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Canvassing New Hampshire: Protecting a Democratic seat in the Senate [1]
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Date: 2025-06-10
Hope Springs from Field PAC’s [dated website] volunteers is knocking on doors in 15 Swing States and/or Congressional Districts, but had expected our last expansion in a single Congressional District outside those 15 last weekend, but weather pulled us back. Now that it is Summer, weather considerations go to the forefront. We are definitely feeling stretched given our current fiscal circumstances.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen announced she wouldn’t seek reelection in mid-March and but Chris Pappas, the Democrat who has held New Hampshire’s 1st CD since 2018, when he became the first openly gay man elected to represent New Hampshire in Congress. former (and popular) Governor Chris Sununu announced he won’t run for Senate in 2026. As you can see from the 2026 New Hampshire map, this is a pure “protect a Democratic Senate seat” play. Pappas’ district is labelled “Leaning Democratic” largely because he is running for the Senate, and most of our canvassing is in NH-01 — the Rochester-Hampton-Concord triangle, but (in NH-02) Franklin, Keene and Lebanon as well. Like i said, pure Senate play. 225 Hope Springs volunteers came out on Saturday in New Hampshire to knock on 16,582 doors. We talked to 1,343 voters and had in-depth conversations with 855 of them, guided by our Issues Questionnaire. All of these responses will be entered into VAN (the shared Democratic database) and shared with Democratic candidates after the primaries.
New Hampshire is still a heavily canvassed state and voters there are used to this kind of voter contact. But they aren’t accustomed to our approach. We’ve gotten, “Isn’t it early” comments, and voters telling us, “Nobody has ever asked that before,” as well. One of the things that is unique about the New Hampshire electorate is that unaffiliated (or undeclared) voters are the largest plurality here, about 36%. So whereas in most states we are knocking on 60% unaffiliated doors (& 40% Democratic doors), here it is more like 70%. Democrats do represent the largest party (32.5%) but the Republican Party controls the offices of governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and both chambers of the state legislature. So i was too surprised when a volunteer (who i’d known since 2004) mentioned that a voter said to him, “How do you know who I am?” Admittedly showing off (he’s a prospective organizer in his part of the state for us), he said, “it’s right here in VAN” before showing his voter profile in mini-VAN. “Republicans don’t do that,” the voter said, handing the phone back. “It’s all a big secret for them.” Good to know. We 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. The #1 Issue in New Hampshire on Saturday was (Sustained High) Prices. “I was promised lower prices and I damn well expect them.” Voters are questioning when the promised drop will occur. Jobs was second, and several voters said they were afraid to leave their job that they didn’t particularly like right now. Concern over threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and the fiscal stability of Rural Hospitals was third. Medicaid cuts are a real concern for the second week in a row. The fact that the Senate is now considering cuts to Medicare, the federal health insurance program primarily serving seniors, shows that voters are right to be concerned. 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.
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As i mentioned above, we’ve been asking voters if they approve of the sudden and deep cuts in federal programs and agencies in the reconciliation package. 2% of the voters who responded said they viewed these cuts in a favorable light, 21% thought just the opposite — unprompted, some mentioned cuts to Medicaid as very problematic. 13% of the voters we talked to had a favorable impression of the job Trump was doing. Important to remember that we are knocking on more doors of unaffiliated voters than Democrats in these GOP-held districts. 48% of the voters we talked to this week disapproved. 13% said they approved of the job Gov. Hobbs was doing; 38% said they disapproved.
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