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Defeating Elon Musk's "ground game" of paid canvassers with Hope Springs' volunteers [1]

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Date: 2025-02-22

Remember that the Trump campaign claims that “ close to 2,500 paid canvassers, with America PAC making up a significant chunk, are working in the seven [swing] states.” But Musk’s America PAC (Apac on our charts) was not the only one. Turning Point Action (TPA) was, before Musk’s frequent creeds, the biggest braggard, while the Kock group, Americans for Prosperity, was usually the most visible group of MAGA canvassers week in and week out.

You may remember that last cycle, we tracked MAGA field operations (weekly) and reported our findings here , here , here , here and here (probably not the whole list). This spreadsheet was probably the most requested data by other PACs and campaigns last cycle.

Last year, volunteers had been kinda working in the same areas as Musk’s canvassing outfits. Not exactly, though (we clearly targeted different voters), and there is a lot of thought being put into how we need to expand this Spring and Summer when we are knocking on doors in Swing States and Districts. But there is a lot of agreement that the Hope Springs approach of voter contact needs to be expanded and incorporate the lessons of 2024.

Yesterday, i wrote that Elon Musk’s influence in this administration stemmed from his deployment of field staff (paid canvassers) throughout the Swing States and his argument that this was decisive in the last election. IOW, this is how Musk obtained the power he wields under president felon. This was brought to my attention from Democrats asking (demanding?) when Hope Springs from Field PAC [dated website ] volunteers will start knocking on doors again. (The answer to this question is next week, weather permitting; i should add that we already have volunteers doing GOTV canvassing in FL-06.)

The point here is that we have a system of quiet observation and reporting where Musk’s field operations were last cycle, something we will continue in this one, and which we intend to follow-up more closely this time. Because Elon Musk is dangerous, and anything we can do to reduce his power and influence is beneficial.

Remember, there has a simple rule of campaigns since 1960. When Democrats expand the electorate, we win. When we fail to do so, we lose. (Again, having said that, in four swing states, Harris won more raw votes than Joe Biden did four years ago: Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin — and we lost there.)

We have to do better.

Hope Springs from Field PAC begins 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. We all know that knocking on doors is not exclusively a Democratic tactic. Both parties have always done it, although we basically failed to do so in 2020 — and have had a lot of ground to make up since. 2025 looks to be a much more inviting political environment than 2024. We’ll also be a lot smarter this time around. Hope Springs from Field is primarily focused on listening to voters in the effort to bring them (back?) into the fold. One of the biggest things we learned this last year was how important our auxiliary effort by walking with Constituent Service Request forms was to the voters who chose to fill them out was. Over the last cycle, Hope Springs volunteers had helped 50,840 voters fill out CSRs at their doors in these 9 Swing States (Ohio was a “Swing State” in 2023 where we expended considerable energy to win that ballot initiative). We were able to contact 18,369 of these voters this Winter — which i think is a pretty good percentage of them. Using both our walking lists and the information we had collected from the voter, we tried to reach them through phone calls and email (to arrange a phone call). And most of us were surprised who many were willing to talk about this experience, even those who didn’t really get the satisfaction they sought by filling out a CSR. But the overwhelming impression voters told us can be summed up in a nutshell: they were thrilled to be asked. The surprise from this exercise is how it seemed to impact voting. An extraordinary number of these voters told us they cast a vote in November. This is why we need to compare these self-reported numbers to the voting file. 17,021 voters who had filled out CSRs reported they had voted in November. Remember, we were contacting Democrats and unaffiliated voters, so it was not much of a surprise that 16,168 of them said they voted for Kamala Harris (not everyone would tell us who they voted for). Granted, this is just a subset of all the 10 Millions doors we had knocked on, but still. CSRs will be even more important to our voter contact model moving forward.

I’ve been made painfully aware that no other Democratic or progressive group tracks this kind of thing — data that is enormously valuable to the campaign. Printing bills are coming due — bills for the 10,207,329 doors we hit before Labor Day. When people ask me why i’m confident we are going to win this election, it’s not just that we are doing the needed work now, but that we did the needed work before Labor Day, as well.

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 ActBlue page. Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!

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