Demystifying Field Strategy - Part 1: Essential terminology and tactics
Campaigns without a field strategy are operating on hope and caffeine. And it comes at the cost of meaningful voter contact and wasted resources.
Campaigns at any level can benefit from a strong field strategy – from school board races to congressional seats, successful campaigns talk directly to voters. That said, field strategy for a race with 10,000 voters is going to look very different than the strategy for a large county race or Congressional seat with hundreds of thousands of voters.
Generally speaking though, all campaigns should know the basics. In part one of this series, I’ll provide an overview of the key terminology and tactics that you should know before creating your field strategy. In part two, I’ll share some best practices and common mistakes to avoid when developing your strategy and implementing a field program.
What is Field?
In a political context, field, field strategy, and field program are terms often used interchangeably, but they mean slightly different things.
Field is an umbrella term for any form of talking to voters one-on-one or in small group settings.
Field strategy refers to the intentional and deliberate strategy for who to contact, when, how, and with what message.
A field program is the concrete plan to implement the field strategy, often carried out largely by a team of volunteers.
Key terminology to know:
Voter Data (aka voter file data): a collection of data that typically includes a voter’s address, phone number, party registration, age, sex, and voting history. Voter data is the foundation of all field strategy and absolutely necessary to develop an effective field program. Campaigns can get access to voter data through companies like NGP VAN or PDI for a monthly fee and it may also be available in raw data form through your local registrar of voters.
Voter ID (aka voter identification): the process of using voter data and field tactics to identify likely supporters, undecided voters that could potentially be persuaded, and unlikely supporters. Voter ID’ing is the entire purpose of a field program - knowing who is going to vote for you (and who isn’t) informs a lot of the field plan, because you need to know who to push to the polls in the last weeks of the campaign.
Win Number (aka vote goal): the number of votes you need to win. Sounds simple, right? Figuring out your win number requires some math and access to voter data, but it is foundational for your field strategy. It is also sacred and should only be shared with the closest people on your campaign team. Yes, endorsers and donors will ask. No, you do not have to tell them all. Use your judgment.
Base Supporters (aka base vote): a group of voters you can count on to vote for you as the Democratic candidate in the race. Base supporters vote strictly along party lines (and/or in line with certain issues like choice or the environment) and they’re high propensity voters, meaning they are very likely to vote without several reminders and nudges from the campaign.
Vote Deficit: the number of votes you need when you subtract your base supporters from your win number. For example, let’s say your win number is 1000. You know there are 300 democrats in your district who vote Dem every single election, meaning you can count on them to vote for you, too. In this example, 1000 - 300= 700, so 700 is your vote deficit. It can be a rough number, but the closer to accurate it is, the better you’ll be able to predict how much time per week you and your team need to spend reaching out to voters in order to win. (Need a deep dive on how to calculate your win number and vote deficit? Check out our Speak Out and Run Academy module on Field - you’ll get a step-by-step how-to to help you calculate these ever-important numbers.)
Key tactics to know:
Canvassing: the act of physically knocking on doors to connect with voters, promote the candidate, and ID a voter. As a tactic, door-to-door canvassing is one of the most effective options: in this study, researchers found turnout was significantly higher among voters who had contact with MoveOn volunteers – the difference was approximately 9 percentage points! Canvassing is typically more common in small-to-medium sized races (although there have been some incredible large-scale door knocking campaigns in recent history – shout out to President Obama’s campaign and Senator Bernie Sanders!)
Phone-banking and texting: reaching voters by phone to educate them on the candidate's platform and get a commitment to vote. Calling and/or texting voters is often more efficient than knocking on doors because you can reach more people in less time; however, face-to-race voter IDs can be more dependable than IDs received over the phone. Texting has become an increasingly common and effective way to reach voters, although it is not without issues – some voters feel it is too invasive and may turn people off from voting. (If you employ texting, be sure to check your state and federal laws regarding specific language you need to include. Texting is not exempt from campaign finance disclosure laws.)
Volunteer recruitment and training: building an army of volunteers to expand outreach efforts. For tips on volunteer management, check out this blog post.
Events: holding meet and greets, rallies, and townhalls are a great way to connect with voters. Nothing beats face-to-face contact - it is statistically the best way to leave a lasting impression and persuade undecided voters. Meet and greets are the easiest and have the least amount of work for the campaign to put together – rallies and townhalls require getting space to accommodate larger groups, coordinating for equipment like microphones, and more. Meet and greets can be held in a neighbor’s living room or local park and should be paired with targeted voter outreach like canvassing or phone banks to invite people.
Voter registration drives: Registering new voters – particularly those in demographic groups aligned with the campaign – is a good tactic to use and it can be very emotionally fulfilling to register new voters! That said, it is best implemented by organizations who endorse your campaign or volunteers who don’t want to knock on doors or make phone calls – the return on investment for your time isn’t as good as traditional field efforts (phone calls, door knocking, and meet and greets).
Get Out The Vote (GOTV): GOTV refers to the coordinated efforts campaigns implement in the weeks leading up to the election to get your IDd supporters to actually physically cast their ballots. All the Yes IDs in the world mean nothing if they don’t vote. We HIGHLY recommend you have a good GOTV plan baked into your field strategy – this happens closer to election day (usually 2-4 weeks before) and includes tried-and-true tactics like ballot chasing (following up with supporters before election day to ensure they have or will vote). Your GOTV plan will be almost entirely informed by the voter IDs you make throughout the campaign, so it’s imperative that your overall strategy includes traditional field efforts.
Now you know the basic terminology and tactics for developing a field strategy. In part two of this series, we’re going to review some best practices and mistakes to avoid when developing your field strategy.
Can’t wait? Get your free 15-minute consultation with us now. Field is a love language here at Evinco - we look forward to helping you.
