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GOTV Ground Game in Suburban Ohio: Building Momentum for the Win in November [1]
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Date: 2023-10-25
I am an unabashed supporter of primaries. I’m not a politician, so the whole rationale that “the better candidate could lose” doesn’t effect me (the better candidate is always the candidate that wins). I’m an organizer, and damn proud of that fact, with way too much experience in campaigns and elections, and the seminal point in my belief that primaries are good is the presidential race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Like many Obama alums, especially those who were with Obama in 2007, i understand that Clinton’s vigorous contest made our November victory possible.
What does this have to do with Ohio, and, specifically, GOTV (get-out-the-vote) in Ohio? Well, the August special election for Issue 1 was the “primary” for the November election for (kinda-sorta unrelated) Issue 1, the constitutional amendment to protect women’s right to choose. Hope Springs from Field PAC volunteers gained valuable, valuable experience in the August election that we can see helping us in this one. We can see this in a lot of different ways, many of which will be detailed below, but the fact is that volunteers are more confident, more enthusiastic and more productive in the last month than we were in the month prior to the Summer special election.
Organizers heard more than a few complaints about how big their walk packets were in the Summer. We utilize a system were we increase the number of doors assigned to volunteer canvassers every month starting in the Summer. 65 doors goes to 70 doors, which turns to 75 doors in August. Although we don’t increase that number to 80 doors for every canvasser in September, 80-door packets do get cut and were reserved for our super volunteers last month. This week, one female volunteer came out and asked for an 85-door packet as well as the “sh*t packet,” the left-over doors that didn’t fit neatly into another walk packet.
You gotta love the continuation of the Ohio-Michigan rivalry
You don’t tend to see that if you only have to face a general election. As an organizer, i don’t just want to see Democrats contest every race on the ballot, i want to see Democrats contest the main or targeted seats in the primaries, too. Yeah, those may be contradictory desires, but primaries make candidates and campaigns better. Contest them all!
I’m not going to disagree with those who argue that Democrats just aren’t that organized, or that following my advice can lead to unintended consequences. Here’s the thing: we don’t win (across the board) because we have one or two incredibly charismatic candidate(s). Barack Obama had terrible coattails. We win when Democrats and leaners see themselves on the ballot. Women, Hispanics, African-Americans, Asian & Pacific Islander, etc — the more that our general election ballot reflects our incredible diversity, the more likely we are to win across the board. We need to be encouraging people to think about running now, not next year. All kinds of Democrats, Democratic voters should be able to see themselves on the ballot next year.
This ballot initiative in Ohio also has ramifications for the Senate election in the state next year. Sure, not every Hope Springs volunteer is going to come out next year. I imagine we are likely to have a lot more men (percentage wise) who come out to canvass for Sherrod Brown. But think about the confidence that winning these elections this year has on the prospects for Democrats retaining the U.S. Senate next year.
539 volunteers who knocked on doors on October 14th took their walk lists home last week and continued to call on those houses they had canvassed that Saturday. Someone called it homework. But they found another 14,733 voters who answered questions from a condensed Issues Survey, including whether they supported Issue 1 and if they planned to vote in the election.
To date, 258,687 Ohioans have voted in an election that (among other things) “will decide whether to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution or be the first to reject an abortion-rights measure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”
So far, Hope Springs volunteers have identified 127,316 Reproductive Freedom voters who will comprise much of our suburban GOTV universe. You may have noticed that this number is smaller than the number we previously announced. Yep, we remove the names of supporters who have already voted. We will endeavor to decrease that number even more, even as we increase the number of identified abortion rights voters. In some areas, where resources permit, we will fold Democratic voters into our GOTV universe.
We even have volunteers who are reaching out and tracking voters who have requested an absentee ballot in their counties. This puts even more demands on VAN (which i know we’re going to pay for). Several organizers envision a “cradle to grave” absentee ballot effort, from request to contact to vote to ensuring that their vote counts (ballot curing). It’s ambitious, but that’s how important this vote is to many of our “super volunteers.”
This would never have happened in the August election. Grassroots efforts get better with experience, as well!
That said, the task these volunteers have taken on is immense. Almost 88,000 absentee ballots have been requested in these counties (so far), which is less than the number of doors Hope Springs from Field volunteers knocked on last Saturday, but it is still quite a task. Like i said, ambitious.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/10/25/2201471/-GOTV-Ground-Game-in-Suburban-Ohio-Building-Momentum-for-the-Win-in-November
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