Precincts: The Beating Heart of Democracy

A concrete plan for reaching out — neighbor to neighbor

By Judy Kincaid

It’s time to take control of our Democratic precincts and turn them into something we have not seen before: organizations that highlight Democratic values and work year-round to build democracy, community, and resilience.

Democracy requires knowing what people want from their government and what the government is actually doing. A group of Democrats in Durham, NC is planning a new initiative to show everyday people that Democrats are listening to them, care about them, and want to help with their concerns. The initiative will begin with a precinct-based Listening Tour.

The Listening Tour will recruit local volunteers to knock on targeted doors of neighbors within their precinct, with periodic follow-up with the same voters by the same volunteer. Volunteers will identify themselves as neighbors interested in hearing what issues their neighborhood thinks local, state, and national elected representatives have not adequately addressed. At some point in these initial conversations, volunteers will also identify themselves as Democrats.

Volunteers will then gather and compile responses, reporting them back to elected representatives. Periodic follow-up visits will provide numerous opportunities to ask these same people how it’s going for them and to slowly introduce them to new sources of information, meanwhile explaining the differences between the two parties on issues of concern.

Community is a by-product of such face-to-face interactions. But the Durham initiative is also adding another community-building component: a Democratic Party Help Hub. The Help Hub will be a virtual central resource library of existing helping agencies within the community, both government and private, plus a database of volunteer expertise to help navigate these resources. Each precinct will have at least one help leader who can speedily access the Help Hub to provide support and information for people in their precinct.

Because many citizens do not know where to turn for specific assistance, helping organizations will be delighted to have more people know about their services. The Listening Tour will help identify people who could benefit from the Help Hub. In addition to providing practical assistance, this will help people appreciate the benefits provided by their tax dollars, benefits due primarily to Democratic-sponsored legislation.

Resilience will grow as a result of the foregoing activities. Resilience and community will also get a boost from our precinct-based workshops building the basic skills required as we face more frequent disruptions, such as climate disasters, pandemics, and electrical grid shutdowns. Safety is a big driver for a lot of people, so let’s use safety to attract folks to short neighborhood events (snacks and childcare provided) about topics that might interest them, such as first aid, CPR or mosquito management. Feedback from the Listening Tour will identify subjects for neighborhood workshops and actions, demonstrating how Democrats listen and respond.

To make this model outreach replicable, the Durham initiative has identified a variety of components. These include: 1) the first set of targeted households will be those where nobody voted in 2024; 2) volunteers will have 2 to 3 weeks to finish their assigned territory on their own time; 3) a small pilot test will occur before county-wide precinct meetings in the spring of 2025, and these precinct meetings will be used to attract many more volunteers; 4) some precincts will need paid part-time organizers who live in the precinct; and 5) precincts will post yard signs with contact information: “Ask me how the Democrats can help.”

Judy Kincaid lives in Durham NC and is the founder of Leaflet Every Doorstep, a precinct-based project featured in The Grassroots Connector in April 2024. Neighborhood volunteers dropped leaflets on every precinct doorstep once a month contrasting the Democrats and Republicans on a variety of issues. Click here for a project description and 2023 year-end report.