Hi there,
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 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.
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.
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
|
Since 2017, Swing Left has channeled the energy of grassroots volunteers and donors to elect Democrats, up and down the ballot, focusing on the most competitive races that can swing the national balance of power. Right now, Swing Left is investing in early grassroots organizing in key swing districts and initiatives across the country to lay the foundation to win back the House in 2026. If you’d like to help support our work, you can make a donation using this link. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Paid for by Swing Left, swingleft.org, not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
