I make no bones about the fact that i like the last state canvassing diary of the week to be about the state that turns out the most volunteers the prior Saturday. I like to honor the Hope Springs from Field PAC [website] volunteers from that state and recognize them for their effort, because knocking on doors isn’t always easy or satisfying. But it is necessary, and, in a close election, likely to make all the difference in the outcome. We can usually predict in advance which states will come out on top, just because we have a good sense of our volunteers and their commitments to winning.
That was not the case this week. Michigan outpaced Florida this week, for reasons i cannot begin to explain. It just did. There’s no ballot initiative, there’s been a lot of consternation about Democratic enthusiasm for Biden in the state — and whether Democrats would even show up. The only “bright” spot, as it were, is the open Senate seat. But, if you believed the press, Michigan is giving Democrats’ trouble. Or, you can just believe our volunteers.
Like i said, i have no insights here. No one’s given an explanation. They just showed up. But showing up counts. May even count more. In a week where a lot of the states we are canvassing had fewer volunteers than previously, and we again got washed out of Pennsylvania and Maryland, the fact that more volunteers showed up last Saturday than the previous Saturday was notable. But, again, i can’t explain why.
This was our second weekend knocking on doors here. It’s also (just) our second year in the state. Last year, we had 263 volunteers show up our first two weeks; this year, we’ve had 901. We didn’t break 400 volunteers showing up a weekend in Michigan until two months in; we started off with 428 on April 27th.
473 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Michigan last Saturday to knocking on doors in the swingy grey (and pink) districts (MI-3, MI-4, MI-7 & MI-8). We expect to be in MI-10 and MI-11 (if needed) before the month is out. We are a month earlier than last year, but that’s mostly because our volunteers were eager to get started.
Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 34,387 doors last Saturday and talked to 2,878 voters. 1,804 of those voters answered questions to at least part of the Issues Survey.
(Higher) Prices was the most frequent response to our question about voter’s top concern on Saturday in Michigan. We hear the same thing in every state, questions about when prices will “return to normal.” Healthcare Concerns was the second most frequent response. Campus Protests was third. We didn’t hear a lot of support for the protesters, and a few voters mentioned fear about the harm they could be doing.
Hope Springs from Field PAC started knocking on doors again on March 2nd in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of 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.
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/hopemobilization2024
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.
Biden Approval among the Michiganders we talked to was at 52% last Saturday and 9% expressed some measure of Disapproval. 54% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Gov. Whitmer was doing while 7% expressed Disapproval. Still hear voters talk about Michigan as being a “fly-over” state for Democrats and how important it is for Whitmer to be challenging that.
Volunteers registered 7 new voters and re-registered 36 voters in compliance with Federal (HAVA) law. Again, we note that we differentiate between the new voters and existing voters because the former can often be forgotten (or clumped together with their family) during GOTV and first time voters need special care! And Hope Springs will again engage in special GOTV efforts aimed at getting young new voters to the polls next year.
105 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. We send completed CSRs to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican (and there isn’t a Democrat who could take on the request), 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.
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.
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. (We also make Issues Surveys, Incident Reports and Constituent Service Request forms available at the churches we visit, but we don’t include numbers for those, in part because we don’t always get counts back, but also because we like to compare like to like.)
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or the Electoral College in 2024, as well as Congressional Districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year (specifically those where a Republican won a Congressional District that voted for Biden in 2022). 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.
We are also — this being an election year — adding the Post Cards to New Voters component back into our Voter Outreach, both New Voters we find at their doors as well as New Voters we target in the Voter File.
Our biggest expense is the Voter File. But it is also a fixed cost. That won’t change as we raise and spend more money. Printing literature is our second largest cost. 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.
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.
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). So please:
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/hopemobilization2024
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!