119 volunteers came out on Saturday to knock on doors for Hope Springs from Field PAC, knocking on doors in the Reno Suburbs and west of Las Vegas. Like last week, we had to modify our canvassing routine, which means we started earlier, knocked far fewer doors than we otherwise would have and used drivers to protect our volunteer canvassers. But a Heat Wave is a heat wave, which is why I am so appreciative for those who do come out.
Probably the biggest reaction we got in the Las Vegas suburbs on Saturday was, “What are you doing out here?” Maybe a comment about the high expected temperature. A couple of volunteers even got cold bottles of water from voters! I don’t know if it was a combination of the weather or the holiday weekend, but there was a lot of feedback to that effect from volunteers. In every state, we saw a noticeable decline in the number of volunteers last weekend (no surprise!) but Nevada had a smaller decline than the other states where we are knocking on door.
We’ve been canvassing with an Issues Questionnaire that allows voters to tell us what is on their minds. We use it as a conversational check to guide volunteers through their dialog at the door. It makes it easy on our volunteers as provides us with vital data that will be entered in VAN (the Democratic database) after the primary.
Our very first priority in these Senate Swing State canvasses is making sure that everyone in the houses that opened their doors was registered to vote at their current address.
We ask voters whether they have a primary issue concern. What we are looking for is to determine whether they are “single issue” voters. You can see that we reinforce that request by asking if they have a single issue that will determine how they vote in the fall. And we use open-ended questions because we are really looking for quick responses. Volunteers are trained to respond, if voters pause to think about it, “it’s not a test,” and move on. Inflation returned to the top concern among the voters we talked to on Saturday. Reproductive Rights was our second most frequent response. Gun Violence has crept back into voters minds and was, again, third place among the Nevada voters we talked to.
Voter views of President Biden were down 1 percentage point to 56% of the voters we talked to in Nevada last had a favorable view Saturday. 14% expressed disapproval in the job the president was doing and voters have been pretty clear why.
51% of the voters, Democrats and independents, had a favorable impression of Senator Cortez Masto. 5% told us they had an unfavorable of the senator. 48% of the voters who responded gave Governor Sisolak a favorable rating. 9% said they had an unfavorable impression. But we did get two questions from voters about whether Sisolak would “preserve” Reproductive Rights in the state. As unlikely as it would seem that Nevada would allow an abortion ban to be signed into law given the current composition of the state house, it is something that came to mind for those voters. Reproductive Rights is becoming a factor in people’s voting decisions this year.
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/2022senateswing
Hope Springs from Field PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. 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.
We also ask voters if they have any local infrastructure issues they would tell local elected officials about. We ask those who do if they wanted to fill out Constituent Service Request forms. 18 voters raised some area that they wanted addressed. We pass these along to the relevant local official for the request. We use a generic CSR because cities and towns have vastly different methods and forms for dealing with this.
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.
By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with Nevada’s voting laws, Hope Springs from Field PAC seeks to undermine the Republican strategy of shaping the electorate.
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2022senateswing
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!
