SOUTH SIDE LISTENING AND OUTREACH CANVASSING CAMPAIGN
Overview
The South Side Listening and Outreach Canvassing Campaign, launched by The Democratic Party of Santa Fe County, took place from June 21, 2025, to August 14, 2025. The campaign was centered on earning trust and goodwill through direct contact and engagement with South Side residents.
Purpose
The campaign’s main goal was to nurture meaningful connections and ensure that the voices of community members were heard. Through targeted canvassing, volunteers collected stories, concerns, and hopes from residents, so that the lived realities and priorities of the community could be reflected in local and state initiatives and party messaging.
Target Audience
The campaign specifically targeted Democratic and “decline-to-state” voters with a Democratic-leaning score of 50% or more in 37 precincts on the south side of Santa Fe where there was a decline in democratic votes in the 2024 election. Two key groups were prioritized:
• Disaffected voters: Individuals who voted in the 2020 election but did not participate in 2024.
• New voters: People whose most recent voter registration occurred between 2023 and the present and are likely either new voters or new residents of the south side.
Timeline and Planning
On May 13, 2025, an initial meeting was held at Fabian Trujillo’s home. County Party leaders, Ward Chairs and Vice Chairs, and representatives from the six south side wards (2B, 3A, 3B, 5B, 5C, and 5D), along with the chair of the Communications Committee, gathered to discuss potential efforts. The group ultimately agreed to support a canvassing campaign leading up to the local election, with activities spanning late June through mid-August 2025. The team resolved to communicate the Party’s priorities with clarity and conviction, a focus on practical “kitchen table issues,” and to avoid divisive cultural debates. The intended audience and outreach strategy were also decided during this session.
Following the May meeting, the Communications team began drafting a message and graphics for a door hanger, while the IT committee worked on identifying the target audience, carving canvassing turfs, and writing the canvassing script.
June 10, 2025, a smaller team—David Thompson, Connie Hvidsten, Fay Mcintosh, Pat Cruz, Julia Wirick, and Ellen Hill (Jean Brophy was not able to attend)—met at Connie Hvidsten’s home to plan the campaign kickoff, finalize the canvassing script and materials, and organize recruitment. The team decided to hold the kick-off event at Southside Library on June 21 (pending room availability) and delegated tasks such as document revisions, supply purchases, and volunteer outreach. All post-kickoff support activities were set to occur at Tribes Coffee House on the south side. Connie and Pat, veterans of the 2024 canvassing effort, divided up the talking points for the kickoff. Door hangers were designed to include a QR code leading to an online survey mirroring questions asked by canvassers. The Party offered a $100 prize, to be awarded by drawing, for survey participants.
June 18, 2025 had all kickoff materials ready. The organizing team met to assemble canvasser kits and review details for the June 21 event.
Volunteers David Rosen, Ann Albrink, and Frank Blechman phoned canvassers from 2024 to encourage them to join the kickoff.
The kickoff for the South Side Listening and Outreach Canvassing Campaign took place from 2:30–5:00 pm on June 21 at Southside Library, with six organizers and thirteen volunteers.
Nine canvassing areas were assigned. Two attendees participated but did not take a turf map or canvassing kit.
Throughout the Campaign
Tribes Coffee House provided a table three times a week (Saturdays and Sundays 1:00 – 2:00 pm and Wednesdays 4:00 – 5:00 pm) for volunteers to meet and greet new canvassers, distribute turf maps and door knockers, and collect completed maps. Phone calls to recruit additional canvassers continued throughout the campaign, encouraging canvassers to attend the Tribes Coffee House meetings.
A weekly “Door-to-Door” Newsletter was emailed to 245 canvassing volunteers from 2024 that included up-to-date information about canvassing progress, encouragement to start or continue canvassing, and Tales from the Turfs – describing interesting encounters with voters as reported by canvassers. The DPSFC Communications team shaped information from the Door-to-Door Newsletter into articles that were included in each bi-monthly newsletter to all interested Democrats.
By the Numbers
During the 8-week campaign:
• 23 canvassers knocked on 756 doors
• Conversations held with 95 voters
• 15 responses received through the online survey
• 11 additional volunteers provided support (phone calls, communications,
organizing team)
Summary of Findings
Canvassers asked 4 questions of targeted residents during the campaign:
1. What issues are most important to you?
2. What do you think of Trump’s performance so far?
3. In 2024, did you, or someone you know well not vote? Or changed the party you usually vote for? If yes, why?
4. [question added July 14] What could the Democratic Party do to better represent you and your concerns?
Issues:
Canvassing data shows that even recent non-voters and newcomers to the South Side are well informed about current events and concerned about their community’s future.
• The main worry was about losing healthcare services, hospitals, and Medicare/Medicaid access.
• Just as many respondents cited economic issues, including housing costs,
challenges finding affordable housing, and food prices.
• Environmental concerns like climate change, along with better education and safer
communities, were also highlighted by those who answered the door.
• Surprisingly, few mentioned immigration or immigration enforcement.
• National news overshadowed local matters; only a handful noted poor road maintenance or crime, and no one prioritized upcoming local elections in their responses to canvassers’ queries.
• International issues came up several times with people concerned about human
rights in Palestine and American support for Israel … and Biden’s policies in an
earlier conflict in Afghanistan.
Trump’s Performance:
According to a poll from YouGov and The Economist (taken Aug 15 – 18), 56% of Americans say they disapprove of Donald Trump’s 2nd term, while 94% of Democrats disapprove.
During our canvassing of South Side Democrats and Democratic leaning independents (June 21 – August 17) we found that 95% of respondents said Donald Trump was doing either a “poor” or “terrible” job. The remaining 5% of respondents said they “didn’t know”. None of the respondents indicated they like what was happening in Trump’s second term. Not Voting? Voting for a different party? What could Democrats do better?
Few respondents replied directly to the question of not voting or voting for a different party in 2024. But several mentioned concerns they had with the Democrats that might have influenced their dissatisfaction with the Party.
• Several individuals shared their disappointment with both parties for standing with
the rich and disregarding the needs of average Americans and the poor.
• Finding younger candidates and younger leaders within the Democratic Party was an issue for several people we spoke with.
• Other respondents noted that the Democrats are not aggressive enough when
dealing with the actions of the current administration.
Evaluation
The organizing team concluded that the effort was, overall, a success, despite not
recruiting the number of canvassers or reaching the number of people we may have liked.
In our final meeting, Ellen Hill said, “Sometimes the least efficient method is the most effective” for reaching our goal. The consensus of the team was that talking with voters was an important first step in reaching disaffected voters or voters new to the community – both critical audiences if we are going to reverse the losses in turnout of Democratic voters on the South Side.
The main issue we identified in not recruiting additional canvassers was that this was “off season” in an “off-election year”. Potential canvassers were not motivated to brave summer heat to knock on doors without the immediacy of a critical election cycle. This part of the city will hold municipal elections this year, with the larger state and national elections not scheduled until 2026. The timing of this campaign was strategic – we didn’t want to be asking for votes or funds – we wanted to reconnect with voters without asking for anything. But the timing added to the lack of urgency in recruiting canvassers.
Additionally, we recommend against scheduling a canvassing effort from mid-June through August in Santa Fe. Temperatures though most of this time reached the upper 80s to 90s by the afternoon, making canvassing uncomfortable in all but the morning or evening hours.
Another possible reason for not recruiting more canvassers was the unique focus of this canvassing campaign. Often, the canvassing efforts initiated by DPSFC aim to identify potential supporters and get out the vote. In this campaign, our goal was to connect, build community, and most importantly … listen to concerns. The team may not have done enough to communicate to our potential canvassing volunteers about how this campaign was different and why this shift in focus was important.
Another difference in this campaign is that it was conducted entirely on the South Side of town; the kickoff was held at the Southside Library and all support meetings occurred at Tribes Coffee House. Most canvassers, however, came from other parts of the city or county. Holding meetings on the South Side would only be convenient if a canvasser planned to leave straight from that meeting to head out to their turf to canvass. Holding these meetings on the South Side meant that some canvassers needed to make an extra trip across town to take care of their need for maps or materials, returning when it was more convenient for them to canvass. We recommend that in the future, we need options for volunteers to pick up materials and receive training at a more central location – like the DPSFC office – in addition to a South Side location.
Finally, given that this was a different type of canvassing effort, we could have modeled for volunteers the kind of conversations we hoped they would have. This could have happened as a “role play” either among presenters at the kickoff or partnering volunteers at the kickoff event to practice with each other. A written handout in the canvassers’ kit materials could have conveyed and reinforced a similar message. This might have set the tone for the kinds of conversations we hoped canvassers would have as they knocked on doors – and provided an opportunity to practice recording responses either on paper turf maps or using MiniVan. There also could have been a better effort to match experienced canvassers with novices. One idea was to reach out to some of the County’s most experienced canvassers in advance of the kickoff to have them on hand as partners.
Conclusions, Next Steps, and Lessons Learned
Reaching out to voters, hearing their concerns, making connections and building a community that values and respects voters is an important aim, and one necessary to rebuilding the Democratic coalition on the South Side of Santa Fe. The South Side Listening and Outreach Campaign was one part of an ongoing volunteer effort to reach these goals.
To follow up and continue these efforts, DPSFC has initiated a texting campaign asking the same survey questions of this same target audience which is mostly complete as of 8/26/25. So far there have been about 100 substantive replies. When complete, the responses received from the texting effort will supplement the results summarized above.
In addition, two of the canvassers have indicated an interest in leading an ongoing “deep canvassing” effort that would emphasize longer and more in-depth conversations with disaffected voters. Both initiatives indicate that DPSFC volunteers care deeply about the goal of reconnecting with disaffected voters.
Lessons Learned:
• Improve communication that this was a different type of canvassing effort.
• Place turfs and canvassing materials at HQ to better accommodate people from
throughout the county.
• Stage canvassing during cooler months.
• Make an even greater effort to recruit canvassers, including personal outreach to
recruit experienced, tried and true canvassers and use text (in addition to phone
calls) to contact former canvassers.
Respectfully submitted:
Connie Hvidsten
Pat Cruz
Fay Macintosh
Ellen Hill
Jean Brophy
David Thompson