Texas, Again: Raising the standard for Voter Contact

We are settling in.  Many of the voters Hope Springs from Field PAC [dated website] volunteers talk to are miffed about the changes in the Congressional maps.  Even voters who haven’t changed their district.  “It’s just a pain in the you-know-what,” one voter said.

Texas has always been a state that subvertly discourages voting.  Especially if you are a minority or a Democrat.  We’ve met a bunch of Democrats who claim they are the only ones on their block (sometimes they are right).  And it is a little ironic to be told that the Democrats in Washington should Fight! Fight! Fight! by people who are infrequent voters.  Yeah, canvassers can see that information!

                         New Rigged MAGA Map

It may not be over.  On Wednesday, 3 federal judges began to consider whether Texas can use its new congressional map in the 2026 election:

It will be up to the three judges to sort through similar claims from the different plaintiff groups to determine whether the map should be allowed to remain in effect.

A preliminary injunction is typically an extraordinary measure, granted by a court only when they believe the plaintiffs are likely to succeed at trial and there is potential harm to wait that long to intervene.

If that doesn’t make your head spin.

We continue to benefit from the “outside” volunteers who came to us during the Quorum Break.  As a grass-roots org, you take what you can get.  But i’d say we got the better end of the deal, as more than a thousand of the volunteers that came out to support the Texas House Dems continue to canvass with us.

We’ve now shifted from trying to stop Gov. Abbott’s rigged districting to how to win these rigged seats.  We have a different theory than Republicans, and it’s based on what voters are telling us rather than the whims of a felon.  There’s lots of data out there to confirm our theory, as well.  We are not giving up these districts, and that’s a key step in this battle.

We have definitely noted reasons for optimism.  One, “a surge in ticket-splitting among Latino voters who shifted sharply toward Donald Trump but also supported Democratic House and Senate candidates.”

Heavily Hispanic and Latino areas that saw significant ticket-splitting are key to many swing districts and battleground states. The party that can win over those voters — Republicans converting Trump supporters into reliable GOP voters, or Democrats bringing them back into the fold more firmly — will have a clear electoral advantage in the years ahead.

Another: “Latinos' rising discontent could mean trouble for the GOP heading into the 2026 midterms, and undermine Republican redistricting efforts — namely in Texas — partly aimed at exploiting the party's recent gains among such voters.”  Trump's support is falling among Latinos across gender and age categories.  Our training emphasizes that this is what it means to be a Texas Democrat: listening, caring, acting.

2,147 volunteers showed up on Saturday and knocked on 156,086 doors.  Prior to the Quorum Break, we would see ~750 volunteers show up.  So the increase in volunteer turnout is notable.  Volunteers talked to 12,486 voters and had in-depth conversations with 8,116 of them, guided by our Issues Questionnaire.  

We’ve been knocking on homes with about a 3 (independent voters) to 1 (Democrats) ratio.  On Saturday, 73% of our 8,116 respondents were unaffiliated voters.  Housing Availability & Affordability, the Rising Costs of Housing Insurance & Electricity  was the Number 1 issue for the Texans we talked to on Saturday.  High Prices was the #2 most frequent issue voters raised.  The future of Social Security, Medi-care and Medicaid and the threat cuts represent to Rural Hospitals was third.

Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 1st.  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 continue to 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) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/UNRIGtheMidterms

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 that counts and that is the goal of what we do.

We still ask voters if they approve of the sudden and deep cuts in federal programs and agencies.  On Saturday, 1% approved of the budget cuts in the reconciliation package while 7% said they disapproved.  Voters have lost interest in DOGE.  8% of the voters we talked to had a favorable impression of the job Trump was doing while 47% disapproved.

Cornyn’s campaign is in a full advertising rotation right now.  3% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Sen. Cornyn was doing on Saturday while 53% expressed Disapproval.  5% approved of what Gov. Abbott was doing, and 48% disapproved.

Starting in May, we’ve allowed volunteers (who have requested this) to take their walk sheets home to follow-up with voters in houses that did not answer their doors.  Even the volunteers from other campaigns (IOW, state House Dems) were doing this.  Volunteers contacted another 53,854 voters whose houses they had visited last Saturday provided at least some answers to our Issues Survey.  So, in total, we collected 61,970 voter responses to our Issues Survey last week.

Hope Springs volunteers registered 134 new voters on Saturday, in this case, a fairly good mix of African-Americans and Hispanics.  We re-registered 41 voters, who mainly updated their addresses.  The Governor’s Office has asked us about our Voter Registration Project there.  We haven’t responded at this point.

In Texas, 2,984 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms on Saturday.  We send completed CSRs 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 Constituent Service Request forms and let them know they are working on the issue.  This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.

41 voters filled out Incident Reports Saturday.  Incident Reports are used to plan Election Protection activities, and will be combined with other, historical incidents (including previous IRs that we’ve collected) 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.  This is something else that seems to bother the MAGA diehards.

But i want to reiterate this, since i’ve been asked a few times: Republican claims of getting 5 seats out of this rigged-districting effort are all based on Trump numbers — and Trump won’t be on the ballot.  And they are counting on Hispanics who voted for president felon in 2024 voting Republican this time.  They are counting on a strong economy — not a Trump economy.  They are counting on Hispanic voters being fine with other Hispanics being deported, roughed up and jailed.  “All the while leaving the gangs intact, still walking my streets.”  Not a safe bet.  The economy, not Trump, will drive turnout in 2026 here.

We knock on doors of Democratic and Independent voters and use a voter-driven approach to guide them through the Issues Survey, the CSR and Incident Reports.  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.

Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or Congressional Races in 2026.  There is a lot of work to be done!  Especially since we have had to expand the map this year.

Hope Springs is a seat-of-the-pants grassroots-driven operation.  We don’t have employees but we realize that to formalize and professionalize this effort that will have to change eventually.

Hope Springs has been called “the most comprehensive, organized grassroots voter contact project out there right now.  It is truly astonishing that it is grassroots-based!”  Not sure why it is “astonishing,” but i probably have more faith in grassroots or self-organized efforts because of my experience with Barack Obama’s early days in 2007.

If you are able to support Hope Springs from Field’s efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, we would appreciate your support:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/UNRIGtheMidterms

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!