[1]Swing LeftSwing Left
Hi John,
My name is Violet, and I’m an organizing program manager at Swing Left. On
our recent national strategy call, I had the opportunity to speak with
some fantastic volunteers who participated in Swing Left’s Ground Truth
pilots this fall—and I wanted to share what they told me, in their own
words.
First, a quick note on what [ [link removed] ]Ground Truth actually is.
Ground Truth is Swing Left’s innovative, people-powered canvassing program
that starts with listening. Instead of targeting only “likely voters”,
Ground Truth volunteers knock every door in swing districts and use
open-ended questions to understand what voters actually care about. Those
insights are then shared with Democratic campaigns to help shape their
messaging, targeting, and outreach strategies early on.
According to these volunteers who’ve tried it, this approach makes a real
difference!
Volunteers’ biggest takeaway was that Ground Truth is a completely
different experience from any other canvassing they’ve done.
By knocking every door, not just those labeled as likely Democrats, they
had the opportunity to have conversations with a wide range of people they
never would’ve met in a traditional canvass.
And because the volunteer script is built around active listening and
open-ended questions, they felt like the conversations were more natural
and genuine—not a transactional script, but real discussions.
➡️ Mitzi, a Ground Truth canvasser in California’s 45th Congressional
District in Southern California, shared how listening-first conversations
helped her move beyond political assumptions and find common ground across
party lines:
“I wasn’t just hearing from the same slice of voters over and over, and I
walked away with a clearer picture of what people are actually talking
about when politics isn’t filtered through our own little bubbles. I know
it was an impactful thing to do for our democracy, but it was also just
personally fulfilling to expand my perspectives and find common ground.”
➡️ Another volunteer, Chuck, canvassed in Arizona’s 1st Congressional
District, and spoke with a voter who described himself as a supporter of
President Trump. But he also said he would never vote for David
Schweikert, the Republican who currently represents him in the House—a
real opportunity for persuasion. As Chuck put it:
“Him saying that tells whoever our Democratic candidate is that they need
to go back to that door! This person would not have been talked to in the
past, and he would not have been talked to as a follow up, but this is a
vote that, because of Ground Truth, we COULD get.”
➡️ And Zach, who hosted a canvass with his College Democrats group in New
York’s 17th Congressional District, found that simply showing up at the
door with a new approach opened conversations—and brought new volunteers
in, too:
“It was exciting to say: we’re trying something new. We know that
something isn’t working in the way we do voter contact, but we also know
that we can’t just bow out of fighting for those values. We’re thinking
outside the box, because we need to. It makes for both an effective voter
contact strategy, but also really effective volunteer recruitment.”
Stories like these are why 93% of volunteers who participated in a pilot
canvass said they’d recommend Ground Truth canvassing to a friend. And
they drive home that people are hungry to be heard, and that current
tactics are missing potential supporters.
Ground Truth is already making an impact, and I’m so excited to see what
we can accomplish when we scale it up across all 33 of Swing Left’s target
swing districts in 2026. But reimagining the way Democrats do voter
contact on a nationwide scale is an incredibly ambitious goal, and Swing
Left volunteers will be absolutely critical to making it happen.
[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to be a part of this work to help Democrats flip the
House next year, take a moment to fill out our Ground Truth interest form
today. The form will guide you to the best volunteer option for you, based
on where you live and what you like to do.
[ [link removed] ]Find Volunteer Opportunities Now
And don’t worry if you’ve never volunteered before! We’ll help train you
every step of the way, from how to have listening-first conversations to
how to capture what you hear.
Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you on the doors in 2026!
Violet Kopp
Organizing Program Manager, Swing Left
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