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Riding the Enthusiasm Wave in Nevada: "We can do this" (A Senate Swing State Canvass) [1]
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Date: 2022-08-11
It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. After weeks of punishing heat, Saturday’s canvassing seemed downright pleasant. Now that sounds odd (to me, 2,000 miles away) but I didn’t say it. Relief, even minor relief, is appreciated. Here’s what I know: voters were opening their doors at a higher rate, even talking longer to volunteers. That’s what the data shows.
538 Average for Nevada
And all our volunteers seem more chatty to organizers. Not just in Nevada. “We can do this,” one organizer quoted a volunteer. More than one volunteer asked/told their organizer, “Have you seen the latest 538 average?” “We can do this.”
351 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. The weather was pleasant enough that cooling vehicles were optional and a lot of volunteers opted out of that structure. Which was fine, our only concern is that volunteers feel safe and protected. I will reiterate, in these heat sensitive states, organizers report on the temperature while we have volunteers out there knocking on doors.
We canvass 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. I can’t tell you how much our volunteers like this technique and how much *they* learn from knocking on doors.
We ask voters whether they have a primary issue concern. What we are looking for is to determine whether they are “single issue” voters. We use open-ended questions because we are really looking for quick, immediate responses. People know what issues they will be voting on, and if they can’t think of any, that doesn’t defeat the purpose. Jobs was the Top Issue in Nevada according to the voters we talked to on Saturday. The Economy and especially the prospect of a Recession was the second highest concern. Health Care Costs was third place among the Nevada voters we talked to this week. Looking at these results, I would venture a guess that we talked to a lot of union voters. Like other states, we still hear about Reproductive Rights and Gun Violence in the “single issue” or message to Congress query.
Voter views of President Biden have started to rise: 58% of the voters we talked to in Nevada last Saturday had a favorable view. 8% expressed disapproval in the job the president was doing and voters have been pretty clear why. I try not to read too much into the statistics we see each week but Nevada is the only state where Biden keeps doing better than the Democratic candidates.
53% of the voters, Democrats and independents, had a favorable impression of Senator Cortez Masto. 9% told us they had an unfavorable of the senator. 54% of the voters who responded gave Governor Sisolak a favorable rating. 9% said they had an unfavorable impression.
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 registered 8 New Voters last Saturday and updated (or corrected) the addresses of another 62 voters.
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. 96 voters raised some area that they wanted addressed. If possible, 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.
We specifically ask voters in the Issues Survey if they have any concerns about the upcoming elections. Voters who tell us they have experience voter intimidation or other problems with voting are asked to fill out Incident Reports. We found 2 voters who wanted to fill out an Incident Report on Saturday. We collate these Incident Reports, to be shared with local, state and federal officials in charge of voting, as well as use them to plan out our Election Protection strategy in the fall. They could also be used in court cases.
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!
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