This diary is the result of a question asked by a Hope Springs from Field PAC [website which needs to be re-tooled] volunteer canvassing with us in FL-06. She wondered how our grassroots-driven effort can be compared to the millions of dollars Elon Musk is putting in field, including in Florida right now.
Well, there’s an answer for that. Wish i had these numbers on hand when the question came up, but i knew i had them at home. Hence a rare Monday post. This may not be of interest to anyone besides our volunteers, but i try to post everything here that’s of interest. So who knows?
I was first exposed to this comparison at Harvard’s symposium that is held after every presidential election. But most of what i learned was also in the press. Last year, Hope Springs’ volunteers knocked on 10,738,318 doors. not including the doors we knocked on after October 10th where we went into GOTV mode. Our records for that period are incomplete because, basically, we started knocking during the weekdays in addition to the weekends and it became more difficult to record everything that was coming in.
Musk’s “canvassers knocked on close to 11 million doors in presidential battleground states.” But even the fact that our (precise) numbers are similar to those Musk has reported is interesting just because of all the accusations of false reports that surrounded their weekly numbers.
Then Musk’s canvassers were paid, so no one is surprised they may have falsified the number of contacts they made.
Accusations of fraud among low-paid canvassers dogged the operation and raised internal concerns among executives. In the final days, the main software used by canvassers had significant glitches, leading to what organizers said were problems in Wisconsin and Nevada.
Mr. Musk’s super PAC had also hoped for a dramatic surge of door-knocking in the final days in key states — as many as 5,500 canvassers in the field.
Hope Springs never had 5,500 canvassers in the field — oh, wait, that’s not true at all! As soon as Joe Biden announced he was leaving the race, we had more than 5,500 canvassers every weekend until Labor Day when we encouraged our volunteers to move over to the Harris, Senate or Coordinated campaigns.
Clik here to view.
But our model last year was an all-volunteer model, including organizers. And we have always known that this would limit our efforts. Some organizers — like the 5 we have in FL-06 right now — had to travel to their turf, they lived outside the area for which they were responsible.
And while Musk’s America PAC focused on 7 or 8 battleground states, Hope Springs has volunteers not just in those states, but also those with competitive Senate races, as well. So broader, less focused. And the numbers do reflect that. Where Musk’s canvassers are reported to have hit “about 1.8 million [doors] in Michigan and 2.3 million in Pennsylvania” Hope Springs volunteers knocked on 996,774 doors in Michigan and 970,418 doors in Pennsylvania. Money makes a difference. “Mr. Musk almost single-handedly funded an effort that cost more than $175 million.”
Hope Springs from Field PAC began knocking on doors again on March 1st. 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 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/hopemobilization
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.
Here’s the thing: Hope Springs from Field’s canvassing and organizational model was different last year. We had no idea a billionaire was going to try to influence the election in this way. But we started to track the MAGA canvassing pool last year, and became the experts on what Musk and others were trying to do. The one advantage of relying on the grassroots is that more volunteers were available to look for signs of MAGA canvassing in their area.
But, let’s face it, $175 million — even $175 million poorly spent — is a lot to overcome. And Hope Springs isn’t organized on the same model. We aren’t a non-profit, we are a political committee limited to the $6,600 per individual per year limit (iirc) needed to maintain our ability to place poll watchers into polling places.
So we can conclude that we had the same effect on the Democratic ground game that Musk did:
My America PAC massively improved the Republican ground game in the swing states,” Mr. Musk told the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in an interview at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s residence and private club in Florida.
There difference is that Musk achieved his goals in this incredibly close election and Hope Springs did not. We have to do better and, hopefully, we have the strategy to do so. While we are not going to abandon our grassroots model, we know that we have to hire organizers to reach more places and sustain more effort on the ground. We have to expand into new states and congressional districts to return the House to a Democratic majority. And we have to expand our financial base to expand our foot print. We have to update our website and expand into a social media presence.
But i know that we have volunteers who see their commitment to canvassing as one more blow to reduce the influence of Elon Musk on our government. “Every door I knock at least negates a door Musk’s boys attempt, every voter I reach neutralizes a MAGA voter,” one volunteer told me. Simplistic, but i see the reasoning there. There’s not really a one-to-one comparison here, especially since i think we have a better, more credible model that yields better results but if i’d known what we know now last year, i would have pushed for a goal of more doors, more (new) registered voters and more voter contacts. Hindsight.
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 and maintaining a clean database.
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 MAGA 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. We printed more than 10,500,000 pieces of Walk Lit last year. 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 was our third biggest expense and paying the fees for ActBlue is the smallest of our monthly costs.
Hope 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.
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. It is also the only counter that i know of to what Elon Musk is doing, spending heavily to stay in power.
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/hopemobilization
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!