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Comparing Elon Musk's Field Efforts to that of Hope Springs from Field's [1]

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Date: 2025-03-24

This diary is the result of a question asked by a Hope Springs from Field PAC [website which needs to be re-tooled] volunteer canvassing with us in FL-06. She wondered how our grassroots-driven effort can be compared to the millions of dollars Elon Musk is putting in field, including in Florida right now.

Well, there’s an answer for that. Wish i had these numbers on hand when the question came up, but i knew i had them at home. Hence a rare Monday post. This may not be of interest to anyone besides our volunteers, but i try to post everything here that’s of interest. So who knows?

I was first exposed to this comparison at Harvard’s symposium that is held after every presidential election. But most of what i learned was also in the press. Last year, Hope Springs’ volunteers knocked on 10,738,318 doors. not including the doors we knocked on after October 10th where we went into GOTV mode. Our records for that period are incomplete because, basically, we started knocking during the weekdays in addition to the weekends and it became more difficult to record everything that was coming in.

Musk’s “canvassers knocked on close to 11 million doors in presidential battleground states.” But even the fact that our (precise) numbers are similar to those Musk has reported is interesting just because of all the accusations of false reports that surrounded their weekly numbers.

Then Musk’s canvassers were paid, so no one is surprised they may have falsified the number of contacts they made.

Accusations of fraud among low-paid canvassers dogged the operation and raised internal concerns among executives. In the final days, the main software used by canvassers had significant glitches, leading to what organizers said were problems in Wisconsin and Nevada. Mr. Musk’s super PAC had also hoped for a dramatic surge of door-knocking in the final days in key states — as many as 5,500 canvassers in the field.

Hope Springs never had 5,500 canvassers in the field — oh, wait, that’s not true at all! As soon as Joe Biden announced he was leaving the race, we had more than 5,500 canvassers every weekend until Labor Day when we encouraged our volunteers to move over to the Harris, Senate or Coordinated campaigns.

But our model last year was an all-volunteer model, including organizers. And we have always known that this would limit our efforts. Some organizers — like the 5 we have in FL-06 right now — had to travel to their turf, they lived outside the area for which they were responsible.

And while Musk’s America PAC focused on 7 or 8 battleground states, Hope Springs has volunteers not just in those states, but also those with competitive Senate races, as well. So broader, less focused. And the numbers do reflect that. Where Musk’s canvassers are reported to have hit “about 1.8 million [doors] in Michigan and 2.3 million in Pennsylvania” Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 996,774 doors in Michigan and 970,418 doors in Pennsylvania. Money makes a difference. “Mr. Musk almost single-handedly funded an effort that cost more than $175 million.”

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:

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