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What Voters are telling us about Elon Musk, DOGE and the House Budget Cuts [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-18
This diary is largely based on a requested briefing about the results of one specific element of Hope Springs from Field PAC‘s [website which needs to be re-tooled] Issues Questionnaire, specifically about voter responses to Question 5 (support for DOGE and cuts to federal bureaucracy).
Even before asking the fifth question, though, we found voters speaking out about Elon Musk. “We didn’t vote for Musk (or DOGE),”many voters have told us. “What does a 20-something year-old know about the needs of Senior Citizens?” another asked. It was more interesting that a voter knew that many of the DOGE hacks were in their 20s. But this speaks to the level of concern.
And we are finding voters are paying attention to this closely.
“Why didn’t they disclose this during the campaign? What’s there to hide?” The secretive nature of DOGE and Elon Musk is a concern voiced frequently by those who spoke up?
This year (so far), Hope Springs’ volunteers have knocked on 191,947 doors, talked to 15,859 voters in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas where 10,186 Democratic and unaffiliated voters have answered a question about DOGE and the House budget cuts specifically. Granted, we aren't talking to Republicans but outside of FL-06, which is heavily Republican district, only 5-15% of those 10k voters support DOGE and House Republican budget cuts.
Responses about DOGE in FL-06
Even in Florida (specifically, FL-06), where we have the most extensive data (because we have been canvassing since February), support for DOGE is erratic. Opposition (everywhere) is more uniform (see graphic).
Remember, we are knocking on doors of Democrats and unaffiliated voters, so we bypass MAGA doors. One has to assume that support for DOGE is higher there.
But, as i indicated above, the most interesting responses were the fill-in-the-blank questions. Several voters identified DOGE as the most urgent issue facing our country at this time. In Florida, where volunteers are knocking on doors in FL-06, we had voters expressing concerns about closing Social Security offices by DOGE “volunteers.” Pretty sure that kind of thing isn’t being covered by Fox News.
What is striking, to me, anyway, is the fear in some voter’s voices — especially those who are utterly dependent on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They say, “this came out of nowhere,” “I had no idea” or “We were totally unprepared for this.” And more often that you’d expect, we are getting asked, “Can you help” at the doors. The desperation is real.
Remember, these were all Trump-voting states in 2024.
We added Q5 to our Issues Surveys, in part to gage voter sympathy to Trump and his agenda. Given that we are talking to more unaffiliated voters this year, we are offering that as a way to screen MAGA-leaning voters that we talk to.
For the most part, job approval for President Felon is higher than that for DOGE. Probably not a surprise; the one exception to this was in Nevada (with a smaller response pool than elsewhere) on the first weekend. Support for DOGE was higher there than job approval for Trump. Go figure.
Again, we aren’t talking to Republicans here. Our purpose is to identify potential supporters for Democratic candidates in2026.
Hope Springs from Field PAC began 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 started canvassing in these six states because weather permitted. We will expand to additional states, including expansion into Maine and New Hampshire, as weather improves, getting above 65°. But my guess is these 6 states will be more inclined to support DOGE than the others — so this likely would be the high water mark.
But basically half the voters we are talking to don’t have an opinion about DOGE. And, not every voter has heard of it. But most of those who have have pretty strong opinions about it. Even those who seem to support the concept of reducing the size ofgovernment (often using the “waste, fraud and abuse” canard) arementioning how they didn’t know about this plan. That it wasa secret, and they question why.
Simply asking voters this question encourages thought and discussion about Elon Musk and his project. Voters haven’t really made the connection between Musk, DOGE and the federal budget and paying for the Trump tax cuts from 8 years ago.
We knocked on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters and use a voter-driven approach to guide them through the Issues Survey, the CSR and Incident Report. We record questions voters raise with a Q(uestion)-slip and record other relevant observations on an Observations form. Q-slips are sent to the relevant Democrat to respond to and Observations are entered into VAN. 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.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or Congressional Races in 2026. 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 and helping them to check their current voter registration status, if they cannot access it online themselves.
Our biggest expense is Printing the Walk Lit that we leave at every door. We printed more than 10,500,000 pieces of Walk Lit last year. Access to the Voter File is our second largest cost. But it is also a fixed cost. That won’t change as we raise and spend more money. 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.
Several of our volunteers were eager to resume post-canvassing voter contact in between Saturdays. We are holding off on that for now, as it is early in the cycle, but it is interesting that it came up. But, for one thing, there are so many scams going around right now that it is important that voters have some additional context (besides leaving lit at their door!) for taking phone calls about the 2026 election.
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 eventually.
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 canvassers).
Hope Springs has been called “the most comprehensive, organized grassroots voter contact project out there right now. It is truly astonishing that it is grassroots-based!” Not sure why it is “astonishing,” but i probably have more faith in grassroots or self-organized efforts because of my experience with Barack Obama’s early days in 2007.
If you are able to support Hope Springs from Field’s efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, we would appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
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!
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/18/2310544/-What-Voters-are-telling-us-about-Elon-Musk-DOGE-and-the-House-Budget-Cuts?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
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