Grassroots Organizing with the Hampden Township Democratic Club
The Hampden Township Democratic Club in Pennsylvania is a volunteer-run organization that recruits and trains volunteers to elect Democrats in their community. They’ve been using Shadow Messaging for the past few months to text voters, recruit volunteers, and augment their efforts for the municipal elections coming up in November. We noticed that they have been as active as some congressional campaigns that we’ve had on our platform — a surprising turn of events for a volunteer-led organization — so we had to find out their secrets.
Their President, Maurice Reeves (he/him), took the time to tell us more about their work and how they got their start. We hope their story and ongoing work will inspire new and existing community organizing teams to understand the value of their work and grassroots community organizing.
Shadow: What is the Hampden Township Democratic Club, and how did the organization come about?
Maurice Reeves: I was really frustrated with the direction of the country…and in particular really angry and scared about the future of health insurance. I have epilepsy, and my wife is diabetic, and we spend a lot of money on healthcare and insurance, so Trump trying to erase the ACA was a literal life-or-death moment. I decided that I needed to be more involved. It quickly evolved beyond that specific issue, but that was kind of the catalyst. So with that motivation, I was out walking my dog in the next borough over (because my township parks don’t allow dogs, but that’s a separate matter), and I saw an abundance of signs for Sean Quinlan, who was clearly a progressive, promising to “Flip the 87th”…I found Sean’s website and Facebook page and I sent messages on both saying “Hey, there’s none of your signs here in Hampden Township. What can I do to help? And how do I get a sign?” Sean’s campaign manager texted me back that day and said, “Come to this meeting I’m having next week to meet some other folks. And call this other person in Hampden who also wants to hand out signs. Her name is Jess Beamesderfer.” I spoke with Jess, and it turned out we lived in the same neighborhood! She was helping promote a house party for some local candidates, and people were telling her to keep it limited to just our neighborhood, but she wanted to do invites to our whole township. I agreed, and so we went out and printed out 5,000 letters, bought door hanger bags, and collected enough lit to put in every bag and spent the next two weeks driving all around our township hanging literature. Out of that moment, we met a group of about 10 similarly enthusiastic Dems who wanted to help out, and from that, we decided it was time to create a formal club.
Shadow: You’ve been an active user of Shadow since the day you signed up. What have you used peer-to-peer SMS for, and how is it helping you achieve organizational goals?
MR: We’ve used it for three things:
- To find volunteers
- To promote local candidates
- To ask folks to commit to vote
It’s been helpful in letting us identify some volunteers for things like canvassing, and we’re building seed lists of future volunteers for next year and beyond. That’s helpful. It’s extended our sense of who is engaged now and who wants to get involved. We’ve used it in conjunction with MailChimp to create landing pages and then drive folks to content and pages for other candidates, which is also really good because we can then collect info on those who pass through, start to have a more complex picture of the person, and get more info in their hands.
Shadow: What are some of the results of using peer-to-peer SMS you’ve seen so far?
MR: In order to understand how we’re viewing things, it’s important to understand what kind of area we live in. Until recently, Republicans have held a very strong majority, and Hampden Township, in particular, reflected that. It’s a middle and upper-middle-class bedroom community, in a part of Pennsylvania that is historically very conservative. It’s so much so that most Democrats believe they are the only one on their street, or in their neighborhood, or even in the whole county! The Republicans have had an advantage in terms of money, numbers, and organization. We’ve been working really hard to combat that perception. SMS has helped us with that in some ways because it lets us quickly reach out and communicate with people that may not ever have had a visit from a candidate or volunteer before. From that perspective, we view the results pretty positively, because the amount of interaction we’ve had for the amount of time spent doing it means it’s largely productive.
The biggest negatives we’ve seen from it have been that our lists of numbers for people have a fairly high amount of wrong numbers on it, which means we’re not always reaching the people we intended to, and there are a fair amount of folks who do not want to be bothered via text. Those numbers aren’t high, but we have had a small handful of people who are very very negative including one person who gets so many texts via different platforms that he ended up changing his party registration because of our texts and sent us a very grumpy email about it.
Shadow: What are the biggest challenges you have faced or are facing in the work you’re doing?
MR: Voter and volunteer apathy. Burnout. Data overload.
Data overload — We have a lot of information at our fingertips and we do have a number of people who want to be involved and engaged and are looking for ways to help, and it’s a little hard to keep track of them all, especially when we’re trying to do so many other things all the time.
Burnout — A lot of the volunteers and candidates this year have been pushing extra hard for a while now, and everyone’s starting to fray at the edges. It’s getting more difficult to keep everyone excited and energetic and motivated as we come into the final weeks.
Voter/volunteer apathy — We have some volunteers who will help out for a week or two and then drop off. Same with voters who want to vote and agree with our candidates, but are not always interested in having someone knock on their door or text them. It feels sometimes like trying to push wet spaghetti noodles across a finish line. It’s going to be messy and take a lot of energy to get it done and things are going to go sideways more often than forward.
Shadow: How do you see the HTDC growing in the coming months and years? Are there any major elections or efforts you’ll be focusing on?
MR: Our biggest focus right now is the local municipal elections here in PA. This is the year we elect county and township commissioners, county DA and county Treasurer, school board members, etc. This is also the first time we’ve ever had a full slate of candidates up and down the ballot. It’s very exciting, and we’re trying to make sure that every Dem hears that message. Local races matter. They’re so critical to the day-to-day quality of life for folks, and we need more Dems in local office. Right now, as far as we’re concerned, 2020 could be a lifetime away. The next three weeks are going to fly so fast, but also feel like a lifetime.
Shadow: Community organizing and activism are especially important right now — what advice do you have for other local activists looking to build this type of organization in their communities?
MR: We have a few mottos in our efforts in Hampden that we live by:
- Have no shame — We often, as people, are ashamed to ask for something, or to request help. Don’t be. We’re all doing our best here, and sometimes that’s not enough. We all have things we’re good at, and things we struggle with. We work together so our strengths and weaknesses complement each other. Saying “I hate asking people for money,” or “I hate knocking on doors,” or “I’m drowning in emails” isn’t a bad thing, and it’s not something to be ashamed of. Ask for help, ask for what you need, without shame. If someone says no, then so be it. But it’s more likely they’ll say yes.
- Sorry, not sorry — Related to “Have no shame” is the idea of speaking truths and being honest. That’s not an excuse to be mean (though we certainly take time to vent and complain about what’s frustrating us), but if you need to speak truth, or say something outloud, don’t be sorry. People don’t always like hearing something, and so it can be uncomfortable, but sometimes people need to be called out for bad behavior. For example, if you have someone who always complains about all the stuff that you’re not doing, and they’re not helping, the “Sorry, not sorry” moment is to say, “These are great ideas, why aren’t you coming to our meetings and/or volunteering? We can put you in charge of this.”
- Awkward is our specialty — Campaigns and volunteer work is full of awkward moments. There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t go the way you hoped. There are ideas that sounded great in the planning stage that didn’t go well in the execution. You won’t know until you try, and you’re willing to be awkward. Go knock on a door and talk to a total stranger about a candidate or cause? That feels awkward in the beginning. Asking random strangers on the street if they’re registered to vote? Awkward. Asking people to donate money to a candidate or club? Awkward. Be okay with awkward. Make it your MO.
Also, defeat is inevitable, giving up doesn’t have to be. Your favorite candidate isn’t always going to win. The legislation you pushed for can fail in committee. The park you wanted to establish could be changed from your ideal into something else you don’t particularly enjoy. You don’t reach enough people, you don’t raise enough money, etc, etc. These are defeats in the moment, but just because you lost that moment, or get knocked down doesn’t mean you need to stay down. You stand up and go again. No meaningful change was accomplished on the first try. Try again.
Shadow: Anything else we should know about the HTDC and the work you’re doing?
MR: We are just getting started. Those candidates we held the house party for back in 2018 where we invited all 5,000 Dems? They both lost. We poured our hearts and souls into that and all felt pretty bruised and battered by the results…But I believe that I’m surrounded by and working with some of the awesomest, smartest, and sincerely greatest people I’ve ever known. I was one of those people who thought I was the only Dem on my street (and in my neighborhood) for a long time, and I was feeling somewhat sour on this area until we all found each other. I don’t know if that sounds sappy or silly, but the people I’ve met and I’m working with have really made me feel happy to be here, and regardless of the outcome on Nov 5th, I know we’re going to pick back up and fight again into 2020.
Organizing is an ongoing process. The tactics that work in the Hampden Township of Pennsylvania may not appeal to volunteers and voters in Iowa City. It takes time to figure out what works for your community, and that might even change over time. But whether you’re a city council candidate or a presidential campaign, get on the Hampden Township Democratic Club’s level and get organized!
