Notes From the Field #9: Organizing Arizona Independents to Volunteer (email)

Dear Friends,

Last fall, Base Building for Power jumped into the two most important races in the country- abortion access in Ohio and Virginia- to test some volunteer recruitment strategies that, if successful, could be useful in 2024 elections.

Prior to that we did an organizing survey of non-white voters under 45 in Arizona, a state where a recent New York Times survey reported Trump leading Biden by 5 points.

Our main question was: Is it possible to recruit new Arizona volunteers through a cold call phone bank? With modern technology, the advantage of a phone bank is that you can make calls from anywhere in the world and call the most important districts in the most important elections- basically for free. If you can recruit volunteers in these districts, and plug them into locally led organizations and campaigns, you can support the in-state infrastructure, helping to build leadership in the long term.

But most phone banks only ID and mobilize voters, and don’t help to build leadership inside swing districts and states. This results in a boom and bust funding/organizing cycle revolving around big elections often hurts local organizations trying to build sustained power.

Here were some more of our questions for this trail:

What is the potential of using a targeted voter list to identify new potential volunteers in a critical state/district using phone banks? If you ask people to volunteer in a cold call, what will they say? Who are these voters? What do they care about? How do they identify politically? Are they a part of any organizations? If they are willing to volunteer, what kinds of activities will they do? How many will actually volunteer?

The phone bank we ran was also a training program for young organizers inside and outside of Arizona- with the goal of building their skills to become organizers. Many of the people who conducted this survey are now working their first organizing jobs. The survey was also an organizing conversation, where phone bankers were trained to connect, agitate, and encourage people to take action.

These are the 354 survey results from Pima County (Tucson area) Arizona. This list we called was made up of non-white, non-republican registered voters under 45. We surveyed 354 people.

What issues are most important to you?

• High Cost of Living (76%)

• Affordable Housing (59%)

• Climate Change (32%)

• Reproductive Justice (27%)

• Rise of Extremism (20%)

The graphs are pretty self-explanatory, but here are my takeaways:

1. 70%+ are open (said “yes” or “maybe”) to volunteering

2. They say they are willing to do the most effective activity to mobilize voters: talking with people they know

3. A high percentage (43%) identified as “moderate/independent”

4. Only 55% identified as all the time voters

5. Most people (77%) are not a part of ANY organization, and 95% were not a part of any political organization connected to their issues.

This demographic of Arizona voters - non-white moderate voters who care most about working class issues - could decide who wins the Presidency and the Senate in 2024. We found similar results in our organizing surveys in Ohio and Virginia.

The good news is that they care most about working-class issues, and that they say they are willing to volunteer by talking with their friends and family. As billions of dollars will get spent in this election- mostly in ads- saturating states like Arizona - the best way to cut through the noise- is by an Arizonan talking to their friends, family, and neighbors in Arizona, and encouraging them to vote. This is also the best way to build leadership and power in the long term.

If 90% are not a part of any political or social justice organization, who are they going to listen to this election? Especially the potential volunteers, who are willing to talk with their friends and neighbors? I have shared all the information we gathered with our organizational partners in Arizona, who have been fighting for decades successfully to change the state.

The other big question is- how many of the people who say “yes” or “maybe” to volunteering actually volunteer? What will they do? How many of their friends and neighbors can they get to vote? Are there some gems in this group that will become organizers?

We will dig into this and more in the next Notes from the Field.

Onward and Upward!