(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . PA Special Election and Michigan and Wisconsin Canvass Reports [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-21 Last year, we didn’t canvass in the Fall because that’s when campaigns really emphasize field and knocking on doors. As we say all the time — we aren’t competing with the Democratic campaigns, they know what their strategy is and how they plan to win. The efforts of Hope Springs from Field PAC are designed to lay the groundwork for them to come in and play their best. A voter warm-up act, in a sense. 2024 Senate Battleground Map We just won another special election in Pennsylvania this week in Alleghany County. We’ve now developed a lot of experience there, the 3 other Pennsylvania special elections this year were also in this area. Once again, we saw a keen interest in our GOTV techniques. On Monday night, we had enough volunteers to send out 2 (wo)man teams to hang the final lit piece and place markers at the foot of their driveways. Because this is a community that appreciates it, we again used small American flags as markers. These tend to be more expensive than other kinds of markers, and more people take them before we can collect them after the election, but it really makes voters feel good about our efforts (which is important when you could be knocking at their door multiple times on election day. I went out on Monday night with a representative from the DLCC and we had a great conversation about why this approach works so well. We won, and, ultimately, that’s all that matters. 321 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Michigan last Saturday. The grey Congressional Districts (3, 7 & 8) on the map to the right represent most of where we are targeting, but we also knocked on doors in MI-10 and MI-11 on Saturday as well as some minority neighborhoods in the Detroit. Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 24,203 doors last Saturday and talked to 1,762 voters. 1,008 of those voters answered questions to at least part of the Issues Survey. Rising Health Care Costs was the most frequent response to our question about voter’s top concern on Saturday in Michigan. A lot of voters mentioned that they expect next year’s Insurance Premiums to be higher. Labor Issues was the second most frequent response. Voters are worried about how long the UAW strike continues and are all over the map about whether or not they support it. They admitted they understood it, but they worry both sides are entrenched and will last for the rest of the year. Rising Prices was third. Biden Approval among the Michiganders we talked to was at 50% last Saturday and 11% expressed some measure of Disapproval. 54% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Gov. Whitmer was doing while 10% expressed Disapproval. Still hear voters complain about Michigan as being a “fly-over” state for Democrats and how important it is for Whitmer to be changing that. And lots of crosstalk about the labor strike, Biden’s response and Trump's attempt to intervene in that. 63 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 (and there isn’t a Democrat who could take on the request), 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. Volunteers registered 4 new voters and re-registered 38 voters in compliance with Federal (HAVA) law. Again, we note that we differentiate between the new voters and existing voters because the former can often be forgotten (or clumped together with their family) during GOTV and first time voters need special care! And Hope Springs will again engage in special GOTV efforts aimed at getting young new voters to the polls next year. Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors since March in a grassroots effort to prepare the 2024 Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are canvassing 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: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization Hope Springs from Field understands that volunteer to voter personal interactions are critical, especially when the country is increasingly divided. 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. 355 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 Kenosha and Dane counties. The key Democratic and swing areas of this Senate Swing State. In everybody’s minds, Wisconsin is one of the most important states in the Electoral College and maintaining a Democratic majority in the Senate. Recent Supreme Court rulings have made it doubly so. And our volunteers understand just how important is the state. On Saturday, Volunteers knocked on 26,518 doors and talked to 1,957 voters. 1,246 of those voters answered at least some of our questions on the Issues Survey. The Economy was the Top Concern among the Wisconsin voters we talked to on Saturday. Political Stability or Extreme Partisanship was the second most frequently cited concern. The threatened impeachment of a newly elected supreme court justice is a part of this. Reproductive Rights was third, and we had a bunch of voters who talked about the connection between that concern and the fight over Republican threats to the courts. Joe Biden’s Approval numbers in Wisconsin fell to 50% last Saturday; his Disapproval number was 9%. Senator Baldwin’s Job Approval was 67% with 7% of the voters we talked to on Saturday expressing Disapproval. Approval of Governor Evers, meanwhile, was 48%; Disapproval was 12% last Saturday. We still have voters asking if Tammy had an opposition yet. So (some) people are paying attention. Hope Springs from Field volunteers registered 8 new voters. 42 more voters updated their voter registration to comply with federal law. We differentiate between new voters registered and existing voters re-registering because we plan to continue our New Voter Postcard effort, and even add Voter Video Chains this cycle. 83 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. If you support our grassroots efforts to register voters at their doors, strengthen voter support for Democrats, turn out voters and protect the vote, please donate: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization 493 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Pennsylvania on Saturday. I have to emphasize that since we were involved in GOTV in HD 21 and so we had other volunteers on Friday, Sunday, Monday and Election Day. The grey Congressional Districts (PA-01, PA-07 & PA-17) represent most of where we are targeting, but we also walking on the Mainline and in minority neighborhoods in Philadelphia as well. Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 37,862 doors last Saturday and talked to 3,032 voters. More volunteers, more doors but fewer voters; sometimes that happens. 1,801 of those voters answered questions to at least part of the Issues Survey. Economic Uncertainty was the most frequent response to our question about voter’s top concern on Saturday in Pennsylvania. Reproductive Rights was the second most frequent response this week, and voters definitely feel like their Constitutional Rights are under attack! Prices was third. Biden Approval among the Pennsylvanians we talked to was 54% last Saturday while 8% expressed some measure of Disapproval. 66% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Sen. Casey was doing while 5% expressed Disapproval. 54% of the voters we talked to thought Gov. Shapiro was doing a good job, 6% said they Disapproved. Remember that each week, we are hitting doors in different neighborhoods, which can account for sharp deviations in results (although looking at the graphic, there doesn’t seem to be much variation here!). There is no effort to make these responses statistically significant. This is just raw data. It is not a poll. Volunteers registered 3 new voters in Pennsylvania and re-registered 21 voters in compliance with Federal (HAVA) law. We differentiate between the two 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 are also getting robocalls thanking them for registering. But we are finding lots of teens who just turned legal age whose parents (primarily mothers) are insisting they register. 52 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. 3 voters filled out an Incident Report about issues they witnessed in a prior election. We have been building a database of Incident Reports, and reports we collected in Pennsylvania previously have been used to request an extension of time before a precinct closed. 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 right now 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. 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 these really, really onerous provisions, Hope Springs from Field seeks to undermine that strategy, while informing voters about the new laws and regulations aimed at them. We are definitely asking for help. If you are able to donate to our efforts to fight against Issue 1, identify abortion rights supporters, protect our voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, please help: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization You can follow that link for our mailing address, as well. Thank you for your support. This work depends upon you! [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/21/2194587/-Midwest-Effort Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/