This is our third monthly report; you can read the March report here and the April report here.
We have a plan. Hope Springs from Field PAC [website] volunteers set the goal (10 Million doors knocked before Labor Day) over the winter break but i always thought they pulled that number out of the air. It sounded good, or something. To be honest, i am still astounded by that goal. But it would be triple that of what we had done in a Summer before.
And Labor Day is a deadline. We assume that the senate and presidential campaigns in these 12 states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin) will begin their own canvassing efforts after Labor Day, if not before.
But we have volunteers in these 12 states who are really determined to reach 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.
I know that our volunteers didn’t 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 and ensuring volunteer safety (especially given the threats of climate change).
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 started to play fits with volunteer turnout. So we started earlier and are going to fight harder this Summer to withstand the heat (remember, we use cooling vehicles when it gets over 92°). My initial 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. The goal for April was to triple the March goal — 750,000 doors knocked and what we really did was 724,867 doors knocked. A little more than 25,000 doors short.
Hope Springs from Field’s goal for May was double it in May, or 1.5 Million doors. That would get 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.
Did we get there in May?
Well, every week in May until last Saturday (which was a holiday weekend), we had two states where we could not canvass that week because of weather. That really threw off our numbers. Michigan and Pennsylvania (twice) were big states we couldn’t really afford to lose. And although we are cutting turf for Montana (less than 50 a week, iirc), we can’t count it because they are circulating petitions to get their abortion amendment on the November ballot there. So we didn’t make our May goal (1.5 Million doors), in fact we didn’t even make 1 Million doors for the month. We end April with 954,490 doors knocked for the month.
I’ve said from the beginning that 10 Million doors knocked before Labor Day was extremely ambitious. And, yet, are our volunteers deterred? They are not. Even as the questions came in, and the answer went out, i got response texts asking, so how far are we “off the pace?” From the goals i set. That would be 2.5 Million doors knocked before June. Because, as those volunteers were eager to remind me, we had a cushion from our January canvasses in the NY Special. “And doors are doors.” (And, a few would even go there: 2024 is 2024.)
With that cushion from New York, Hope Springs volunteers have now knocked on 2,289,482 doors this year. So far. So not 2.5 Million doors, but almost 2.3 Million. (And, remember, i am counting on a 300,000 doors cushion for September 1st, the Saturday before Labor Day.)
But we are behind the curve. We need to be knocking on half a million doors each week now, here on out. And that’s the news i gave to the volunteers in almost every state who had asked.
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.
[Reminder: If you are interested in participating in our Postcards to New Voters Project, you can sign up here. (The diary on this can be found here.) We especially need help this year since we are not limiting our Postcards to New Voters effort to those new voters that Hope Springs or its partners registered to vote.]
You can see by the curves in the graphic how we have gotten a little behind. But this is exactly why i gasped when they told me, let’s go for 10 Million.
But here’s the thing: 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. We are all in. And our volunteer “retention” rate (by which i mean, coming out week after week) is around 40% now. Some states are above that (Arizona and Florida, specifically) and some are just below it.
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.
But this year is even more important than ever. And we would appreciate your support. Hell, we need your support. The printing bill for 10 Million doors is a bit much to think about. Like i said, we need 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!
