Given the short week, i figured i would choose which states to highlight by counting down the ones with the most volunteers on Labor Day weekend. These are the people, for the most part, who really wanted to extend the summer canvass (and, apparently, really wanted to hit the 3M doors knocked goal). Ohio had the second highest volunteer turnout (Georgia has week in and week out always had the most volunteers show).
And, i’ll be honest, i’m not exactly sure why. I’ve walked with Ohio volunteers twice this summer and there’s nothing that stands out as far as i can tell. Volunteers are eager — but no more so than anywhere else. They complain about their local Democratic party — but no more so than anywhere else (Nevada would top that list). They ask why aren’t the campaigns canvassing — something i hear all the time (and not just in these 8 states) and only kinda sorta have an explanation for. They love their candidate, but no more so than any other state we’ve been canvassing. And we started late (really late) here, so the growth here has been impressive, at least to me.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is knocking on doors in eight Senate Swing States (with the inclusion of Ohio at the suggestion of DKos commenters) and Tim Ryan is the candidate that has made the most consistent movement upwards (Fetterman, of course, being effected by his health scare that troubled some of the voters we talked to). But, like any Obama alum, i believe in the data. And the data continues to show that Ryan is one of the strongest Democratic Senate candidates we have this cycle. Unlike Republicans, Democrats really have chosen the stronger general election candidates to come out of our primaries. Chuck Schumer and Gary Peters aren’t in some kind of pissing contest over our candidates.
More to the point, our Ohio volunteers are watching everything really carefully. 538 and the local reports of polls. How many out of state license plates were at the Trump rally (months ago, and people still talk about it). Vance’s money problems. Vance’s disappearing act. More relevant, whether canvassers see JD signs or canvassers. Or AFP or CfG canvassers. Every little thing. And what they see excites them. Makes them more confident about November.
The fact is the Democrats have the perfect candidate for Ohio and Republicans don’t. So asking voters what they think about Ryan is painless. And the more we ask, the more confidence grows. It’s amazing.
228 volunteers came out to knock on doors with Hope Springs from Field PAC last Saturday in Wood, Erie and Summit counties, as well as the Cincinnati suburbs, for our 14th canvass in Ohio. Even though we are knocking to mobilize for the Senate, we are canvassing in Ohio’s northwest Erie/Michigan border (Ohio’s 9th (Marcy Kaptur, inc)) and the grey swing districts, OH-01 (R, Steve Chabot, inc; D: Greg Landsman) which has a partisan lean of +3D and the Open seat, OH-13 (D: Emilia Sykes) outside of Cleveland. Planting the flag for Democrats, so to speak.
Putting Ohio in play.
We asked voters who opened their doors if they were registered to vote at their current address and if they have the necessary identification to cast a vote. We remind voters that they have to be registered at their current address to conform with HAVA *and* having their current address in the Poll Book allows them more options for identification purposes.
Our major focus is the Issues Survey. Using the Issues Survey as the means for directing conversation at the door makes it easier for volunteers to engage voters. Normally, around 65% of the voters we talk to at their doors answer some or all of these questions. On Saturday, we had 1,158 voters respond.
We ask voters about what issue they think is the most urgent facing America right now. The Economy was the top Issue mentioned by voters we talked to on Saturday. They are especially concerned about economic uncertainty. Jobs was the second most frequent response. “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.” People are very concerned about Jobs and a possible Recession and they do tell us they like Ryan because he’s talking about that. School Safety was the third most mentioned issue, which had to be separated from concern over (public) schools and education. We also heard a lot additional comments about Reproductive Rights and Gun Violence in the “Anything to add” or message to Congress query.
Collecting data about the Issues that voters actually think and talk about, though, is extraordinarily useful for Democratic campaigns, and the data we collect will be available to all Democrats who use VAN after Labor Day. This may be even more important than ever before.
Support (measured as job approval) for President Biden rose to 58% from the voters we talked to on Saturday. Disapproval was 9%. Approval for Tim Ryan was 80% this week. Approval for Governor DeWine dropped to 22%. But this is a graphical illustration of how Democrats in Ohio are gaining confidence. And the fact that we are knocking on doors only reinforces those gains. You would definitely rather be Ryan right now.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First Round of a traditional Five Round Canvass. 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 understands that 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 dud). 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 ask people who open their doors about local concerns, and specifically whether they need services delivered to their neighborhood. This week, we collected 57 CSRs in Ohio. 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 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. Comments from Observation Forms are entered into VAN, as well.
We registered 3 New Voters last Saturday and Re-registered (or corrected Voter Addresses) 27 voters last Saturday.
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!