It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that 3 of the states that pushed the hardest for setting the 10 Million Doors Knocked before Labor Day goal would be at the top of our volunteer turnout last Saturday. Probably would have been more competitive if weather hadn’t forestalled canvassing in Wisconsin (and curtailed volunteer turnout in Arizona).
“Are we in trouble?”
Even though we say this all the time, even our volunteers don’t always remember that, at this point, Hope Springs is grassroots-driven. We didn’t set that 10 Million doors knocked goal and we aren’t pushing people to make that happen. Volunteers own it. It is their’s. So when we organizers read something like that, our response might sound a little cavalier. Because we are the ones who have to cut the turf to knock those 10 Million doors. Twice as much turf as we’ve cut in the last 4 years. In our minds, it’s not Can We Knock 10 Million Doors?, it’s Can We Cut Enough Turf (or Walklists) to Knock 10 Million Doors? We’ve had a couple of weekends where organizers were cutting turf until the last volunteer was out. It’s scary. I continually ask myself, what have i gotten myself into?
2024 Electoral College Battleground Map
And i will be the first to admit that the verdict was a reminder. Because it doesn’t feel safe. We can’t lose the White House this year. We just can’t.
I don’t think i am alone here.
On Saturday, Pennsylvania had the third highest volunteer turnout, one of four states where we had more than 500 volunteers show up to canvass. When i wrote about my winter visit with volunteers here, i wrote that our Pennsylvania volunteers “were keenly aware of the shifting political ground underneath them and volunteers in 5 of my 6 stops mentioned the fact that 35,589 registered Democrats had switched their party affiliation to Republican last year.”
2024 Senate Battleground Map
Allegheny and Bucks counties, both where we have been canvassing, were among the largest net losses in Pennsylvania. Rare was a week in Western Pennsylvania where a volunteer (often more than one) didn’t make the observation that “Trump is strong here.” And, yet, Democrats won the Allegheny County Executive race in November, and with a progressive, to boot!
What has been obvious to all of us was the Pennsylvania was going to be a tough state this year. “Trump is strong here.”
Pennsylvania was one of two states where volunteers had set a goal for themselves of knocking 1 Million Doors there before Labor Day over the winter. And i am becoming keenly aware that our volunteers are taking these goals (they set for themselves) seriously.
553 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Philadelphia and it’s metro area, and in the western and northern suburbs of Pittsburgh on Saturday. They knocked on 40,590 doors and talked to 3,563 voters. 2,305 voters answered questions from at least part of the Issues Survey.
(Rising) Prices and Inflation was the Number 1 issue for the Texans we talked to on Saturday. Housing and Insurance Issues (ie, Rent, Single Home Availability and affordability of both Housing and Insurance) were the #2 issue voters raised. Concern over Political Extremism was third.
Among the voters we talked to, Biden’s Job Approval was at 55%; 10% expressed some measure of Disapproval. 57% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Sen. Casey was doing while 8% expressed disapproval. 52% approved of the job Gov. Shapiro was doing. 9% expressed disapproval.
Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 2nd. 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.
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:
Pennsylvania was the state where we first noticed voters paying attention to Dobbs. Very informed electorate that served as the canary in the coal mine here. Two out of the four weeks we’ve been able to canvass here has seen the issue rise to one of the Top 3 that week.
We registered 17 new voters and re-registered 62 voters who updated their addresses for the voter file. We differentiate between the new voters and re-registering voters because brand new voters are often ignored by campaigns and we hope to compensate for that somewhat by having volunteers send them post cards before the election and they will also receive robocalls thanking them for registering.
[If you are interested in participating in our Postcards to NEW Voters initiative, you can sign up here.]
215 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. We send completed CSRs to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if 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.
4 voters in Pennsylvania completed Incident Reports. 12 other voters expressed concerns about the 2024 elections but did not fill out incident reports because they didn’t say they witnessed voter suppression or intimidation (they just expressed concerns or worries about them). 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.
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.
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.
2023 Hope Springs expenses
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 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). We just paid off the printers for last year’s Ohio lit that we distributed there. 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!