Online, interest has been growing about the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, it’s compilation of Republican and Conservative group’s suggestions for an incoming Republican administration. One twitter user posted this Google Trends graphic:
But Hope Springs from Field PAC [website] volunteers hadn’t heard a voter raise it as an issue (or even talk about it in another context) until Saturday.
Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 337,240 doors in 14 Swing States: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas & Wisconsin this weekend. We talked to 17,959 Democrats and unaffiliated voters at their doors using our Issues Survey as a way to gage their thinking about the November election.
Within the Issues Survey itself, there are numerous opportunities for voters to talk about the things that are on their mind. As you can see, these are open-ended questions that tend to prompt a wide variety of responses. But it’s a good test to compare what voters (again, Democrats and unaffiliated voters) are thinking about at the time.
In June we talked to 92,107 Democrats and unaffiliated voters and no one raised the topic of P2025. Yesterday, we talked to 17,959 Democrats and unaffiliated voters and 6 voters raised the topic. 3 voters in Michigan raised the topic to Hope Springs volunteers — not surprising given the fact the president was there the day before, had talked a lot about it, and got substantial coverage for doing so.
We began knocking on doors in Minnesota (at the request of the campaign) and 2 of the voters we talked to yesterday there also raised the issue.
1 voter in Texas raised it, as well. 17,959 voters and six of them thought Project 2025 was something we should be concerned about.
In none of the other 11 states did voters raise the topic.
But this is a working indication of how much the average voter knows about the issue. At least one voter who brought it up “talked about it knowledgeably; seems he is following it quite closely” our volunteer observed.
It is important to remember that these conversations with voters happened in mostly suburban areas, the swingy areas of these Swing States. Voters in deeper blue areas are probably much more engaged with the issue. But Hope Springs doesn’t really canvass in urban areas (Milwaukee and Philadelphia being exceptions, where we do canvass in predominately African-American neighborhoods).
This kind of canvassing has multiple purposes, including gathering data on the kinds of issues that drive voters to the polls. In 5-10 minutes of discussion with (really, listening to) voters at their doorsteps, we not only get a sense where the electorate is but record their input and enter that data into VAN (the Democratic database). AFAIK, this is the only effort doing this on our side.
If you are interested in supporting our efforts to mobilize and protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help. It’s time (our printing expenses has really shot up this year, having left more than 4,583,711 pieces of literature at voter’s doors):
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024
You can follow that link for our mailing address, as well (for those who would rather send us a check). Thank you for your support! This work depends on you!