Canvassing Texas in the Face of the Next Rigged Districting Move by Republicans

Ho-Hum.  It’s Friday, the day we celebrate the volunteers from the state with the highest turnout.  Texas, again.  But we still appreciate the volunteer canvassers!

Ever since the Quorum Break, Hope Springs from Field PAC [dated website] volunteer turnout has been TEXAS BIG.  Suddenly, both volunteers and voters are alarmed at the massive changes made to the Congressional Map at the felon’s request.

                       New Rigged MAGA Map

Texas HSFF organizers have been taunting me with the Jaws saying, “we’re gonna need a bigger boat.  Not that i disagree, but we’re in the midst of elections right now.  And we are behind in the goals we set for this year (which includes that bigger boat element).

But in my Thursday 10/10/10 calls i’ve now talked to 3 of the “new” (new to Hope Springs) volunteers that basically came from the House Dems’ camp.  I asked them why they continued to come out and they basically admitted to liking our goals and system.  “It took me awhile to get the “predicting before you knock” thing, one volunteer admitted, “and i’ve been doing this for at least a decade.  It’s a habit you have to master.”  But after a month, he said, “I decided I liked it.  Nobody ever got mad that I had already started to walk away, which is what you’d think.  Some of my best conversations happened after I returned.”

We’ve now shifted from trying to stop Gov. Abbott’s rigged districting to winning these rigged districts.  And we think Republicans helped here.  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.

1,996 volunteers showed up on Saturday — a mere 82 volunteers more than California.  But don’t compare the two, Texas organizers demanded.  They’ve got help (and GOTV).  Huh, we’re in a smaller area in California.  Texas bluster.

Texas volunteers knocked on 146,884 doors.  Volunteers talked to 11,750 voters and had in-depth conversa-tions with 7,520 of them, guided by our Issues Questionnaire.  

We’ve been knocking on homes with about a 3 (independent voters) to every 1 (Democrat) ratio.  On Satur-day, 75.6% of our 7,520 respondents were unaffiliated voters.  The higher cost of Electricity remained the Number 1 issue for the Texans we talked to on Saturday.  I guess people are starting to get their rate increase notifications.  The Slowing Economy was the #2 most frequent issue voters raised.   Tariffs and the impact tariffs are having on Agricultural Exports was third.  Some of the areas we are canvassing in Texas, Georgia and Iowa definitely have Ag-driven economies

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 12% said they disapproved.  6% of the voters we talked to had a favorable impression of the job Trump was doing while 51% disapproved.

4% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Sen. Cornyn was doing on Saturday while 52% expressed Disapproval.  4% approved of what Gov. Abbott was doing, and 49% 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 91,665 voters whose houses they had visited last Saturday provided at least some answers to our Issues Survey.  So, in total, we collected 99,185 voter responses to our Issues Survey last week.

Hope Springs volunteers registered 118new voters on Saturday, in this case, a fairly good mix of African-Americans and Hispanics.  We re-registered 29 voters, who mainly updated their addresses.  The Gover-nor’s Office has asked us about our Voter Registration Project in Texas — and specifically about the counties being targeted.  We told that we register anyone who isn’t already registered to vote.  I definitely get the impression they don’t like it.

In Texas, 2,184 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.

44 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, Attorneys General 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.

No other Democratically-aligned org has been methodically trying to circumvent MAGA efforts to rig the House Midterm elections.  And we need your help to continue.  Our printer costs alone are way beyond our budgeting.

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!