A STUNNING EXAMPLE OF UNUSUAL COOPERATION
How CA Dems connected with the grassroots
By Steve Schear
The California Democratic Party features canvassing opportunities in five different congressional districts. CADEM (pronounced Kay-Dem) is trying to flip House seats in Southern California and the Central Valley, seats currently held by Republicans in districts that Biden won in 2020. Not surprising.
What is surprising is that the canvassing began in October 2023. Also surprising is the training given to volunteers to encourage meaningful conversations at the door. And all canvasses are coordinated by both state Democrats and grassroots organizations. All highly unusual because few state Democratic parties do any collaboration with the grassroots.
How It Started
The early canvassing program is the result of an exemplary collaboration between CADEM and the Bay Area Coalition, or BAC. The collaboration began in 2020, when Cecilia Minalga was Bay Area Director for the state Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign. "I wanted to build a coalition,” said Minalga, who is also on the steering committee of the Grassroots Collaboration Project, “but I had a naive idea about how to reach out to groups. I got negative comments from both sides about how much they didn't want to work with each other."
However, Minalga persevered, approaching grassroots organizations with humility, apologizing for some mistakes the party had made. Rusty Hicks, CADEM Chair since 2019, encouraged the party to begin "forever organizing." The party stopped waiting until a few months before elections to mobilize field operations. With Hicks’ support, and Cecilia's work, the party also developed a structure that gave grassroots organizations a real voice in how organizing was done.
Not long after, a new organization came into play – BAC, the Bay Area Coalition, created in 2021 by Judith Bolker, Cecilia Minalga, and other grassroots leaders. "We started out with only five or six organizations," Bolker said, "and now we have forty. We have expanded beyond the San Francisco Bay Area to include Sacramento, Yolo County and Los Angeles."
BAC’s rapid growth reflects smart organizing by its leaders. Its mission is to effectively utilize people-power to support campaigns. Most importantly, BAC respects the autonomy of grassroots organizations. "Each group mobilizes its own members," said Bolker. "Each group has its own Mobilize link and invitation to canvass. We provide the infrastructure for canvassing, voter registration and phone banking, and our groups provide the volunteers."
Collaboration Makes the Work SO Much Easier
BAC makes organizing much easier for both CADEM and for grassroots organizations. The coalition provides information and training to its members as it coordinates work on common projects, such as evicting targeted GOP House members. The BAC-CADEM collaboration leads to both effective canvassing and the efficient allocation of volunteer resources.
Since October, CADEM/BAC canvassers have contributed 600 volunteer days, knocking on over 14,000 doors. The grassroots organizations supply the volunteers and CADEM cuts the turf. CADEM shares control over the canvassing with the grassroots organizations. CADEM and BAC also offer an excellent training on deep canvassing – every Tuesday, 7 p.m. PT, 10 p.m. ET, here.
What We Can Learn
Here are a few lessons from the BAC/CADEM experience:
A regional coalition can be very helpful wherever there are many pro-democracy grassroots groups. But organizers must respect the autonomy of groups they invite into the coalition.
State Democratic parties that respectfully engage with grassroots organizations can find a tremendous source of volunteers. Collaboration between the state party and local and regional groups can enable early, effective field operations that can be the deciding factor in competitive districts.
Competent state Democratic party leaders, such as Rusty Hicks, who recognize the value of grassroots activists and the power of using effective organizers, make successful collaborative field operations easier.
Six months before Election Day, it is impossible to predict whether the BAC/CADEM field operations will lead to Democratic wins in targeted districts. But the likelihood of victory has significantly increased thanks to well-coordinated events fueled by hundreds of trained volunteers. “Working together makes everything so much easier and effective,” Cecilia Minalga said.
This article provides a thoughtful example of how trust and cooperation can be built between party and grassroots. How exciting to be at the forefront of such heightened levels of collaboration between traditional organization and innovation. It is extremely difficult for bureaucracies to reinvent themselves, yet that's often what needs to happen for the success of the mission. The infusion of grassroots organizations and their very different means of interacting with the environment is an invitation to disrupt that, handled skillfully working together will lead to increased success for Democrats.
Collaboration brings an important unintended benefit to our democracy: with more and more people participating comes increased investment. As we've been painfully reminded in recent years, democracy requires our participation. Grass roots organizations meet people where they are at, often provide a variety of training opportunities and make use of volunteered time and talents - it's low risk yet satisfying for participants who gain knowledge and friendships, and feel a sense of accomplishment. They serve as a welcoming gateway into democratic action that yields voters, candidates and donative dollars for the party.
For many reasons, the working relations developed by grassroots organizers and local parties deserves study and reflection!
Our Bay Area Coalition also leads twice-weekly Zoom phone banking into the critical California House Districts (and battleground states AZ & NV) so volunteers can join us from home to win back the House. Our experienced coaches train volunteers thoroughly. The House majority runs through CA.
Bay Area Coalition also leads training on effective voter messaging and active listening so volunteers can be as productive as possible. The Bay Area Coalition Messaging Library provides messages in the 3V format to help connect with voters. Please join us to canvass, register voters, and phone bank for battleground states and House Districts -- and for our many trainings:
https://bayareacoalition.org/