Start Canvassing Now: How Issue-Based Canvassing Can Give You an Early Lead in the Campaign

It’s time to start canvassing.

Yup, you read that right. It is time to start talking to voters!

California is a little less than a year from the March 2024 Primary Election, and while most candidates are focused on launching campaigns or fundraising, you and your team can get ahead and start building real relationships with your community through issue-based canvassing.

What is issue-based canvassing?

It’s a form of voter contact, sometimes referred to as deep canvassing, that focuses primarily on having thoughtful conversations with voters in an effort to understand their concerns and priorities. Typically, the goal of canvassing during the election year is to collect as many support, undecided, or opposition IDs as possible. With issue-based canvassing, you aren’t trying to get to the ID within the first minute. Your job is to listen.

I am a little biased. My first job in politics was as a field organizer. My entire job revolved around voter engagement and volunteer recruitment, and even after six years of campaign work in all aspects of campaigning, I still believe genuine voter connections are the special sauce missing from a lot of local campaigns.

If you are running in a local campaign (or helping someone who is), you have the opportunity to engage your electorate early–and before anyone else–to listen and gather information about your neighbors’ concerns. This is invaluable information gathering and relationship building–it will give you the leg up over your competition when it’s time to get voters to the polls.

In an ideal world, voter engagement never stops. Campaign operatives often define the year before an election as an “off year” and during this time (if you even believe there is such a thing!), community organizations, elected officials, and candidates preparing to run for office should be focused on deep canvassing and voter registration. It’s time to get going!

Enough about why. Let’s talk about how. As a leader in your community, you are the expert on how this can work best in your district, but here are some recommendations.

Dividing Your District: Whether you are doing this as a team of one or are lucky enough to have family, friends, or community members helping you, it’s best to split your district up into consolidated precincts or neighborhoods. If you can, assign each precinct or neighborhood to someone who lives there or is familiar with the area. If it’s just you, give yourself a week or so with each area and try to talk to as many voters as possible. How long you spend in each area will depend on how big your district is. Create a timeline that works for you and ends sometime in June for the first round, and August for round two. If the conversation allows you can start collecting supporter IDs, and by the fall, you should switch your operations completely to identifying support.

What to Talk About: When you speak with voters, the key is to identify the issues that concern each community member or neighborhood. Let them lead the conversation. Starting voter engagement early means you can take the time to introduce yourself, nurture these relationships, genuinely listen to voters’ concerns, and incorporate their needs in your campaign platform and policy packets. If you’re interested in script templates and detailed instructions on how to run a canvassing program, contact us today.

Now, I can’t end this blog without mentioning that campaigns should very much still be fundraising right now! There is a June reporting deadline coming up and campaigns will be evaluated for their strength and potential based on the numbers in these reports. Listen to your fundraisers and finance consultants!

But I believe in your ability to do both. Now get out there and knock on some doors!

This piece was written by: Mari Latibashvili. Need help with your field plan? We can help. Reach out for a free consultation today — book a call with our team today.