Today is primary election day in North Carolina. As such, our Saturday canvass was a little different.
In addition to our efforts in the silver “Toss Up” Congressional District (NC-13; Open (R+3)) south of Raleigh and Robeson County we also did a Voter Suppression Mitigation Canvassing in the relevant precincts in 11 other counties previously identified as potential sites for voter intimidation or suppression today. Everywhere, we canvassed with a message that “today [Saturday] is the last day to vote early and Tuesday [today] is North Carolina’s primary. We left special literature to this effect, as well. So knocking on doors had the secondary effect of reminding voters that the primary was this week. Every one should vote, so we don’t fight it, and several people asked volunteers either how to early vote or where their voting location is, something that volunteers could answer.
401 volunteers came out to knock on doors on Saturday for Hope Springs from Field PAC. This was basically double our prior week’s canvass because we also had volunteers with us from Divine Nine chapters, black churches as well as Virginia (Chatham) and Georgia (Rowan) in the 36 polling locations we have poll watchers at today. We still used our Issues Questionnaire as a conversational tool, offered Constituent Service Request forms and left our lit at every door on our lists. But we did not collect Incident Reports this week, nor attempt to register any voters in North Carolina this week.
Unsurprisingly, Inflation remains the number one concern wit the voters we talked to. Schools was the second most frequent response and Reproductive Rights was third. But our focus was definitely upon the primary and our Election Protection work. Still, we went from having the least input concerning abortion in North Carolina than any other state last week to the issue entering our Top 3. And, unlike last week’s stats, concern over Reproductive Rights was pretty evenly divided amongst age groups — in other words, younger voters also mentioned it as a top concern last Saturday.
Voter views of President Biden fell this week. 59% of the voters we talked to expressed approval of President Biden in Florida on Saturday. 13% expressed disapproval in the job the president was doing. Governor Cooper (who is term-limited) had 62% job approval from the voters who answered their doors and responded to the questionnaire. Next week, we anticipate asking about voter attitudes towards Cheri Beasley, who we presume will be the Democratic nominee, and Ted Budd, who looks to be the GOP nominee.
Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to increase awareness of the fact that Democrats care about our voters and are working to protect their rights, and, in March, we will begin an even bigger effort. We are thinking about how to mitigate Voter Suppression efforts, get around them and make sure we have "super compliance," both informing and helping our voters meet the requirements and get out and vote. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws.
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 PAC was started by former Obama Field Organizers because field was the cornerstone of our success. But the reason we won the Iowa Caucus in 2008 was because we registered voters and then turned them out! The approach we adopted was focused on listening, on connecting voters and their story to the candidate and our cause. Repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors — and we didn’t register new voters (while Republicans dud). We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured.
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. Far and away the number one issue that the voters we talked to in the Senate Swing States last year was inflation or price increases, and I imagine that concern has only increased.
Door to Door canvassing is the most effective way to reach voters but it is doubly important now since Democrats didn’t really do in-person canvassing in 2020. And, yet, we have found that voters missed that kind of in-person contact and ability to have a conversation about political issues and concerns. Our own experience knocking on doors in Texas and the Senate Swing States last year was that many Democrats and Independents felt more confident supporting candidates who sent people out into their neighborhoods asking for their support.
Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races in 2022 as well as districts that are remapped in ways that offer opportunities or vulnerabilities for Democrats next year. As not every state has completed their re-maps, re-districting hasn’t yet made those opportunities/needs apparent. The Senate map started out clear. They may be changing. There are places we need to defend (Georgia and Arizona) and there are opportunities. North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are such opportunities. We’d like to get into Nevada, too, and perhaps others that appear more competitive at that time — if we can generate the resources needed to do so. There is a lot of work to be done!
Especially in those areas, but really everywhere, we are also asking people who open their doors about whether they need services delivered to their neighborhood. 88 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms last Saturday. In general, we send these 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.
Voter Suppression and Election Protection will be our central focus after Labor Day in 2022. The reason we organized as a federal PAC is so that we can get poll watcher credentials for November 2022. But after next Labor Day, we also hope to hand off any field organizers we hire to these Senate or other statewide campaigns, in part to help them understand the data we’ve collected and placed into VAN for their use. All the data we enter into VAN are classified as public, which will allow any Democratic candidate who uses VAN to access it. Laws pertaining to election protection changed in the rash of new election laws Republican legislatures passed this year and we would like to get ahead of that next year.
Our primary focus today was making sure that the polling locations we are focused on opened on time and stayed open throughout the day. Of the 36 locations we sent poll watchers in, all but one has reported in and those 35 all opened on time. I have called the Elections Office for the missing poll, and they *say* the polling place opened on time — but it would have been better had our poll watcher reported in. Obviously, we have limited interaction with poll watchers on Election Day.
Hope Springs from Field PAC is trying to reinstitute best field practices, such as canvassing with people who look like the voters we are talking to and targeting former voters thrown off the rolls. A lot of these got forgotten because of the Covid restrictions in the last cycle, and we have an entire cycle of campaign staffers who were trained without the benefit of actually getting to do field. That’s why it is so important to start knocking on doors now, and not wait until a month or so before the primaries. We have a lot of make-up work to do. Can you help?
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 donate:
secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization
Thank you for your support. This work depends on you!