Sharing Hope from the Field: Our Michigan & Minnesota Canvass Reports

So i tried to summarize what we found in the 13 states where Hope Springs from Field PAC [website] volunteers have been canvassing this week. Largely, because we’ve focused a lot of attention on the 7 presidential Swing States through the Summer. This is the last post in that regard, and it might be appropriate that Michigan and Minnesota are the states i am writing about. Consensus Senate BattlegroundsI wrote earlier about visiting the Gaza protesters encampment in Chicago. It wasn’t a leisure visit; i was asked to come report the findings i talked about in that post. But the hidden agenda was the request that we “stop trying to undermine the Uncommitted movement” in the two states. In Michigan, we’ve knocked on 738,261 doors and talked to more than 63,381 voters in the Swing Congressional Districts of MI-3, MI-7 & MI-8, among others. The protest movement in Michigan is centered in MI-12, where they are trying to withhold tens of thousands of votes from Kamala Harris. In Minnesota, it is centered in MN-05, although the Minnesota leaders i talked to didn’t make the same commitment. Regardless, Hope Springs was asked to end our efforts in those states by the protest leaders i met. It threatens their efforts to pressure the administration wrt Gaza.Of course, we won’t be honoring those requests. And it has nothing to do with Gaza or anything else. We are canvassing in these 13 states to win in November. Period. Our efforts in Michigan predates the October 7th attacks and the rise of this protest movement. I can’t even envision how our efforts got mixed in with the Uncommitted or Withhold (both terms were used) “movements.” And the fact is that, when we have honored these kinds of requests, it has always been after we ended canvassing that year.But my friends in the Chicago area weren’t exactly pleased when i told them that Gaza doesn’t register on our Issues list from voter input. On Saturday, 847 volunteers came out to canvass in the swingy grey (and pink) districts (MI-3, MI-4, MI-7, MI-8 & MI-10).Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 62,509 doors last Saturday and talked to 5,400 voters. 3,456 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 Michigan. This means, for the most part, that we heard complaints and/or questions about when the Fed was going to cut interest rates — something that many voters, it seems, have been expecting for awhile. 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 Violence was the third issue we heard at the doors.Vice President Harris’ Approval among the Michiganders we talked to was at 61% last Saturday. 5% expressed some measure of Disapproval. 59% of the voters said they Approved of the job Elissa Slotkin was doing; 7% thought otherwise. 62% of the voters who responded Approved of the job Gov. Whitmer was doing while 6% expressed Disapproval. Volunteers registered 34 new voters and re-registered 68 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.211 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.1 voter in Michigan completed an Incident Report. 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 from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 2nd to set up a favorable “battle space” or foundation for Democrats in 2024. 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. The voters we talk to in these 13 Swing States tell us they come away more invested in governance and feel more favorably towards Democrats in general because of our approach.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/hopemobilization2024Hope Springs from Field understands that volunteer to voter personal interactions are critical. 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.Concerns over whether Biden could reach 270 Electoral College voters prompted a request that we expand our canvassing into 4 other states, including Minnesota. We did start knocking on doors there 5 weeks ago.325 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Minnesota. We knocked on 23,660 doors and volunteers talked to 1,940 voters. 1,218 of those voters answered questions to at least part of the Issues Survey. The Economy was the Number 1 Issue in Minnesota on Saturday. Housing Availability, Costs and Housing Insurance Costs Issues was second. Crime was third.Vice President Harris’ Approval was 59% among the voters we spoke to last Saturday. 7% disapproved of the vice president. Any Klobuchar had 67% Approval; 5% disapproved. Voter approval of Governor Tim Walz was 72% among the voters we talked to; 3% disapproved.We registered 1 new voter and re-registered 14 voters at their current address. 49 voters completed Constituent Service Request forms.We knock on the doors of Democratic and unaffiliated voters and use a voter-driven approach to guide them through the Issues Survey, the CSR and Incident Report. We record questions voters raise with a Q(uestion)-slip and record other relevant observations on an Observations form. Q-slips are sent to the relevant Democrat to respond to and Observations are entered into VAN. 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 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. (We also make Issues Surveys, Incident Reports and Constituent Service Request forms available at the churches we visit, but we don’t include numbers for those, in part because we don’t always get counts back, but also because we like to compare like to like.)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 expanded 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.This year, our biggest expense is Printing the Walk Lit that we leave at every door. As you can imagine, having tripled the number of doors we’ve knocked this year, it’s quite an expense. Access to the Voter File is our second largest cost. But it is also a fixed cost. That won’t change as we raise and spend more money. 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 expensesHope 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 eventually.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. Which means we have to buy more lit to distribute and other minor expenses (like water for volunteers). So please:If you are able to support Hope Springs from Field’s efforts to protect Democratic voters, especially in minority communities, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, we would appreciate your support:https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopemobilization2024If 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!