDs at their doors. 83% of them are Black voters and 91% are non-white voters. 58% of these voters are old and many will need help in collecting the documentation needed.
That is not the only issue we face. We know that many Republican legislators want to re-district (again) in this cycle to take away Democratic seats in Congress. So Hope Springs from Field has expanded our door to door efforts in North Carolina, even as we continue our focus on NC-01, NC-06, NC-13 and NC-14 in an effort to protect those seats.
227 volunteers knocked on doors in nine North Carolina counties last Saturday. They knocked on 16,979 doors and they talked to 1142 voters. 670 of these voters answered at least some of our questions on the Issues Survey. So despite having 16 fewer volunteers didn’t hurt so much!
The Top 3 Issues canvassers found in North Carolina were first, Health and Survival of the state college system. We continue to have voters questioning whether the colleges and universities in the state could continue to attract “exceptional students from outside the state” and continue to be a diverse, challenging system for their kids. Concerns over Economic Uncertainty was second. Healthcare costs was third, and a persistent concern.
Biden’s Approval number among the Democratic and unaffiliated voters we talked to was 53%; remember, try to weed out Republican households in our walk lists, so these numbers basically don’t include any Republicans. Disapproval was 10%. We also continue to find more than 40% of the voters we talk to on Saturdays have no idea who their senators were or had any kind of impression of them (while we are asking about voter approval of senators not on the ballot, we aren’t really tracking these numbers).
55% of the voters we talked to on Saturday approved of the job Governor Roy Cooper is doing; 3% expressed disapproval. 3 percent.
Volunteers registered 3 new voters and re-registered 14 voters to comply with the HAVA laws. 44 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. These are passed along to Democratic office holders, when possible, but to the appropriate office, if not we get them to the appropriate office holder. 1 voter completed an Incident Report detailing what they could remember from an incident they witnessed of voter intimidation or suppression. We follow these up to fill in whatever blanks voters leave in the report.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors since March in a grassroots effort to prepare the 2024 Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are canvassing 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 and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/fistfulofsteel
Hope Springs from Field understands that volunteer to voter personal interactions are critical. Knocking on doors has repeatedly been found to be the most successful tactic to get voters to cast a ballot and that is the goal for what we are doing.
VA Senate (competitive districts in stripes) Districts 24, 30 & 31
We had started knocking in Virginia on April 15th in support of Democrats in highly competitive (or expected to be) state Senate and House districts. The 2023 legislative elections will be their first after redistricting and a lot of lines got moved in the remap. We are especially canvassing in the new areas for the targeted districts.
VA House Districts 21, 22, 57, 65, 82 & 84 (competitive = stripes)
Like Ohio last summer, we have had to import organizers for several districts. I’ve served as lead organizer for 2 of these, driving more than 3 ½ hours from Arlington VA to meet with volunteers in our targeted areas. I am not alone here. Strangely, we have no problem finding organizers for our Northern Virginia canvasses.
156 volunteers came up to knock on doors in Virginia last week. They knocked on 11,512 doors and talked to 824 voters. 501 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on the Issues Survey.
The Top Issue volunteers found this week in Virginia was Economic Uncertainty. The second most frequent concern was Jobs, and specifically full-time jobs for new graduates. Third were Reproductive Healthcare. Again.
In Virginia, 52% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden was doing; 7% Disapproved. 61% approved of the job Senator Kaine was doing while 5% disapproved. 19% approved of the job that Governor Youngkin was doing. 39% disapproved of Youngkin’s performance. In Virginia, governors can’t run for re-election, which is why he’s been sniffing around the presidential race. Voters continue to bring that up.
Volunteers registered 4 new voters and re-registered 21 voters. We differentiate between the two because brand new voters are often ignored by campaigns and we hope to compensate for that somewhat by having volunteers send them post cards before the election and they are also getting robocalls thanking them for registering. But registering voters is a primary rationale behind early canvassing, and turning out voters, especially those that have just been registered is a core mission for Hope Springs from Field. Just wanted to point that out.
39 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. In general, we send these to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican, we still send it along. For Democrats, though, we encourage them to reach out immediately to the voter who filled out the CSR and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.
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.
But the main focus of our canvassing right now is the Issues Survey, asking voters for their input and concerns. Voter responses to the questionnaire are entered into VAN and made available to all Democratic candidates who use VAN in the state after Labor Day. 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.
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.
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/fistfulofsteel
Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!
[i am at Netroots Nation this week. if you are interested in meeting up, send me a DM through Kosmail!]
