The experience of Hope Springs from Field PAC in Georgia continues to defy the narrative that Democrats aren’t excited for 2022. I had to push to get the final numbers last night, but 539 volunteers came out on Saturday and Sunday to remind Georgians identified within VAN as Democrats or Democratic-leaning to vote. And the first takeaway from this from the 26 organizers who put together this weekend’s canvass was that there were a lot of households that our volunteers talked to where someone would say they had already voted (most of whom were not on the walk list) while other members of their household had not. “They’re going to vote though.”
Saturday’s canvass had a little different approach. We not only knocked on doors in the Albany-Columbus-Macon “triangle” where we’ve been canvassing for a year now, but also organized and knocked on doors in areas that, for historical reasons, have been under-represented in the voting booth by African-Americans. In those 13 counties, we have periodically had out-reach from volunteers mostly made up of Divine Nine volunteers — college educated, largely professional African-Americans who could knock on the doors of other African-Americans and inspire them out of their fear derived from living in an area with historically high rates of lynchings and get out and vote in this historical election for Rev. Warnock and Stacey Abrams. In those 13 counties, we went back to every door that had previously been knocked with the mostly Divine Nine volunteers (we literally had many volunteers using the same list of doors they had previously knocked), trying to create a sense of recognition among voters who have historically been more reticent to vote at the same rates as African-Americans in less redish counties (such as Dougherty).
Now not everyone we talked to in those historically-oppressed counties understood the purpose here or why people knocking on their doors were walking their neighborhood in their “Sunday best” (although I was assured no one probably walked in their sunday best). The reassurance was for those who needed it.
Even though we were practicing GOTV for Tuesday, we continue to walk with the Issues Canvass in our traditional Albany-Columbus-Macon area. Our first, and most important, question to voters is still “Are you registered to vote at your current address?” A big part of this effort is not only to make sure that the people we talk to are registered to vote, but registered to vote at their current address (as required by HAVA). But then we also want make sure that voters have a photo ID, as required by the new Georgia voter laws.
Our major focus has been the Issues Survey but since we were hitting doors last weekend that we had already knocked, not every household was given the opportunity. So there was a huge drop-off in the percentage of people who actually answered questions in the survey. Normally, around 65% of the voters we talk to at their doors answer some or all of these questions. Still, experienced volunteers, like those in Georgia, can get through this questionnaire quickly because we train them to, at the first hint of a pause, to respond, “this isn’t a test, shall we move on?” Granted, some voters want to think about how to respond, but most voters are grateful that we aren’t pushing them for an answer. We are looking for visceral responses, things they will consider when they cast their vote. And that isn’t a time for deep thinking.
Each week, we ask voters about what issue they think is the most urgent facing America right now. The price of gas (not inflation, not the rise of grocery prices, gas) was the top response when we asked, “What Issue do you believe is most Urgent at this time.” Fair Elections was the second most frequently mentioned concern (surprise — election is today!) and Reproductive Rights was third. At least one voter came to the door on Saturday with a tee shirt that made comment on the subject. In rural Georgia.
Volunteers working with Hope Springs from Field PAC talk to voters with multiple goals based upon listening to voters at their doors and using prompts to focus the conversation in a meaningful way. This weekend, we were focused on making sure people knew that today was their last chance to vote in this primary — even though there weren’t a lot of contested races on the Democratic side. Voting is habitual, and we are trying to impress that habit upon the Georgians we targeted. In fact, their voting behavior in 2020 and 2021 was a factor used in developing our list in our traditional canvassing area.
Because we know that November will be close and winning is achieved at the margins. And we wanted to remind voters that there is something at stake in 2022. They already know that there is but constant reinforcement helps.
While our goal is to re-elect Senator Warnock, 2022 is (as was expected) a “target rich environment,” as some like to say. In the Black Belt, you have Senator Warnock running for re-election, Stacey Abrams running in her historic bid to become Georgia’s governor and Ketanji Brown Jackson’s ascension to the Supreme Court bench in October. And that was before the leak from the Supreme Court, which means that our rights to privacy and control of our bodies are also at stake. There is something for Democratic voters to vote for and we are reminding them of that fact. It is no time to be complacent.
Voter views of President Biden continue to fall from its high during the time of the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing. 59% of the voters we talked to expressed approval of President Biden in Florida on Saturday. 11% expressed disapproval in the job the president was doing. We continue to hear comments or get questions about what happened to the loans President Biden offered to Black farmers (this is a rural area and our lists include many African-American farmers).
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights, and, in March, we will begin an even bigger effort. We are thinking about how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," both informing and helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
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/hopemobilization
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. But the reason we won the Iowa Caucus in 2008 was because we registered voters and then turned them out! The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate and our cause. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors — and we didn’t register new voters (while Republicans did). We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured.
Georgia continues to stand apart from the other Senate Swing States where we are knocking on doors. Not only do we have more volunteers come out on Saturdays, but they are knocking on more doors (yes, these things are related) by a significant amount. And we have volunteers here still asking for bigger turfs.
79% of the voters we talked to approved of the job Rev Warnock was doing in the Senate (a new high). Only 3% expressed disapproval (a new low). We knock on doors of Democrats and Independents, and not all five counties we canvassed on Saturday were predominantly Democratic. We don’t knock on doors of Republican households (although we do knock on the doors of mixed households).
Governor Kemp did not fare so well. 15% of the voters we talked to approved of the governor’s work, while 40% disapproved (campaigns can have negative impacts, too). In Georgia, we are also asking voters what they think of Stacey Abrams (since she is unopposed) and 68% expressed approval; 4% said they disapproved. We enter all this data we collect into VAN, the shared Democratic database, which is made available to all Democratic candidates who use it after the primaries.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races in 2022 as well as districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year. As not every state has completed their re-maps (hello, Florida!), re-districting hasn’t yet made those opportunities/needs apparent. The Senate map started out clear. That may be changing. There are places we need to defend (Georgia, Nevada and Arizona) and there are opportunities. North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are such opportunities. There is a lot of work to be done!
We specifically ask voters if they have any concerns about the upcoming elections. Last year, we walked with lit about the changes in voting laws in Georgia, but we also asked voters about their fears and experience in prior elections. Voters who say they have experience voter intimidation or other problems with voting are asked to fill out Incident Reports. But no one we talked to wanted to fill out Incident Reports in Georgia this weekend.
But asking — and collecting — Incident Reports has a second purpose at this time. We are reminding voters that we care about Election Protection, that if they witness something, they can say something and it will matter.
Like last summer and fall, we have been asking voters if they have any local infrastructure issues they would tell elected officials about. In Georgia, we have consistently found people who wanted to fill out Constituent Service Request forms. 24 voters raised some area that they wanted addressed. We pass these along to the relevant local official for the request.
We knock on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters. 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. Far and away the number one issue that the voters we talked to in the Senate Swing States last year was inflation or price increases, and I imagine that concern has only increased.
But the main focus of our canvassing right now is the Issues Survey, asking voters for their input and concerns. We find that most voters who aren’t in a hurry or in the middle of something are willing to answer at least a couple of these questions, especially their top issue or concern and their views of President Biden. 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 from Field PAC has a hybrid approach. We aren’t interested in competing with regular campaign field organizing. We are in the field before they get there and then move on when the Democratic campaigns start their intensive field work. Indeed, when we wind up the typical field work by Labor Day, we will encourage all the volunteers working with us to move over to the Senate campaigns in their states (and hope that our field organizers will be hired on by those campaigns). After Labor Day, we will begin organizing our Election Protection Project.
But we are also cognizant that Democratic turnout has traditionally dropped off more than Republicans in non-presidential years. So early, frequent voter contact is more important to our side. Equally important, though, is that starting early means that we can make up for our inability to register new voters in the presidential election because we took Covid and the health of our base seriously. Registering new voters (and re-registering existing voters at their current address, in compliance with HAVA) at their door is the hard way to do voter registration, but we catch people that our voter registration campaigns can miss because of their emphasis on larger-scale or mass voter registration.
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/hopemobilization
Thank you for your support.