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Impressions from Knocking on Doors in the Spring in AZ, FL, GA, NC, NV, OH, PA, WI & VA [1]

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Date: 2023-05-30

A commenter asked, “any general sense from the week?” it was a great question, but it was asked (and answered) at a time when i was thinking about (in a mild sense, worried about) getting all our Memorial Day canvassers “in.” In the days of all-paper walk sheets, canvassers would return to their launch point and return their walk packet. And perhaps almost 50% of our volunteers check in (or is that check out?) with their organizer when they are done. But most of Hope Springs from Field PAC’s canvassers use miniVAN which allows them to complete a virtual check out or completion process. And their are always volunteers who think they “checked out” but for some reason we aren’t notified. Making sure that everything is copacetic (and everybody is okay) is my “job.”

But it was a great question, and i thought i would take a crack at it from the perspective of our Spring canvasses in general.

So the first impression from the Spring has to be the surprising resilience of Reproductive Rights among the voters, Democrats and “independents”, we talked to in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Virginia. Almost never, now, do we have a week where a voter doesn’t say to one of our volunteers that she had had an abortion, or they knew someone had had an abortion (which can also refer to themselves). But they don’t necessarily say that Reproductive Justice is their Number #1 issue in the nation or the state. Where we see this in response to the question, “If there is a single issue that will determine how you vote, what is it?”

Only in Florida were there more responses to the query than Abortion driving voters on how they were going to vote in upcoming elections. A year after Roe v Wade being recklessly, undemocratically overturned. I don’t know about Wisconsin (the Wisconsin result was data from one canvass), but in Virginia (which has elections this year), Pennsylvania and Ohio, Reproductive Freedom is very much in the news, with voters having legitimate fears about impending restrictions. Of course, the same is true in Florida, but we have a very high mix of senior citizens and Hispanics in our canvass mix so that might be skewing results here. Because we canvass on Saturday mornings, i have to note that we don’t reach a lot of voters with younger children.

And not everyone who responds to our Issues Survey answers this particular question. When compared to the other answers to the single issue question, we find that resiliency to which i was referring. We are way beyond anger — although the anger probably remains — we are seeing determination. A year away from the last campaign, a year before the next election, voters — Democrats and unaffiliated — are telling us that Reproductive Rights are driving them to vote, and how they will vote.

Here’s the thing: when asking voters to take this questionnaire, we try to move them quickly through the survey. If they don’t have an immediate response we tell them it’s not a test. And then try to move on to the next question. On especially this question (is there a single issue that will determine how you vote), if it doesn’t pop up immediately, it probably isn’t valid. But that’s also true to other responses, as well. So we are recording gut responses, and the resiliency of this issue in an off-election year is obvious.

The same thing is true about opposition to Trump. “Anybody but Trump” is the second highest response to the single issue question, but at a far lesser rate. I loved the voter who said that they didn’t miss Trump’s dominance of the news, and any day he “didn’t see a Trump-related story was a good day.” This respondent self-identified as an independent, but i think a lot of Democrats would share that feeling.

But Trump’s name isn’t coming up as much this year. You may want to read that again. Last year, Trump was a supporting figure in the election, but this year he is running for the GOP nomination. Yet voters aren’t talking about him as much this year. I can’t tell you why. Maybe he isn’t outlandish enough (yet) or maybe the far-right tilt of twitter means voters aren’t *seeing* his antics. I couldn’t tell you and i wouldn’t have mentioned it outside of this context.

Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors since March in a grassroots effort to prepare the 2024 Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are canvassing 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/fistfulofsteel

Hope Springs from Field PAC 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.

I continue to be impressed by the number of people who come out each week. We have fewer volunteers coming week in and week out, which means we have a lot of “I meant to come out last week and forgot!” volunteers. In comments, i talked about the “combined arms” approach, where canvassing, phone banks, texting, signs and advertising support each other’s efforts. Of course, that is something the campaigns have to do, that, really, only they can do. But well funded campaigns i have led would, for example, buy a limited number of yard signs in the beginning to put out in areas where we would be canvassing, “super volunteers” would call the voters they did not reach after they canvassed, or we would robocall into the turf the candidate would be canvassing, etc. That the campaign plan was coordinating efforts, in order to maximize voter attention when we were knocking on doors.

When i visit a canvass staging site, i will talk about how the volunteers who show up are the “tip of the spear.” How important early organizing is (especially after the pandemic), and how those involved in early organizing are really the elite volunteers who will ultimately decide the election. But, especially in knocking on doors, a lot of the volunteers who will knock during the high season of the election will have been exposed to campaign volunteers who have already been doing it. This is why giving volunteers a great experience knocking on doors, because they will have a lot to do with those who follow them next fall.

Weather is incredibly important in who turns out to knock. But that factor disappears when there is an election near. And during GOTV, nothing can keep most volunteers away. Last year, Georgia and North Carolina volunteers exchanged people during GOTV for their state’s primaries. This year, we had volunteers from southern Georgia who went down to help Jacksonville do GOTV in their mayoral election. I’m not surprised by this, but i always remember that when people will say that African-Americans won’t volunteer in campaigns and elections. That is definitely not my experience and while volunteering for virtually everything is a leisure activity, it is important to reiterate the fact that almost everyone who has participated in these grassroots exchanges has been African-American, many of which were college students or just graduated from college. And it was their idea to do so. Doesn’t hurt that these super volunteers have a great story to tell, hyping up not only voters but other volunteers and organizers. Winning solves a lot of problems, and Democrats need a lot more winning to keep this country on track. We didn’t win everywhere we knocked last year, but we did drive turnout — in some places, surprisingly significant amounts.

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/fistfulofsteel

Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/30/2172181/-Impressions-from-Canvassing

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