Before the 2024 election, the Hope Springs from Field PAC [website which needs to be re-tooled] model had been — born out of our experience in the 2021 Georgia special elections that gave Democrats a majority in the Senate — to hand off volunteers and territory to the Coordinated Campaigns in the various states after Labor Day. This did not work in 2024 (and their are numerous reasons why, some of which have been debated and some of which have not been talked about that much).
None of our volunteer groups have thought more about this kind of thing that our Georgia volunteers. Several of our volunteers have delved into the precinct data, comparing 2024 and 2022, trying to understand what happened. That was an interesting set of conversations.
New Georgia Congressional District map
2026 offers to test the conclusions we have come to. Jon Ossoff is up for re-election, without Sen. Warnock on the ballot (people may have forgotten that, even though Ossoff had run for Congress in the cycle before, it was Warnock who got the most votes in 2021). And Ossoff created his own energy, but it was based in the Atlanta metro region, whereas Warnock had a more rural and suburban energy then. It was why their campaigns were compatible.
If we modified our approach in Texas, we are doubling down in Georgia. Hope Springs has seen queries about when we are restarting both our “Until Justice is Real” voter registration project and our Voter Photo ID project this year. We’ll be running our Constituent Service Requests through Ossoff’s office almost exclusively, to give him the broadest contacts with Georgia’s voters as possible. He already runs a formidable Constituent office for a Senator.
But our Georgia volunteers are confident in their own (ultimate) GOTV practices from their consistent voter contact since 2000, and we are staying more loyal to the areas (turf) we take on this cycle. Our goal is to go through both first and second rounds this year, making sure we can do that before taking on new areas to canvass, going for quality voter contact over quantity. This is made possible because we have volunteers ready to step up in the canvassing part.
Jon Ossoff is widely considered the most endangered Senate Democratic incumbent in 2026. “Top Senate Republicans are kicking off a lobbying campaign to convince popular two-term GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to mount a challenge to Ossoff.” Even if “there’s skepticism that President Donald Trump’s winning 2024 coalition will turn out in similar numbers in a midterm year,” Kemp has the best GOTV org in the state. That winning coalition truly was a combination of Kemp’s traditional GOP organization and the MAGA orgs in the state. Kemp is unlikely to announce his decision (many believe he will forego a senate run to concentrate on running for president in 2028) before the state legislative session adjourns on April 4. Partisan polling in Georgia indicated Kemp topping Ossoff in a hypothetical matchup.
But the NRSC is confident of flipping the seat in Georgia even if Kemp decides to take a pass on a 2026 run.
Among the Republicans who've expressed interest in a run for the Senate seat in Georgia if Kemp opts out are Reps. Buddy Carter, Rich McCormick, Mike Collins, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, along with state Insurance Commissioner John King.
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/hopemobilization
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 and that is the goal of what we do.
Last year, 17,364 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Georgia. On the 1st, 37 volunteers showed up while 107 came out on Saturday. Last year, we knocked on 1,276,340 doors in Georgia. In our first week back, we knocked on 2,504 doors while we hit 7,671 doors on Saturday.
Hope Springs volunteers talked to 109,098 voters last year at their doors. We talked to another 84,490 voters whose doors we knocked on but no one answered through other means later on that week, for a total of 193,588 Georgians last year. On March 1st, we talked to 198 voters and on Saturday, we talked to 614 voters and had in-depth conversations with 128 and 392 of them, respectively, guided by our Issues Questionnaire.
We’ve added one thing to our questionnaire: we are asking voters whether they approve of the administration’s cuts to federal programs and agencies. Given that we are talking to more unaffiliated voters this year, we are offering that as a way to screen MAGA-leaning voters that we talk to.
Other than that, the Issues Surveys aren’t really changing. We may modify it again, if necessary. Voters like to tell us what is important to them!
On March 1st, Inflation was was the Number 1 issue for the voters we talked both weeks in March. Grocery Prices was second on the 1st and Tariffs(!) were the #2 issue voters raised on Saturday. Housing Concerns was third on Saturday.
As i mentioned above, we are asking voters if they approve of the sudden and deep cuts in federal programs and agencies led by Elon Musk. We did have voters actually mention Musk in the survey (in the what is the most urgent issue facing our country query). That was different.
On the 1st, 9% of the voters we talked to said they viewed these cuts in a favorable light, it was 15% on Saturday. 42% thought just the opposite on the 1st and 37% said they disapproved on Saturday! Only 13% of the voters we talked to had a favorable impression of the job Trump was doing (41% disapproved) on the 1st and 19% approved on Saturday (31% disapproved). We won’t know for awhile (given the newness of the question) whether these two questions are correlated.
On the 1st, 53% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Sen. Ossoff was doing while 8% expressed Disapproval. Saturday, 48% approved while 7% disapproved. 38% approved of what Gov. Abbott was doing on the 1st, and 41% approved on Saturday. 21% and 26% disapproved.
Hope Springs volunteers registered 8 new voters on the 1st and 1 new voter on Saturday. We re-registered 14 voters on the 1st and 31 on Saturday, who mainly updated their addresses.
In Georgia, 15 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms on the 1st and 34 on Saturday. In Georgia, we are giving Sen. Ossoff’s office “first crack” at completed CSRs. 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.
1 voter filled out an Incident Report on 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.
We knocked on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters and use a voter-driven approach to guide them through the Issues Survey, the CSR and Incident Report. 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.
By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with some really, really onerous new voter regulations, Hope Springs from Field seeks to undermine that strategy, while informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them and helping them to check their current voter registration status, if they cannot access it online themselves.
Our biggest expense is Printing the Walk Lit that we leave at every door. We printed more than 1,400,000 pieces of Walk Lit last year for Georgia. Access to the Voter File is our second largest cost. But it is also a fixed cost. That won’t change as we raise and spend more money. Printing and mailing our our Post Cards to New Voters is our third cost and paying the fees for ActBlue is the smallest of our monthly costs.
Several of our volunteers were eager to resume post-canvassing voter contact in between Saturdays. We are holding off on that for now, as it is early in the cycle, but it is interesting that it came up. But, for one thing, there are so many scams going around right now that it is important that voters have some additional context (besides leaving lit at their door!) for taking phone calls about the 2026 election.
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.
But here’s the reality: Identifying Single Issue Voters and Constitutional Amendment supporters and doing GOTV (Get-Out-the-Vote) costs us more money than our regular canvassing because this issue drives volunteer turnout higher and higher. Which means we have to buy more lit to distribute and other minor expenses (like water for volunteers).
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/hopemobilization
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!
