Georgia Returns to the Competitive Category

What a difference a month makes.  4 weeks ago, Hope Springs from Field PAC’s [website] organizers in Georgia were talking about how to generate interest in voting, especially in southern Georgia, or the Black Belt, among African-American voters.  As we pursued our special project of registering voters in counties with legacy voter suppression from historical records of lynchings, our (mostly)  Divine Nine volunteers kept telling us that they didn’t have problems getting African-Americans to register for the first time but they didn’t sense any enthusiasm about voting on the part of these brand new voters.  “They aren’t feelin’ it.  You’ve got lots of work to do.”

And that was a theme we kept hearing.  And, then, like magic, it vanished.  Saturday, we not only had a record number of volunteers show up in Georgia, we had a record number of African-Americans (99) register to vote for the first time.  And no one was reporting that these newly-registered voters were going to sit this election out.  Some of them, and some volunteers, too, wondered “if this is what 2008 felt like.”

But we had a Divine Nine volunteer ask, “How did we miss these people back then?”  Because our newly-registered voters (in this case) weren’t young people, for the most part.  They were of all ages.  That’s the saddest thing.  Outside these “lynching states,” 90% of our new voter registrants are under the age of 26.  So it’s really evident when you are registering middle-aged and senior citizens to vote for the first time that, well, something is different here.

It’s hard (for me) to explain why African-American volunteers knocking on doors of Black residents in these historically suppressed counties is so powerful.  These aren’t economically vibrant areas.  But when these (mostly) HBCU graduates show up at their doors, these brand new voters respond.  I assume they see a different vision for their future, or something.  I’m white, and i can’t really grasp the mental prison that traps voters in these areas.  All i can explain is what i see, and try to put it into the context the other voters in these areas say.  It’s not hope (i am told), but just kind of a more hopeful vision of the future for their kids and grandkids.  It doesn’t have to be like the past.  And i can say that these voters have the most enthusiastic reaction to the Constituent Service Request forms.

“You mean we can request stuff???,” one Black voter in southern Georgia asked.  That just blows my mind.  White privilege is real.

Until recently, Hope Springs from Field PAC’s [website] general focus had been the Blue Wall states (WI-MI-PA).  Those were Biden’s path to 270, despite the gloomy feedback volunteers had been getting at the door.  Now everything has changed.

Kamala Harris has returned the other four states, including Georgia, to the playing field.  And the reason why, in Georgia and North Carolina, especially, is that Black voters are responding to her candidacy.

Not everywhere.  We’ve come across an African-American man who told us flat out he didn’t want a Black woman to be his president.  But one voter can’t diminish the obvious, palpable enthusiasm of others.

I simply cannot overstate the joy and excitement, and renewed commitment, we heard from our volunteers in Georgia.  And, quite frankly, from our Divine Nine volunteers who wanted to go to Georgia to help out in our special voter registration project.  But the joy is real.  People want to compare it to the Obama campaigns, but it is different.  The Obama campaigns were more youth-driven.  I don’t remember it being as serious (among volunteers).  Fun might have been a more operative word in 2008 than Joy.  Kamala Harris is infectious.  She oozes Joy.  She inspires Joy.

                   New Georgia Congressional District map

1,374 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Georgia last Saturday.  We continue to knock on doors of voters in the Black Belt in Georgia and the suburbs of Atlanta.  Our efforts in Georgia as less concentrated than in other states, primarily because of our attention to our special projects mentioned above.

Georgia had the second highest volunteer turnout among the 14 states this week.  They  knocked on 99,889 doors and talked to 8,140 voters.  13,832 voters answered at least some of our questions on the survey this week, most of them via follow-up phone calls by volunteers who had knocked on their doors Saturday.

The Top Issue volunteers found in Georgia on Saturday was The Economy.  Concern over Political Violence was the #2 issue voters raised.  Housing and Insurance Issues (ie, Rent, Single Home Availability and affordability of both Housing and Insurance) were third.

Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 2nd to set up a favorable “battle space” or foundation for Democrats in 2024.  We target 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.  The voters we talk to in these 12 Swing States tell us they come away more invested in governance and feel more favorably towards Democrats in general because of our approach.

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.

Vice President Harris’ Approval numbers among the voters we talked to was at 63% last Saturday, with a Disapproval number of 5%.  Approval of Governor Kemp was 35% and Disapproval was 32% last Saturday.  There is no senate race in Georgia this cycle and while we ask if voters approve of the job their senators are doing, we are not tracking that.

Volunteers registered 124 new voters at their door and re-registered 73 voters.  We differentiate between the new voters and re-registering voters 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 will also receive robocalls thanking them for registering.

93 of these new voters were African-Americans who lived in counties that Jhacova Williams had identified with lower voter registration rates among African-Americans than the norm that had survived higher rates of lynchings in the last century.

503 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 continue to find that, when we canvass in these counties with historically high rates of lynchings, voters have more unaddressed neighborhood concerns and file a much higher number of Constituent Service Requests, as well as a need for Voter Photo ID.  Which is why the Divine Nine’s who travel to canvass in these counties feel gratified by canvassing in this project.

19 voters in Georgia completed an Incident Report, as well.  A couple other voters expressed concerns about the 2024 elections but did not fill out incident reports because they didn’t say they witnessed voter suppression or intimidation (they just expressed concerns or worries about them).  Incident Reports are used to plan Election Protection activities, and will be combined with other, historical incidents and handed over to District and State Attorneys, Attorney Generals and the DoJ Civil Rights Division right before Election Day as a precaution against Election Day Incidents in November.  Past polling place activity is a predictor of future voter intimidation or suppression activity.

We knock on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters and use a voter-driven approach to guide them through the Issues Survey, the CSR and Incident Report.  We record questions voters raise with a Q(uestion)-slip and record other relevant observations on an Observations form.  Q-slips are sent to the relevant Democrat to respond to and Observations are entered into VAN.  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 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 the primary.  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.  (We also make Issues Surveys, Incident Reports and Constituent Service Request forms available at the churches we visit, but we don’t include numbers for those, in part because we don’t always get counts back, but also because we like to compare like to like.)

Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or the Electoral College in 2024, as well as Congressional Districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year (specifically those where a Republican won a Congressional District that voted for Biden in 2022).  There is a lot of work to be done!  Especially since we have had to expand the map this year.

By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with some really, really onerous new voter regulations, Hope Springs from Field seeks to undermine that strategy, while informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them.

We are also — this being an election year — adding the Post Cards to New Voters component back into our Voter Outreach, both New Voters we find at their doors as well as New Voters we target in the Voter File.  Our biggest expense has been the Voter File.  But it is also a fixed cost.  Printing literature is now our largest cost, by far.  Printing and mailing our our Post Cards to New Voters is our third cost and paying the fees for ActBlue is the smallest of our monthly costs.

       2023 Hope Springs expenses

Hope Springs is a seat-of-the-pants grassroots-driven operation.  We don’t have employees but we do realize that to formalize and professionalize this effort that will have to change eventually.  Doing so will require adding a third revenue stream (big dollar donors) to our funding model.

But here’s the reality: Identifying Single Issue Voters and Constitutional Amendment supporters and doing GOTV (Get-Out-the-Vote) costs us more money than our regular canvassing because this issue drives volunteer turnout higher and higher.  Which means we have to buy more lit to distribute and other minor expenses (like water for volunteers).  So please:

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

If you would rather send a check, you can follow that link for our mailing address at the bottom of the page.  Thank you for your support.  This work depends upon you!