(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Sharing Hope from the Field: Georgia Canvass Report from "No King's Day" [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-19
I mentioned previously that Saturday’s massive “No Kings” events likely affected our regular Saturday Hope Springs from Field PAC [dated website, to be updated in the Fall] canvasses in 17 states. Arizona would have been cancelled anyway, due to Extreme Heat projections last Thursday (we make our final decisions on weather for the weekend on that day). Maine, Minnesota and New Hampshire were also cancelled for last Saturday, due to rain and colder conditions for our canvassing timeline. Only two states didn’t see marked drops in volunteer participation last Saturday and i don’t think anyone will be surprised that Georgia was one of the two.
On June 7th, Georgia had 577 volunteers come out to canvass, whereas on Saturday 318 volunteers came out — little more than a 250 difference. But Florida had 440 fewer volunteers show up, Texas had 429 fewer volunteers on Saturday and Ohio had 407 fewer volunteers come out. Only in Kentucky (KY-06) did the number of volunteers increase on Saturday.
Regardless, Ossoff is doing what needs to be done to make this a strong race. And Hope Springs will be running our Constituent Service Requests through Ossoff’s office almost exclusively, to give him the broadest contacts with Georgia’s voters as possible. He already runs a formidable Constituent office for a Senator.
Ossoff is widely considered the most endangered Senate Democratic incumbent in 2026. But he’s considered less vulnerable not that his most competitive possible opponent, Gov. Kemp, bowed out, probably to run for president in 2028. The opponent many of our volunteers were rooting for — Marjorie Taylor Green — bowed out as well, apparently after being told by president felon that she couldn’t win .
You can see from the two maps here that only Georgia and Michigan are toss-up states in both the senate and the gubernatorial races for 2026. But for Hope Springs volunteers, this cycle is all about re-electing Jon Ossoff . Our volunteers remember and appreciate the fact that, in the 2021 runoff, Ossoff had a ton of money but still not only coordinated the campaign with Rev. Warnock but campaigned with him. Even though Warnock got more votes in that decisive Senate run-off, Ossoff’s decision to sink or swim together approach left an impression.
We think our Issues Survey approach with Constituent Service Request forms will help
Canvassing is not the only aspect of the Hope Springs approach in Georgia. Not only are we registering voters at their doors, but we are helping our partnered Black Churches run their membership rolls through the voter database (VAN), identifying unregistered congregants as well as members who need to update their addresses. Last year, 4 times the number of voters we registered at the door where registered by this method.
We have also found voters who were removed from the voter rolls by the state through errant methods and re-registered them. For the most part, we have found this happened when another family members filed a change of address form (through moving out or divorce) — and the state assumed it applied to every member of the family.
We have also, along with our Black Church partners, been scheduling Free Voter Photo ID days for voters who did not have a valid driver’s license since Georgia law now requires that voters show photo identification in order to cast a valid ballot.
And, finally, relying upon volunteers primarily from Divine Nine chapters, we’ve been helping voters to register in counties with historical connections to racial discrimination. So there’s a lot of work to be done here, all aimed at expanding the voter base and mobilizing voters during the Early Voter period and Election Day (GOTV). Everything we do as a volunteer entity is aimed at turning out our base and getting them to cast a valid vote that counts.
Last Saturday, 318 volunteers knocked on 23,309 doors. Our Georgia volunteers talked to 1,888 voters and had in-depth conversations with 1,202 of them, respectively, guided by our Issues Questionnaire.
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.
On April 26th, Worries over the Economy was the Number 1 issue for the voters we talked to. Jobs was second and Concerns over cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — and the health of Rural Hospitals was third last Saturday.
We’ve been asking voters if they approve of the sudden and deep cuts in federal programs and agencies that Elon Musk’s DOGE and the House Reconciliation Bill have made. 2% of the voters we talked to said they viewed these cuts in a favorable light on Saturday. 21% thought just the opposite. Only 8% of the voters we talked to had a favorable impression of the job Trump was doing (49% disapproved). One voter asked “if anyone knew what Trump was doing.” Of course, today he admits “nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
48% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Sen. Ossoff was doing while 5% expressed Disapproval. 37% approved of what Gov. Kemp was doing while 39% disapproved.
Hope Springs volunteers registered 3 new voters on Saturday — 36 of which were African-American. We re-registered 18 voters, who mainly updated their addresses.
In Georgia, 206 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms on Saturday. As i mentioned above, we are giving Sen. Ossoff’s office “first crack” at completed CSRs. 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.
3 voters filled out Incident Reports on Saturday. 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 survey or 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.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/19/2328949/-Georgia?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
