Turnout among our volunteers is pretty much driven by preventing another Trump disaster. Even in states that don’t have an abortion-related amendment on the ballot in November, the national conversation about Reproductive Freedom and the Trump threat (even if unacknowledged) and a National Abortion Ban seems to be driving volunteers to show up everywhere.
Hope Springs volunteers have collected 67,574 verified petitions from valid voters who lived at the address from which they were registered. We match voter data with the voter database for those who sign the petitions our volunteers circulate before submitting them.
The Top Issue in Florida Saturday the 22nd was The Economy. Something we’ve been calling Summer Worries was the second most frequently cited Issue. Heat, hurricanes, tourist traffic — that kind of thing. Housing Availability, Costs and Housing Insurance Costs was the third. Insurance Issues; price increases, dropped coverage, sharp increases in deductibles.
55% of the voters we talked to approved of the job President Biden is doing in Florida. 8% disapproved. 14% approved of the job Rick Scott was doing; 38% disapproved. 15% approved of the job Ron DeSantis is doing; 41% disapproved.
583 volunteers came out to knock on doors last Saturday in the Atlanta suburbs and in southern Georgia Blackbelt counties. We knocked on 43,550 doors and talked to 4,080 voters. 2,709 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on our Issues Survey.
We registered 54 new voters and re-registered 38 voters. Note the fact that Hope Springs volunteers registered more new voters than re-registrations (again!), largely a result of our efforts to find and register voters in Counties where African-Americans have been historically suppressed. 211 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms, and 7 voters filled out Incident Reports.
(Rising) Prices and/or Inflation was the Top Issue last Saturday in Georgia. Housing Availability, Costs and Housing Insurance Costs was second. The Economy was third.
Biden Approval among the Georgians we talked to was 58% last Saturday. 8% of the voters we talked to disapproved of the president. 33% approved of the Governor, Brian Kemp. 21% disapproved.
388 volunteers came out last Saturday for just our fifth week of canvassing in Maryland. Volunteers knocked on 27,431 doors and talked to 2,164 voters. 1,400 answered questions on our Issues Survey. We registered 7 new voters and re-registered 28 voters at their current address. 58 voters completed Constituent Service Request forms.
Economic Uncertainty was the Number 1 Issue with the voters we talked to. Housing Availability, Costs and Housing Insurance Costs was second. Infrastructure Needs was third.
Biden Approval among the voters we talked to was 59% last Saturday in Maryland. 7% of the voters we talked to disapproved of the president. 49% approved of Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks. 57% approved of the Governor Moore. 5% disapproved.
629 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Michigan last Saturday in five congressional districts. We knocked on 45,728 doors last Saturday. Michigan was one of six states where Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 40,000 doors or more on June 22nd. Volunteers talked to 4,005 voters. 2,579 of those voters answered questions to at least part of the Issues Survey. We registered 22 voters and re-registered 41 voters at their current address. 205 voters completed Constituent Service Request forms.
The Economy was the Number 1 Issue in Michigan that Saturday. Housing Availability, Costs and Housing Insurance Costs was second. (Political) Extremism was third. Voters expressed quite a bit of uncertainty.
Biden Approval among the voters we talked to was 56% last Saturday. 8% disapproved of the president. 57% approved of Governor Whitmer. 5% disapproved.
In Montana, we were finished up our efforts to get CI-128, affirming a right to reproductive freedom in the State Constitution, on the ballot. And this we did! Hope Springs volunteers returned on the 22nd from their petition gathering to start up canvassing with our Issue Survey, Constituent Service Request forms and more.
In the end, we validated or verified the voter status and address of 11,852 voter signatures in Montana. “The signatures must be certified by county clerks, who send them to the secretary of state, who has until Aug. 22 to set the ballot questions…. Leaders of the coalition, Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights, say the explicit constitutional right to abortion will prevent the Republican-controlled Legislature or future courts from undoing the 1999 ruling.”
87 volunteers turned up in 5 canvass locations in Montana. We knocked on 5,889 doors and talked to 457 voters. 297 answered questions on our Issues Survey. We registered 4 new voters and re-registered 11 voters, updating their current address. 17 voters completed Constituent Service Request forms.
The Economy was the Top Issue in Montana on the 22nd. (Rising) Prices and/or Inflation was second. There wasn’t really a significant response worth noting as third.
Biden Approval among the voters we talked to was 48% last Saturday. 15% disapproved of the president. 67% approved of the job Senator Tester was doing, while 5% disapproved. 21% approved of Governor Gianforte. 37% disapproved.
In Nevada, canvassing in Las Vegas was cancelled because of extreme weather concerns. 88 volunteers came out to canvass in the Reno suburbs. We knocked on 6,485 doors and talked to 511 voters. 322 answered questions on our Issues Survey. Regardless, we registered 8 new voters and re-registered 27 voters, updating their current address. 21 voters completed Constituent Service Request forms.
The Economy and/or High Interest Rates was the Number 1 issue voters talked about last weekend. Housing Availability, Costs and Housing Insurance Costs was second. We are increasingly hearing voters complain about all aspects of housing issues right now — and in every state. Reproductive Freedom or Rights was third.
Biden Approval among the voters we talked to was 55% last Saturday. 10% disapproved of the president. 57% approved of their Senator, Jacky Rosen. Rosen is definitely in for a fight, not because she has a competitive opponent, but because the political environment in Nevada is tumultuous right now. 5% disapproved. 21% approved of the Governor, Joe Lombard. 32% disapproved.
541 volunteers came out to knock on doors last Saturday in North Carolina. We are focusing on the new (NC Republicans gerrymandered the state again this year) North Carolina Congress-ional District map, and, specifically, NC-01, NC-07, NC-09 and NC-13, this year. We knocked on 39,925 doors and talked to 3,497 voters. 2,192 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on our Issues Survey. We registered 44 new voters and re-registered 36 voters. 198 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms and 5 voters filled out Incident Reports.
The Economy was the Top Issue in North Carolina on Saturday. Housing Availability, Costs and Housing Insurance Costs was second. Crime was third.
Biden Approval among the voters we talked to was 55% last Saturday. 8% disapproved of the president. 53% approved of the Governor, Roy Cooper. 9% disapproved.
621 volunteers showed up last Saturday in Ohio to knock on doors in the competitive OH-01, OH-09 and OH-13 Congressional Districts. They knocked on 46,388 doors on Saturday. Hope Springs volunteers talked to 4,249 voters, and 2,706 voters answered questions from at least part of the Issues Survey.
We registered 17 new voters and re-registered 42 voters, updating their current address. 311 voters completed Constituent Service Request forms.
The Economy was the Number 1 issue for the Ohioans we talked to on Saturday. Housing Concerns and Insurance (Price) Increases was second. (High) Inflation was third. Voters expressed an eagerness for falling inflation to be evident in their pocketbooks.
Biden’s Job Approval was at 57%; 8% expressed some measure of Disapproval. 58% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Sen. Brown was doing while 7% expressed Disapproval. 32% of the voters we talked to thought Gov. DeWine was doing a good job, 38% said they disapproved of the job he was doing.
631 volunteers showed up to knock on doors in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions last Saturday. They knocked on 46,252 doors and talked to 4,051 voters. 2,564 voters completed questions on our Issues Survey, at least in part.
We registered 22 new voters and re-registered 47 voters, updating their current address. 263 voters completed Constituent Service Request forms and 2 voters filled out Incident Reports.
(Rising) Prices and/or Inflation was the Top Issue last Saturday in the state. Reproductive Freedom or Rights was the Second most cited Issue. Housing Concerns and Insurance (Price) Increases was third.
Biden’s Job Approval was at 58%; 7% expressed some measure of Disapproval. 64% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Sen. Casey was doing while 6% said they Disapproved. 56% of the voters we talked to thought Gov. Shapiro was doing a good job, 7% said they disapproved of the job he was doing.
682 volunteers came out to knock on doors last Saturday in Texas. Again, heat was a factor is some of the areas where we were knocking on doors (and we expect that to be true today). We knocked on 47,535 doors and talked to 4,049 voters. 9,856 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on our Issues Survey.
We registered 36 new voters and re-registered 48 voters. 288 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. 6 voters filled out Incident Reports.
The Economy was the Top Issue in Texas last weekend. Housing Availability, Costs and Housing Insurance Costs was second and Immigration and Border Security was third.
Biden Approval among the Texans we talked to was 54% last Saturday. 10% of the voters we talked to disapproved of the president. 12% of the voters voiced approval of Ted Cruz; 33% disapproved. We have also been asking about job approval of Colin Allred, the Democrat running against Ted Cruz. 47% of the voters we talked to approved of the job he’s been doing. 13% approved of the Governor, Greg Abbot. 41% disapproved.
586 volunteers came out to canvass in Wisconsin in Milwaukee (where we are canvassing in African-American wards) and its suburbs (the WOW counties), as well as Kenosha, Waukesha and Dane counties. Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 43,188 doors and talked to 4,262 voters. 2,757 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on the Issues Survey. We registered 12 new voters and re-registered 28 voters. 152 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. 3 voters filled out Incident Reports.
(Rising) Prices and/or Inflation was the Top Concern among the Wisconsin voters we talked to Saturday the 22nd. Elections/Security was the second most frequently cited concern. Voter Concerns over Extremism was third.
Biden’s Approval numbers in Wisconsin was 58% last Saturday. His Disapproval number was 8%. Senator Baldwin’s Job Approval was 62% with 6% of the voters we talked to on Saturday expressing Disapproval. Approval of Governor Evers, meanwhile, was 53%; Disapproval was 9% last Saturday. I do believe that is a record high for Evers.
I do want to repeat that if you are interested in participating in our Postcards to New Voters Project, you can sign up here. (The diary on this can be found here.) We especially need help this year since we are not limiting our Postcards to New Voters effort to those new voters that Hope Springs or its partners registered to vote. Basically, every new voter in the swing Congressional Districts in our Swing States will be included in this effort for 2024.
And if you are able to support this kind of intensive grassroots organizing and voter contact, we would certainly appreciate your financial support:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024
We canvass with an Issues Survey that is our jumping off point of conversations with voters. We find this is an easy way to begin the canvass season. All the data we collect will be entered into VAN, the Democratic database.
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. We also ask voters if they have an problems that local, state or federal governments need to address in their neighborhoods.
But the main focus of our canvassing right now is the Issues Survey, asking voters for their input and concerns. We find that most voters who aren’t in a hurry or in the middle of something are willing to answer at least a couple of these questions, especially their top issue or concern and their views of President Biden. 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 from Field has a hybrid approach. We aren’t interested in competing with regular campaign field organizing. We are in the field before they get there and then move on when the Democratic campaigns start their own intensive field work. Indeed, when we wind up the typical field work by Labor Day, we will encourage all the volunteers working with us to move over to the Senate campaigns in their states (and hope that our field organizers will be hired on by those campaigns). After Labor Day, we will begin organizing our Election Protection Project.
We also ask voters if they have any concerns about the upcoming elections. Last year, we walked with lit about the changes in voting laws, but we also asked voters about their fears and experience in prior elections. So far there haven’t been significant changes in the laws but we still ask about fears and experience vis-a-vis elections. Voters who say they have experience voter intimidation or other problems with voting are asked to fill out Incident Reports.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or the Electoral College in 2024, as well as 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 these really, really onerous provisions, Hope Springs from Field seeks to undermine Republican efforts to throw Democrats off the voter rolls, informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them. There’s a lot of work to be done, but fortunately, the three states that are making it most difficult are also states in which you can knock on doors at least 10 months out of the year. And, with your help, we will be there, getting our people to super-comply with these restrictive provisions.
2023 Hope Springs expenses
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.
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 and we reach more voters. Which means we have to buy more lit to distribute and other minor expenses (like water for volunteers). We are starting earlier, and staying in the field longer, for this election year. 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 ActBlue page. Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you!