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Beat the Heat (& Showers): Canvassing Florida [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-06
In Florida, 659 Hope Springs volunteers came out to knock on doors in 8 Florida counties on Saturday. They knocked on 47,250 doors and talked to 3,780 voters . 2,396 of those voters answered questions on at least part of the Issues Survey at their doors.
Jobs (and specifically the prospect of Summer Jobs for students) was the Top Issue in Florida on Saturday. Tariffs was second and Budget Cuts/Hurricane Worries was third. Hurricane season started Monday.
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. Starting last month, we’ve allowed volunteers in some states (the ones where this has been requested) to take their walk sheets home to follow-up with voters in houses that did not answer their doors. We don’t get final numbers on these until Thursdays (Fridays are devoted to cutting Saturdays turf, which is why the deadline in Thursdays). This week, Florida volunteers contacted another 7,147 voters who provided at least some answers to our Issues Survey. We continue to ask voters whether they approve of the administration’s cuts to federal programs and agencies. Given that we are talking to more unaffiliated voters this year, we are using that as a way to screen MAGA-leaning voters that we talk to since we have increased the percentage of unaffiliated voters we talk to each week. But it is possible this question will be dropped. Other than that, the Issues Survey hasn’t really changed. Like i said, we will probably modify it again.
We ask voters if they approve of the sudden and deep cuts in federal programs and agencies. On Saturday, 2% of the voters we talked to said they viewed these cuts in a favorable light. 28% disapproved. 14% of the voters we talked to had a favorable impression of the job Trump was doing, while 41% disapproved.
Florida has a new, appointed Senator due to the elevation of Mario Rubio to the White House. Ashley Moody, the new Senator, isn’t as well known to the voters we’ve talked to these last two months. On Saturday, 5% of the voters who responded approved of the job Sen. Moody was doing while a mere 21% expressed Disapproval. In other words, only 26% of the voters we talked to said they knew who she was. 13% approved of what Gov. DeSantis was doing and 41% disapproved. You might notice that DeSantis has taken a real beating since we are out of FL-06 (a congressional district in which he served before becoming governor).
Hope Springs volunteers registered 47 new voters on Saturday (primarily African-America). We re-registered 68 voters, who mainly updated their addresses, all using the Florida Sec. of State website to conform to Florida’s onerous voter registration laws for volunteers.
336 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms on Saturday. We send completed CSRs to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican, we still send it along. For Democrats, though, we encourage them to reach out immediately to the voter who filled out the Constituent Service Request forms and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder.
7 voters filled out Incident Reports. Incident Reports are used to plan Election Protection activities, and will be combined with other, historical incidents and handed over to District and State Attorneys, Attorney Generals and the DoJ Civil Rights Division right before Election Day as a precaution against Election Day Incidents in November. Past polling place activity is a predictor of future voter intimidation or suppression activity.
We knock 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.
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