(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Michigan All Summer Long: Restarting Hope Springs Canvassing in Another Key Swing State [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-04-30  

Well, it had to happen. Several times i’ve noted that Hope Springs from Field PAC [website] volunteers weren’t hearing that the MidEast conflict or the Campus protests had risen to the level of suburban consciousness. But, then, last weekend, it did.

Consensus 2024 Senate Battleground Map

It’s one of the reasons i think canvassing is so important. We all have priorities that we think the rest of the country shares (or should share). But when you knock on doors and ask voters what they think, you get a much broader view of America and the electorate. For example, i haven’t had a single voter talk to me about Gaza since the NY special election, but i am only one of thousands of people knocking on doors for Hope Springs. Over the last two weeks (April 13th and 20th) we had voters in Georgia, Maryland and North Carolina raise some concerns, but there weren’t enough voters doing so to isolate their views from other concerns raised about Higher Education (Student Loans, the Cost of College, even the Admissions Process) in those states.

I would tell people about that and, to be frank, some people were dubious. How could our findings be accurate if we were missing “the most important issue of our day.” “People are dying!” But the smartest question i heard was, why hasn’t it broken through?

Recent Gaza March in Arlington VA

Americans typically don’t spend a lot of time thinking about U.S. foreign relations. Especially if they have no self-interest there. That’s just who we are. We haven’t seen foreign policy be a real issue in an election for a long time (9/11 wasn’t really a foreign policy issue). Those of us involved in the Howard Dean campaign learned that the hard way. It’s just not something Americans concern themselves about in large numbers.

But there are always voters who wish this wasn’t so. “People are dying!” In the Washington D.C. area there are always protests. I don’t think i’ve ever had a meeting in or around the White House campus that didn’t have protesters in Lafayette Square. There are days when there are protests on both the North (Lafayette Square) side and the South (The Ellipse) side of the White House. And every one of them thought the issue that motivated them was important and should be critical to how we vote. Rarely is that the case.

But we are now knocking on doors in Michigan, and people have been saying, “once you get to Michigan you are going to see how important this is.” Now we aren’t canvassing in the Blue Congressional Districts, we are knocking on doors in the swingy grey (and pink) districts (MI-3, MI-4, MI-7 & MI-8). We expect to be in MI-10 and MI-11 (if needed) before the Summer is out. We are a month earlier than last year, but that’s mostly because our volunteers were eager to get started. I had one volunteer in MI-7 who would regularly text me the weather forecasts in his area every week of April. But, heh, Democrats aren’t motivated. Nope. “Start Me Up.” 428 volunteers came out to knock on doors in Michigan last Saturday in our first canvass there since last Summer. We had a lot of volunteers that had driven down to Ohio last year for GOTV and they were among the most eager to get started. Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 30,302 doors last Saturday and talked to 2,448 voters. 1,559 of those voters answered questions to at least part of the Issues Survey. Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 2nd in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First and Second Rounds of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of 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/hopemobilization2024 Hope 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. (Higher) Prices was the most frequent response to our question about voter’s top concern on Saturday in Michigan. We hear the same thing in every state, questions about when prices will “return to normal.” There is a Swing State-wide expectation that prices are unnaturally high and will eventually come back down. And people will tell us that Biden will be punished if this is the “new normal.” Political Stability was the second most frequent response. Some of that was reactions to the charges brought against 15 Republicans who acted as fake electors for Mr. Trump in 2020. Seems like there has been extensive coverage of Trump and the fake electors in the local media last week. And the War in the Middle East/Campus Protests was third. A strong third, at that.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/4/30/2238108/-Michigan-All-Summer-Long?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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/