So far, we’ve had our lowest number of volunteers to respond to our reminder email in the last two months. We use this number to predict how much turf needs to be cut for Saturday. So there’s that (we have no idea what we are getting into on Saturday).
Volunteers organized by Hope Springs from Field PAC [website] have been knocking on doors in Wisconsin since 2021 and we started up again in April. This election seems more consequential, in part because of the work we did last year in election Janet Protasiewicz to the state Supreme Court.
That election continues to send Democrats dividends:
Liberals on the Wisconsin Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the use of absentee-ballot drop boxes, changing the rules for voting four months before the presidential election and reversing a decision made by conservatives two years ago when they controlled the court.
Volunteers in Wisconsin have now knocked on 263,506 doors. We’ve encountered MAGA canvassers and MAGA lit in the WOW counties and Racine and Kenosha counties. But this is a state accustomed to Republican dominance. Volunteers in Wisconsin don’t seem a bit phased by that.
But i do sense that they were more surprised by the 98 voters who mentioned, unsolicited, that President Biden was too old, or feeble, or something along that vein. Or maybe unexpected is the word. I look at the chart above and i have so many questions — and that’s before the other questions people ask. But we move on.
Wisconsin doesn’t have an Reproductive Rights amendment on the ballot, but it does have legislative elections with new district lines that gives Democrats a chance at gaining majorities in their state house and senate.
Despite the state being a battleground in national races, Republicans, aided by heavily gerrymandered maps, have controlled both of the state’s legislative chambers since 2011. They now hold about two-thirds of the seats in both the Senate and the Assembly.
But Democrats look likely to pick up seats under the new maps, which will be used during the November election. The maps outline an almost even split between Democratic- and Republican-leaning districts: 45 are Democratic-leaning, 46 are Republican-leaning, and eight are likely to be a tossup, according to an analysis from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Several incumbents are being drawn into each other’s districts, The Associated Press reported.
And while we haven’t found voters who seem especially informed (yet) on these elections, Wisconsin has more visible campaign activity than any other state.
Which suggests that the state will be very competitive this November. And, like Arizona, Wisconsin is a state that is a battleground state 3 times over.
Before the debate, the stakes here had definitely increased the numbers of volunteers who showed up week in and week out to knock on doors each Saturday. So the 77 volunteers who signed up to canvass last Saturday but failed to turn up kinda hurt. Because the work Hope Springs from Field is doing helps every Democratic candidate who has access to VAN.
But it is what it is. We hope for better turnout tomorrow.
125 volunteers came out to canvass in Wisconsin on Saturday. Like last year, we continue to canvass in Milwaukee (where we are canvassing in African-American wards with primarily Black volunteers) and its suburbs (the WOW counties), as well as Racine, Kenosha and Dane counties. The key Democratic and swing areas of this Senate Swing State. And, like 2022, we will ease out of our canvassing efforts as the WisDems pick up their’s in these areas.
Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 9,350 doors and talked to 830 voters. 545 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on the Issues Survey. 98 voters told us they thought Biden was “too old,” 63 of them being listed as Democrats in VAN.
The Economy was the Top Concern among the Wisconsin voters we talked to on Saturday. The House and Housing Insurance was the second most frequently cited concern. Political Violence was third.
Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 2nd to set up a favorable “battle space” or foundation for Democrats in 2024. 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 in these 12 Swing States 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), GOTV and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024
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.
Joe Biden’s Approval numbers in Wisconsin fell to 48% last Saturday; his Disapproval number was 13%. Tammy Baldwin’s Job Approval was 61% with 6% of the voters we talked to on Saturday expressing Disapproval. Approval of Governor Evers, meanwhile, was 51%; Disapproval was 9% last Saturday.
Hope Springs from Field volunteers re-registered 7 voters, updating their voter registration to comply with federal law.
32 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. We send completed CSRs to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if there are no Democrats who can further the request, and 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. We increasingly have local Democratic elected officials and prospective candidates join our Saturday canvasses just because they are hearing about these CSRs.
Wisconsin is a state where we have had a lot of positive comments about the Constituent Service Request forms.
We knock on the doors of Democratic and Independent voters. 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. (We also make Issues Surveys, Incident Reports and Constituent Service Request forms available at the churches we visit, but we don’t include numbers for those, in part because we don’t always get counts back, but also because we like to compare like to like.)
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or the Electoral College in 2024, as well as Congressional Districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year (specifically those where a Republican won a Congressional District that voted for Biden in 2022). 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.
We are also — this being an election year — adding the Post Cards to New Voters component back into our Voter Outreach, both New Voters we find at their doors as well as New Voters we target in the Voter File. Our biggest expense is the Voter File. But it is also a fixed cost. That won’t change as we raise and spend more money. Printing literature is our second largest cost. Printing and mailing our our Post Cards to New Voters is our third cost and paying the fees for ActBlue is the smallest of our monthly costs.
Hope Springs is a seat-of-the-pants grassroots-driven operation. We don’t have employees but we realize that to formalize and professionalize this effort that will have to change.
But here’s the reality: Identifying Single Issue Voters and Constitutional Amendment supporters and doing GOTV (Get-Out-the-Vote) costs us more money than our regular canvassing because this issue drives volunteer turnout higher and higher. Which means we have to buy more lit to distribute and other minor expenses (like water for volunteers). So please:
If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024
If you would rather send a check, you can follow that link for our mailing address at the bottom of the page. Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!