By Michael Jacoby Brown, September, 2025
With significant help from Corita Brown, and contributions from Mary Ochs and Ron Bell
If the Democrats want to win the House of Representatives n in 2026 and the Presidency in 2028 they need to provide year-round funding, to multi-issue, grassroots community organizations.
The current practice of pouring in massive resources, often with out-of-state staff unfamiliar with local issues and culture a few months before elections, and then leaving after the election has not worked in the past. It will not succeed in the future.
Many good community organizations have been organizing and building relationships with voters for years. They understand the local issues, culture and people and could sustain these relationships over the long haul and turn out voters if adequately and consistently funded. When funded only during election cycles, organizers and canvassers are laid off right after the election. Relationships and potential leaders are lost, and the trust needed to encourage many to vote is lost.
This article is for anyone who cares about winning elections. Puth the big money spent only in election cycles into grassroots community organizing. Now! And keep it up. Year in year out, not only during election years.
It’s the Relationships!
No one group and no one method will work in all locations. Although everywhere, relationships matter. To win elections we have to build and strengthen powerful community organizations. They can not only help elect good candidates but also hold them accountable to serving the people who elected them!
Adapting to this change won’t be easy. It is not a technical fix. It will take a new strategy that prioritizes building and funding on-going powerful community organizations, Electing good people helps. But alone they cannot solve all our problems. We need organizations with sufficient funding, leadership, talented, well-paid staff that can win elections and also campaign on the problems working and middle-class people face every day,
Working on issues that people care about in between elections bolsters the credibility of the organization. This translates into increased voter turn-out. When elections come many people go to the polls only because they know the organization has worked on issues they care about, have face-to-face on-going relationship with them and know they will not disappear after the election.
Let’s compare some recent examples:
Out of Towners Come to Swing State Michigan
Over October and November, 2024, I spent more than a month in Macomb County, Michigan, (home of the “Reagan Democrats”) north of Detroit leading teams doing “deep canvassing” with voters in this working class and middle class county. I was among hundreds that traveled to Michigan to canvas for the election, coordinating our work with a community organization.
I met “Jane”, (not her real name) while I was there. Jane is a dedicated activist from the San Francisco Bay area, an enthusiastic white woman in her 60’s. Jane was like many volunteers who flew into Michigan, most joining for a weekend or a week at most. All were trained on site in the “deep canvas” method of door knocking: to engage undecided voters: to listen and then respond with a personal story that related to the voter’s concern. Each volunteer cost at least $1,000 for airfare, hotels, etc. even when they stayed a few days.
When Jane and I went out canvassing, a voter at the door mentioned the high price of housing. Jane responded with Harris’ plan to fund home ownership. To Jane’s mind, the focus on policy seemed likely a good selling point. As Jane described the details, I could see the voter, a young working-class white woman, rolling her eyes and stepping back from the doorway. Like many dedicated canvassers who flew in, it would take Jane much longer than the days she had in Michigan to skill up. In addition to practice, observation and coaching, becoming skilled at deep canvassing also requires a personal inclination to value relationships over ideas, empathy over argument, and a readiness to be vulnerable.. Some who came could deep canvas effectively with a couple days training. Many, like Jane could not.
Even a highly skilled deep canvasser like myself , flying to Michigan from my “blue” state of Massachusetts, will not be around after the election. There is a better way.
LOCAL IS BETTER
Lupe is a volunteer leader in the Milwaukee Chapter of Voces de la Frontera Action (VDLFA). She is part of their Relational Voter Program (RVP) in which leaders identify 10-20 (or more) neighbors and others they are in close relationship with. This is a good example of the potential canvassing has to support base building. The RVP encourages the RVP leaders, known as “Voceros” (spokesperson in English), to talk with their networks about voting but also talk to them year-round about other opportunities to get involved and stay informed on issues they care about.
Lupe has built a good list of her neighbors, friends and family. She makes a point of trying to see them at least once a quarter and either calls or visits them when there is important news regarding matters they care about. She has been doing this with her neighbors for over 5 years and has become a trusted messenger and leader in her neighborhood and community. Lupe has had great success in getting dozens of her neighbors to come to community meetings, to register and vote.
She has taken the time to get to know her neighbors, to listen and learn about them. As a result, she feels her neighborhood and neighbors have become more friendly, informed and safer.
The key, Lupe says is to “listen, remember what you learn and then make several in-person contacts so that a connection gets created Also, it’s very important to follow through if you make a commitment to do something such as get them more information.”
Lupe’s experience, supported by decades of political research demonstrates the potential of door-to-door canvassing in winning elections. However who holds these conversations and how they engage has a major impact on the effectiveness and results of the canvas.
Increasing Black Voter Turnout in Boston
Like Lupe in Wisconsin, Ron Bell’s work with Dunk the Vote (see: https://dunkthevote4ever.org/) in the Black wards of Boston showed how through face-to-face relational organizing, he achieved significant results.
Ron and Dunk the Vote increased voter turnout in 3 Black majority wards in Boston from 2012 to 2020 for a State Representative’s race. The 2020 turnout increase was 279% compared to 2016 and the Increase from the uncontested primary in 2012 was 392%
Ron approach involved working with clergy, community-based organizations, colleges, and companies and identifying key individuals in each church as outreach workers.
Ron said, ” Relationships are crucial for effective voter turnout efforts. Trust is built over time through consistent presence and action. And start early, at least a year before the election.”
Ron also conducted voter registration canvassing trainings for paid organizers and outreach workers.
“Don’t wait until the last minute to start GOTV (Gete Out The Vote) efforts,” Ron added, “doing only ‘Drive By Visits’ by candidates at Black Churches during GOTV weekends is not enough”.
What isn’t working?
Progressive leaders are grappling with the difficult reality, laid bare in the 2024 election, that many grass roots groups are not actively engaged in building organized bases of multi-racial working-class people that we need to win. Political scientist Theda Skocpol and the late labor leader Jane McAlevey have documented the decline of organized bases that are truly active, and the impact of this on movement building. The funding support for base building has also severely diminished in recent decades. In order to effectively address the authoritarian crisis we find ourselves in, we need to (re)learn how to develop organizations that effectively build powerful bases of engaged members.
Rather than sending in out-of-town activists to “swing” districts a couple months before the next election, we have an opportunity to start finding, training and developing local leaders and volunteers who can have conversations with their neighbors about all the issues that matter, from local to global. We can invest in training local leaders as canvassers in their communities and plugging local people into year-round base-building efforts. This has great potential to help support and strengthen progressive organizations, build the base we need to win, and leverage organizing skills for future elections and other community organizing campaigns.
NEED FOR FACE TO FACE
In an interview with the NY Times, (May 8, 2025) Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) recently said, “People are not happy with the replacement of in-person experience with virtual experience… There is likely a real winning political message in talking about how we can incentivize in-person experience and in-person communion and disincentivize virtual experience. There has been a 60% reduction in the amount of time that we spend with friends and companions in the last 20 years.…Giving people a route back to the things that used to make them happy and explaining what role government can play in that… is…probably a winning political discussion.”
Although new and better social media and texting might help win elections, most people spend seconds on social-media or a text message before moving on to the next. A skillful neighbor showing up at your door (at least for those who open their doors, and that is NOT everyone for sure!) gets your attention better, longer and more credibly than any text or social media!
Below are 5 key suggestions for how to increase the effectiveness of canvassing to support electoral work.
- Recruit Local Canvassers
Being a neighbor lends credibility. When I canvass my own precinct in Massachusetts, many tell me they open the door only because I tell them I am their neighbor. I can also leave a flyer with my home address and phone number so they can easily contact me in the future. Out of towners, even the most skilled, can never bring this commonality, understanding or ability to follow up easily in the future.
Political science research indicates that local neighbors can be more effective than out-of-town canvassers. Melissa Michelson, Professor of Political Science at Menlo College wrote,
“This (being a neighbor) is something we studied as part of the California Votes Initiative (268 experiments between 2006-2008) and detailed in Mobilizing Inclusion. The answer is that being a neighbor matters. (emphasis added) It makes the GOTV (Get Out The Vote) visit more powerful.” They share many of the same problems, breathe the same air, deal with the same pot-holes, pay the same local taxes, and may share networks and hold other things in common that give them more credibility than any out of towner.”
Local people who have the interest, energy and personal characteristics can do this. They are out there!
A skillful canvasser can also find new potential leaders (maybe one out of 30 they door-knock in my experience) — people who are willing to volunteer in a variety of ways, including asking their neighbors in for “coffee and conversation.” If I had a nickel for every person who said to me, “You are first person who ever knocked on my door and asked me what I thought” (literally!) I would be a rich man
- Connect and fund base-building organizations
It is possible to train canvassers how to identify and recruit such local leaders while canvassing. It is also important that a local organization follow up with them, and help them develop their skills and connect with others near them or who share similar interests and backgrounds. They can do this only with year-round funding!
The political science research indicates that local and state-wide Independent Political Organizations (IPO’s)are most effective at increasing voter turnout. A 2025 study of voter turnout by Independent Political Organizations notes: “Hundreds of randomized controlled trials in the last twenty years continue to signal that mobilization efforts through repeated direct person-to-person contact – and especially that achieved through known social contacts and relational networks – is the most effective way to increase voter turnout.”
(See: Civic Power: The Role and Impact of Independent Political Organizations in Expanding the Electoral and Building Governing Influence , authors, Joy Cushman, PhD, and Elizabeth McKenna, PhD, et al.)
- Engage existing networks.
We can hold such conversations in the local face to face communities that already exist: congregations, parent groups, barber shops and beauty salons, little leagues, soccer clubs, union halls and other places where people already see each other face to face. The strategy requires organizers to train local people in such face-to-face conversations and, not only for the next election, but for all those issues that affect people year round.
The strategy includes building on-going relationships. Many community and labor organizers have used the strategy for years, often winning real improvements in people’s lives and communities. Our experience, skill and impact can work with elections
4.Focus on issues that matter
“Bill,” a savvy Black organizer I canvassed with, did not go out door-knocking asking Black people if they wanted to vote or who they are voting for. He started with: “Have you even racially profiled? Stopped for driving while Black?” Then, when he got a positive response (which he frequently did), he led people into a conversation to think about how an election or candidate might affect their real life experience.
This organizer knows that voting per se is often not seen as a solution. In fact, it is sometimes felt to be fruitless because electing candidates has often NOT made any difference in their experience. Many have given up on voting as an effective means of solving some of the problems they face. Without building an on-going and trusted relationship, there is little hope of getting these people to vote by canvassing a month or two before the election. A much deeper and long-term commitment is needed to build trust and that focus on the problems people face year round.
- Experiment with new approaches
We can pilot and experiment now in those places that already have done this work and could do more now with additional funding and support. Michigan United, Down Home North Carolina, Voces de la Frontera Action and other groups have helped turned out voters that otherwise would not have voted. There will be challenges along the way. However, we need to start now to develop the relationships and trust that can make a difference in the up-coming elections. And adequately fund the community organizations doing this work!
Footnotes and Research links
The Political Science Research : Door to door, face to face, works the best
Political Science research demonstrates that going door to door makes a difference in elections
“The results indicate that canvassing significantly increases voter turnout across a range of political and social environments. These mobilization effects are significant, both substantively and statistically, and similar in magnitude to other recent experiments” Gerber and Green 2000b; Michelson 2003). Research –Getting out the Vote in Local Elections: Results from Six Door-to-Door Canvassing Experiments Author(s): Donald P. Green, Alan S. Gerber, David W. Nickerson Source: The Journal of Politics, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Nov., 2003), pp. 1083-1096 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Southern Political Science Association.
“Research on voter turnout and other activities suggests that face-to-face conversations are the likeliest to have large effects on voters.” Gerber and Green 2000b; Michelson 2003). Research –Getting out the Vote in Local Elections: Results from Six Door-to-Door Canvassing Experiments Author(s): Donald P. Green, Alan S. Gerber, David W. Nickerson Source: The Journal of Politics, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Nov., 2003), pp. 1083-1096 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Southern Political Science Association.
“Voter mobilization research shows that people are more likely to participate when they are personally contacted by someone they know. People are especially responsive to appeals from a friend, neighbor, or a community-based agency that they know and trust. Look for opportunities to create conversations about voting at your point of service, in meetings, on the phone, or during trainings or events. Outreach is more effective when it does not rely solely on handouts or mass emails.” (e.g., Enos and Fowler 2016; Gerber and Green 2000; Green and Gerber (2015),
See also:
https://www.nonprofitvote.org/documents/2010/08/a-voter-participation-starter-kit.pdf/
https://isps.yale.edu/research/field-experiments-initiative/lessons-from-gotv-experiments
About the author: Michael Jacoby Brown ((see: https://michaeljacobybrown.com/) has been a community organizer for over 45 years. He has trained and mentored hundreds of organizers and canvassers in grass roots community, labor, electoral, religious and other organizations. He is the author of Building Powerful Community Organizations, which has been used widely by organizers, community groups and universities. He lives in Arlington, MA, is married and has two adult children, including Corita Brown, PhD, (see: https://coritabrown.com/) who was a key contributor to this article.