“Astounding!” That was the reaction of my old boss who has been keeping tabs on our Quorum Break Efforts in Texas. “How are you keeping it going?,” he asked.
Even people who have benefitted from grassroots (or self-organized) organizing can find it hard to believe. That’s not how it’s usually done.
On Fridays, i like to highlight the state where the most volunteers showed up in the previous Saturday’s Hope Springs from Field PAC’s [dated website] canvasses. Like the prior month, Texas has been that state.
We can no longer say that Texas is the biggest state we are in. California now fills that role. In fact, we go into the Fall more determined to thrawt president felon’s plans to rig the midterms. We continue to canvass in Arizona, Georgia, Iowa and Pennsylvania — until the weather falls outside our range. Arizona may go until Thanksgiving. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas are all part of our special Voter Registration project conducted mostly by Divine Nines (we have had a couple of HBCU alumini groups that were organized around their school, not greek groups). We continue to canvass in Ohio in anticipation of new Congressional District maps. And we just started to canvass in Northern California in support of Prop 50. So we aren’t letting up.
New Rigged MAGA Map
Our grassroots volunteers in Texas chose to continue on with our Quorum Break project. This is remarkable, since a majority of those volunteers in the last month came from outside our normal set of volunteers. They didn’t necessarily have our culture or commitment to Early Organizing before hooking up with Hope Springs. But they persisted anyway. Because it was important.
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.
And there is good reason why. “Even some of Mr. Trump’s staunchest supporters in South Texas said they were queasy over his immigration enforcement tactics.” Which is exactly what we have been hearing at their doors.
2,106 volunteers showed up on Saturday and knocked on 157,318 doors. Prior to the Quorum Break, we would see ~750 volunteers show up. So the increase in volunteer turnout is notable. Volunteers talked to 12,585 voters and had in-depth conversations with 8,016 of them, guided by our Issues Questionnaire.
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’ve been knocking on homes with about a 3 (independent voters) to 1 (Democrats) ratio. On Saturday, 76% of our 8,016 respondents were unaffiliated voters. High Prices was the Number 1 issue for the Texan voters we talked on Saturday. Threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and Cuts to Rural Hospitals were the #2 issue voters raised. (Political) Corruption was the #3 Issue voters mentioned.
We’ve been asking 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 15% said they disapproved. Voters are losing 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 57% expressed Disapproval. 4% approved of what Gov. Abbott was doing, and 53% 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 34,267 voters whose houses they had visited last Saturday provided at least some answers to our Issues Survey. So, in total, we collected 42,283 voter responses to our Issues Survey last week.
Hope Springs volunteers registered 185 new voters on Saturday, in this case, a fairly good mix of African-Americans and Hispanica. We re-registered 31 voters, who mainly updated their addresses. A lot of people told us they couldn’t wait to vote next year!
In Texas, 2,648 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.
I would bet no one is surprised by the fact that CSRs were the basis for requests for information from the Texas Attorney General’s office. What are they for? Where do they go? That kind of thing. The gentleman i talked to was honest about why they were asking. And we don’t expect anything more from it. But Paxton’s office understood the political ramifications of the Constituent Request Forms.
43 voters filled out Incident Reports Saturday. 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. 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. They are counting on Hispanics who voted for president felon in 2024 voting Republican this time. Not a safe bet. 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!
