In between our efforts in the Ohio election in November, 2023 and the special election in NY-03, i visited with our grassroots volunteers in Arizona, Nevada, Montana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. It was at that time that our volunteers settled on a new goal for 2024: 10 Million doors knocked before Labor Day. Anybody who reads my diaries probably knows that the first thing i did (aside from kind of freaking out) was to do the math.
Now it helps that we are four years in, so Hope Springs from Field PAC has a little history — and a whole lot of determined volunteers (after all, they set this goal for themselves!) — to guide our expectations here. In 2021, Hope Springs volunteers canvassed in 7 states, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In 2022, at the urging of supporters and volunteers, we expanded into Ohio, making it 8 states. In 2023, owing to the changed Senate map, we expanded even more, adding Michigan and Montana (as well as Virginia, for it’s state legislative elections). This year, we’ll replace Virginia with Maryland, due to the last-minute run by former Governor Larry Hogan and it’s open Senate seat. (And our Texas volunteers from 2021 have spoken up, as well, but it’s an experiment.)
But we also have a little bit of a head start. Our volunteers set this goal after basically demanding the same kind of weekly reports, and stats, for special elections — arguing that they were no different than the Summer work — because we hadn’t done that in 2021, 2022 and the start of 2023. In 2023, Hope Springs organizers from other states helped in special elections in Virginia and Pennsylvania that we didn’t include in our stats and the argument was that this wasn’t fair. Mathematically, a door knocked, a voter engaged, an Issues Survey filled out was all the same, regardless of Month, or Type of Election. So even my pushback — let’s compare like to like — was rejected, because “Every Voter Counts.”
Which is to say, even though it isn’t included in the graphic above, we started the year with 300,824 doors knocked in the NY-03 special election.
That’s a nice bonus, but that didn’t help me when (even as we were knocking on doors on Long Island) i tried to map out hot to get to 10 Million Doors Knocked before Labor Day. But you can see that our efforts in 2022 and 2023 demonstrated exponential growth until the Summer Heat starts to play fits with it. So we planned to start earlier and 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 is to triple that — 750,000 doors knocked — and to double that in May. It helps that we should be full steam ahead in every state by the end of May. But 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. But we all know, everything isn’t going to go right. Hurricanes, heatwaves, whatever, something is going to happen. Which makes getting off on the right foot all the more important. Regardless, we are ahead of schedule, not that anyone else knew that. Now we all do.
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.
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!