This is our second monthly report; you can read the first one here.
We have a plan. Hope Springs from Field PAC volunteers set the goal (10 Million doors knocked before Labor Day) but i really think they pulled that number out of the air. It sounds good, or something. To be honest, i am still astounded by that goal.
And we have volunteers who are really, ahem, sticking by it. No matter how much i repeat that it’s a really ambitious goal, especially without full-time organizers, they are like, “we can do it.” Or, “yes, we can,” when they don’t think i am as motivated as they are. Nothing like throwing that back. Oh, yes.
And i realize that not one of our volunteers think about the logistics. Knocking on 10 Million Doors means cutting more (a lot more) turf. It means printing more lit. It means worrying about volunteer retention.
But we have a plan. As the graphic to the right shows, our efforts in 2022 and 2023 exhibited exponential growth until the Summer Heat starts to play fits with volunteer turnout. So we started earlier and are going to fight harder this Summer to withstand the heat. My goal for March was 250,000 Doors Knocked — but we actually had 309,301 Doors Knocked for the month. The expected (substantial) decline in volunteer turnout for the Saturdays before Palm Sunday and Easter didn’t really happen like they had in 2022 and 2023.
Hope Springs from Field’s goal for April was to triple that — 750,000 doors knocked — and then to double it in May. And that gets us to 2.5 Million before June. Then our goal is 2.5 Million Doors Knocked in June, July and August. Then, the last Saturday before Labor Day, we are hoping for another 300,000 Doors — just a little bit of cushion (like that we already have in the bank, so to speak). So that’s 10 Million Doors before Labor Day, if everything goes right.
We didn’t get there (despite what the graphic suggests). We encountered our first real weather disruption last Saturday. We couldn’t canvass in Maryland (rain and cold) nor the Philadelphia region. So our goal was 750,000 doors knocked in April and what we really did was 724,867 doors knocked.
Yet we are still ahead of the curve. Our cushion from last month, as well as the doors we knocked in the NY Special, means we have knocked on 1,334,992 doors knocked by Hope Springs volunteers this year. So far.
That’s less than 700,000 doors to knock to meet our goal before June. We are ahead of schedule. (Please don’t tell our volunteers, they have up’ped our goal before and my head will explode if they do it again.) But ahead of schedule does not mean that we don’t have a long way to go. Volunteers in the Swing States we hadn’t been canvassing in have been pushing us to get started there, as well. “What are we waiting?” they ask. Indeed.
Hope Springs from Field PAC started knocking on doors on March 2nd 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 talking to 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, voter registration (and follow-up), GOTV and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024
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 of what we do.
10 Million Doors is a big goal but it’s a big task. Hell, it’s a critical task. 2024 won’t be like 2020. We aren’t holding anything back this year (because we won’t have to — a global pandemic was a pretty good reason to be cautious and think about the health risks to volunteers and voters). We are all in.
Republicans have at least six different groups (eg, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, Libre Initiative, Concerned Women for America and Citizens United, as well as Club for Growth and MAGA Turning Point Action) doing field and voter contact in swing states while Democratic efforts are more diffused and state-based (meaning, they tend to focus on a single state). Hope Springs from Field is focused on Swing States, swing states in the Electoral College and in Senate elections. Because our primary form of voter contact is knocking on doors with an Issues Survey, engaging voters early through a voter-led conversation and getting their responses entered into the database of the Democratic-based VAN in the swingy suburbs of these super-competitive states. We seem to be alone in taking this national approach and allowing the data to be used by all Democrats who use VAN in these areas.
Libre just announced a multi-million dollar initiative aimed at Spanish-speaking voters, including key 2024 battlegrounds like Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. We expect to see a lot more of these conservative orgs out in the field this year.
Here’s the thing. Voters are increasingly partisan, far less independent than they used to be. How they vote for president is much more likely to decide how they vote for Senate, Congress or even for state and local candidates. So while we are out there knocking on doors with positive messages about Democrats, the president or a specific Senator, the effect of the impressions we are leaving helps Democrats at all levels. (This is magnified by the fact that we insert the data into VAN and make the data public, available to any Democrat using VAN in the Fall.)
Our approach is what makes us different, and what makes volunteers want to push themselves and their community of volunteers. Even those volunteers who wish we had a different candidate for president still come out because our systemic approach is not to focus on Biden but to focus on our voters. Sure, the Issues Survey helps — and it especially helps when we identify voter’s individual Single Issue that is driving them this year to vote. I’ve seen volunteers high-five over finding Single Issue voters on Reproductive Freedom, the Climate or Minority Rights.
This year is even more important than ever. And we would appreciate your 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 help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024
You can follow that link for our mailing address, as well (for those who would rather send us a check). Thank you for your support! This work depends on you!