On Saturday, March 1st, Hope Springs from Field PAC [dated website] volunteers started knocking on doors again in six states (Arizona, Florida (specifically, special congressional election), Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas). Remarkably, after a fairly harsh winter, it was like the weather gods shined down on us.
You take what you can get.
Hope Springs’ volunteers were ready. We’ve had people knocking on doors in Florida (FL-06) in February for that special election in April, but Saturday marked our official kick off. In the first week of canvassing last year, 335 volunteers showed up to knock on 24,217 doors. But Saturday, 509 volunteers came out to knock on 35,546 doors of Democrats and (mostly) unaffiliated voters.
This diary focuses on Arizona, one of the states where we are canvassing in 3 congressional districts where we think we can beat a MAGA Republican incumbent to take back the House. That is our first and primary goal this year, returning Congress to sanity and Democrats to the majority there.
Volunteers in Arizona expressed disappointment with last year’s election results — and several wondered if there wasn’t some kind of underground MAGA organizing last year. Republicans were able to mobilize new and infrequent voters; their voter registration efforts yielded some impressive results. In AZ-06 (once held by a Democrat), new Republican voters alone accounted for more than the ~11k margin between Juan Ciscomani and the Democrat. The 6th CD was the closest margin in Arizona for a U.S. House race, which was not called for a week.
We are also knocking on doors again in AZ-01, where incumbent Republican David Schweikert is perennially vulnerable. This district is highly dependent on population-growth. Last year. Hope Springs volunteers found that the Democrat was not well known among the voters we canvassed. Arizona primaries are late in the cycle, and this hurts non-incumbents. But, to be honest, the Phoenix area saw a lot of extreme heat interruptions to our canvassing schedule late in the Summer and we may have missed some movement here.
AZ-02 is our “reach” district in Arizona. It fell within the 10 percent margin that some people use to define competitive districts — but just barely.
Clik here to view.
Last year, 9,419 volunteers came out to knock on doors in the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th Arizona Congressional Districts. Arizona volunteers had set a goal of knocking on 1 Million Doors in Arizona before Labor Day but extreme heat prevented us from reaching that.
This year, we returned to the Republican-held districts with the belief that Democratic Congressman Greg Stanton is safe in 2026. 211 volunteers came out on Saturday in the 1st, 2nd and 6th CDs to knock on 14,516 doors.
Hope Springs volunteers talked to 97,686 voters last year. Our goal this year is to 150,000 voters — set by our grassroots volunteers in Arizona. On Saturday, we talked to 1,098 voters and had in-depth conversations with 710 of them, guided by our Issues Questionnaire.
We did add one thing to our questionnaire: we are asking voters whether they approve of the administration’s cuts to federal programs and agencies. Given that we are talking to more unaffiliated voters this year, we are offering that as a way to screen MAGA-leaning voters that we talk to.
Other than that, the Issues Surveys aren’t really changing. We may modify it again, if necessary. Voters like to tell us what is important to them!
Clik here to view.
Last year, the top issues voters mentioned were remarkably consistent in Arizona. Not all the bouncing around we saw the previous year. But those were responses in more Democratic-leaning swing areas. This year, we are casting a wider net, venturing into more MAGA-open territory to find (and strengthen) Democratic voters there.
One change (or improvement) in our approach will be more loyalty to the areas where we canvass. In the past, Hope Springs has prioritized coverage (canvassing more area) than repetition. In some areas, we did complete 2 rounds (out of the 5 rounds in a traditional canvass cycle) before Labor Day, but that was certainly not the norm. This year, 2 rounds before Labor Day is the goal of the areas we target. Part of the reason here is that we are less likely to hand off these areas in an election year for GOTV. We feel that keeping the same volunteers in targeted areas creates recognition among voters and will help motivate voters in an off-election year.
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.
As i mentioned above, we are asking voters if they approve of the sudden and deep cuts in federal programs and agencies led by Elon Musk. We did have voters actually mention Musk in the survey (in the what is the most urgent issue facing our country query). That was different. At least one Arizona voter talked about Musk in a favorable light — but he mentioned that Fox News was his primary source of news, as well!
The top 3 issues voters mentioned on Saturday in Arizona was, first, Inflation (clearly still a concern for many), Tariffs (several voters mentioning tariffs on Mexican goods (2 said avocados) AND wondered about how they would be applied to goods brought over the border on personal visits. Third was Grocery Prices, and several voters talked about the Trump promise to bring prices down.
5% of the Arizona voters who responded said they viewed these cuts in a favorable light, 47% thought just the opposite — quite a surprise to me, given where we were canvassing. In contrast, 18% of the voters we talked to had a favorable impression of the job was doing (44% disapproved). We won’t know for awhile (given the newness of the question) whether these two are correlated.
Given our emphasis on taking back the House, we are asking about voter views of their Members of Congress, not Senators, in Arizona. We aren’t differentiating between Members and Districts in these reports; 5% of voters expressed approval of the job their Member was doing on Saturday and 38 said they disapproved. 47% said they approved of the job Gov. Hobbs was doing; 9% said they disapproved.
Hope Springs volunteers registered 3 new voters in Arizona and re-registered 8 voters, who mainly updated their addresses (or updated their voter registration to participate in the Active Early Voting List — the latter usually skews the number higher).
In Arizona, 37 voters filled out Constituent Service Request forms. We sent completed CSRs to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if 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 knocked 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. We printed more than 720,000 pieces of Walk Lit last year for Arizona. 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.
Clik here to view.
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.
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/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!