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Just the Stats, Ma'am: Weekly Canvass Wrap up from AZ, FL, GA, NV, NC, OH, PA, TX & VA [1]

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Date: 2025-05-24

I remember a commenter saying the same thing about Arizona earlier this year. But we’ve definitely seen how volunteers don’t come out when their local stations report it’s only 62. It’s all relative, i guess. I’ll go out in my shorts and flip flops when it’s lower than that — but not for 3 hours at a time. And that’s the thing: we are asking volunteers to make that kind of time commitment on a Saturday morning and it’s really about being comfortable without a jacket for that long. Because, if you start the morning with a jacket, it is likely to heat up where it’s too hot to wear one.

Early in the election cycle, especially, you want volunteers to be as comfortable as possible. To have good experiences canvassing. Because the ultimate goal remains GOTV, and we will be asking volunteers to knock on doors in the cold in the October before the election. You don’t want there to be any muscle memory of cold days where you can be just miserable doing this. When the time comes, people will step up, but right now, there isn’t much of a point.

Florida actually surpassed Texas last weekend by turning out the most volunteers (again — Georgia did as well, and Georgia knocked on more doors than Florida!). But volunteers in Florida have been canvassing since February 8th (due to the special election in FL-6), while the rest of us have been knocking on doors this year since March 1st.

As the state that turned out the most volunteers, Florida got the Friday diary, and — let’s face it — was mostly overlooked. But the work being done there is impressive, and is worthy of people’s attention.

Last week, we started distributing our volunteer survey. This is something we do to stay on top of how our volunteers are feeling. About 10 percent of the volunteers in these (now) 14 states come out each week in the Spring, but we still distribute the survey to everyone on our 48,446 email list. I liked this response: “Sorry I haven’t been out this year, but I’m going to! Still wanted to respond because I know how important this is.”

But every volunteer is different. And they definitely have their own set of reasons for getting out there. You won’t be surprised that president felon leads the list of reasons why people come out (or want to).

But some volunteers have couched it another way: “We have to save our Democracy!” was one way volunteers who have responded have put it.

Others have other reasons: “I like canvassing. I like talking with voters and it always puts a new spin on how I think about the issues people are talking about.”

Last Saturday, we had 4,034 volunteers come out to canvass, not bad considering that we had to cancel our canvasses in 5 states. We knocked on 296,604 doors in twelve states last Saturday. At every door, we left a piece of literature promoting Democrats, which remains our biggest expense (by far) — and why we continue to ask for your financial support.

Volunteers talked to 24,180 voters last Saturday. Of those, 15,454 voters answered questions on our Issues Survey, at least in part.

We have targeted 14 Swing States to knock on doors and will have volunteers canvassing in all of them this month. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. Like i mentioned above, we are now knocking on doors in all 14.

Here’s the thing. We aren’t knocking in urban areas, for the most part (where state and local Democratic party orgs are stronger), but the swingy areas that tend to be suburban (or even ex-urban) — and where weather is more of a factor. But these are the areas that are deciding elections in the 21st century. And, in addition to our Issues Survey, through our Constituent Service Request forms and Incident Reports, we are directly connecting them with their state and local government. Not through our volunteers, but through their own words and actions.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/24/2323987/-Just-the-Stats-Man-Weekly-Canvass-Wrap-up-from-AZ-FL-GA-NV-NC-OH-PA-TX-VA?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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