(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . After Callais, What Other Choice Do We Have [1] ['View Profile', 'Joe Democrat', 'The Boss Gomez'] Date: 2026-04-30 Hope Springs from Field PAC volunteers ask voters every week what single issue determines (or drives) their vote. As anyone who has followed Hope Springs for awhile, MY SINGLE ISSUE is rebalancing this grossly conservative Supreme Court. That was true before yesterday’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. It is equally true today. But yesterday’s ruling only shows how important it is that we redouble and strengthen our Voter Contact efforts in areas where local Democratic parties are not that strong. Critical might not be too strong a word here. But we are not “truly f*cked.” We need to return what we were once truly superior at: Voter Contact. In an ideologically divided 6-3 ruling, the conservative justices created a higher bar for the law’s powerful provision that allows states to use race to draw maps that help minority communities elect candidates of their choice. Section 2 is aimed at combating discriminatory gerrymandering that weakens the power of Black, Latino, Native American and Asian voters. […] Alito wrote that going forward, plaintiffs would have to show that a state intentionally discriminated against a minority group in drawing a map, rather than simply showing the minority group did not have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice when certain circumstances are met. This decision is wide-ranging. The decision scaled back a central provision of the Voting Rights Act meant to ensure minority communities can elect candidates of their choice. The act, passed in 1965 and strengthened in 1982, greatly expanded the number of Black and Latino officials in local, state and federal positions. The House and Senate included 66 Black members at the start of this term, making it the most racially diverse Congress on record, according to the Pew Research Center. Republicans know, diversity is our strength. This is why they are so desperate to take it away. Punchbowl News laid it out, in stark fashion: Republicans and Democrats have waged an all-out redistricting war this cycle, an unprecedented and bitterly partisan fight that’s extended from coast to coast. But this is nothing compared to what’s coming in 2028. We have been here before. From 1861 until 1933, Republicans basically ruled it all. Only Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson interrupted Republican rule in the White House and in Congress, Republican majorities were more common than not. One secret for ending that domination by Republicans was that Democrats embraced diversity, first with various immigrant communities and then through civil rights. But one tactic that worked throughout was enhanced Voter Contact. Until president felon came along, it was conventional wisdom that Democrats could not win the presidency unless we enlarged the electorate. And while voter registration played a key role, we maintained our electorate by continuous Voter Contact efforts. We have lost that advantage. There are numerous reasons why, but they matter less than the fact we cannot overcome Republican advantages without regaining our’s. And now we have no choice. Callais is an existential threat and we have to fight it, not just in the South but everywhere in the nation. And our fight needs to be “maximum warfare” as Hakeem Jeffries puts it. Central to that is Democrats regaining our advantage in Voter Contact. This is exactly why Hope Springs from Field PAC was created. Early organizing on the ground in key Swing Seats and Districts. While Democrats are optimistic we can win the House majority even with any new districts that come as a result of Callios, one current Democrat in the House told me (s)he wouldn’t run for re-election under new onerous lines unless Hope Springs volunteers were knocking on doors within those newly created congressional lines. (We already were.) This need for reassurance is ubiquitous. Elected Democrats need to believe they can win even when the maps are drawn against them. Democratic voters who live in red and purple precincts need to believe that they are not alone. Up and down the Democratic ecosystem, we need to believe we can win regardless of what they throw at us. Keep Hope Alive. In the Kansas and Ohio pro-choice amendments, in Congressional Districts in key Swing States, in African-American neighborhoods in counties with atrocious legacies of lynchings, that’s what Hope Springs volunteers do. Hope Springs from Field PAC started knocking on doors again this year on March 7th. We continue to target Democrats and unaffiliated voters with our systematic approach that reminds them not only that Democrats care, but that Democrats are determined to deliver the best, most affordable government possible to all Americans. The voters we talk to continue to 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/UNRIGtheMidterms 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. Yes, we really need your help here! Our printer’s bills are — like most things — much higher than we had anticipated for the year. Adding extra states (like California) did not help the budget! It’s not just about Hope — it’s also about the Fight. While the lawyers fight it out, Hope Springs volunteers are at the doors of Democrats and unaffiliated voters keeping the fight alive. Building that GOTV list. Giving voters a reason to vote Democratic again. “The Supreme Court’s decision limiting the Voting Rights Act inflames an already raging partisan war over congressional districts and is expected to lead to a House with far fewer Black members.” But we don’t have to give up — we don’t have to surrender. Hope Springs volunteers are putting the backbone back into the Democratic Party. And we aren’t alone. “Congressional Democrats on Wednesday vowed to fight with what limited power they have.” We are in this together! This work isn’t aspirational. We track or measure our efforts as well as their results. For example, after the 2024 debacle, Hope Springs volunteers sought to determine our effectiveness vis-a-vis our GOTV efforts that year. We had been optimistic — and disappointed with the results. One way we did this was by contacting voters who had filled out one of our Constituent Service Request forms, and asked them whether they had voted in November 2024. Almost all of these volunteers who did this post-election contact had had personal experiences helping voters fill out Constituent Service Request forms. Some even thought that was all we should be doing. They didn’t see CSRs as auxiliary tasks. Having listened to volunteers rave about their experiences with voters in this regard, i could see why they enjoyed walking with them. As you can see in the table to the right (or above), CSR-driven volunteers had success contacting voters who had filled out Constituent Service Request forms with us. Over the past 3 years, Hope Springs volunteers had helped 159,085 voters fill out CSRs at their doors in the Swing States we’ve canvassed. And the overwhelming impression voters told us can be summed up in a nutshell: they were thrilled to be asked. Another thing we have learned in these post-elections follow-up is that our efforts at voter’s doors change their minds about Democrats. Who else is doing that? The point here is that Democrats don’t have to just sit back and take it. Again, we are not alone. Democrats are calling for the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would ban partisan gerrymandering and provide more protections for minority representation. (The House passed the measure in 2021, when Democrats held the majority, but it failed to get enough votes in the Senate.) These kinds of legislative solutions will never happen unless we turn out our voters. Which is the core mission of everything Hope Springs from Field does. We knock on the doors of Democratic and Independent 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. Hope Springs has targeted states that have competitive Senate races and/or Congressional Races in 2026. 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 and helping them to check their current voter registration status, if they cannot access it online themselves. Our biggest expense is Printing the Walk Lit that we leave at every door. But Hope Springs is a seat-of-the-pants grassroots-driven operation. Which is why we ask for your financial support. Hope Springs has been called “the most comprehensive, organized grassroots voter contact project out there right now. It is truly astonishing that it is grassroots-based!” Not sure why it is “astonishing,” but i probably have more faith in grassroots or self-organized efforts because of my experience with Barack Obama’s early days in 2007. No other Democratically-aligned org has been methodically trying to circumvent MAGA efforts to rig the House Midterm elections. And we need your help to continue. 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/UNRIGtheMidterms 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! 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