The Anecdotal Lawn Signs Megathread

[Schiff for Senate]

Well earlier this year there were a lot of signs - mostly for local offices - in the Bay Area I saw, but at that point, I don’t think I’d found this thread, and besides, most of those races were non-competitive or irrelevant on a larger scale.

But now, driving back with my family after visiting some family in LA, I found one (1) sign that should be much more relevant, so I’ll share it here - saw a Mike García sign. It was in a fairly rural area, but still - it’s a competitive seat, double digit Biden seat; Garcia’s one of the most endangered incumbents this year.

[Schiff for Senate]

https://twitter.com/JakeMGrumbach/status/1567254983036514304
OK, which of you did this?

Honestly though, it makes enough sense. Unlike gubernatorial races, senatorial elections, needless to say, have a national impact. And if you live in a safe red or safe blue state - or a state without a senate race this year - as most Americans do, then this is a good way of showing support for the national party, beyond your own (non-competitive) race (if you even have one - if you don’t, then you don’t have any senate candidate in your own state to support anyway).

Although, to be a nitpick, while the other races can all be considered competitive (though a few, like NC and FL, would probably be stretches), UT, sadly, is not remotely competitive - Safe R.

What is really shows is also how politically aware the average voter is - probably much more than they were a decade ago, though maybe I’m wrong about that. Like, unless you’re genuinely totally apolitical or whatever - you can expect somebody in, say, Montana, to be actively following, or at least be fairly aware of, senate races in PA and AZ and GA and NH. Or at least it’s likelier to find people like that than it was earlier (I think).

[West_Midlander]

In the past few months, I saw a Bo Hines sign and a few still up for the R who lost the school board at-large seat. I think Sheriff signs are about even in the county where I live (not Wake) and I see usually a dozen or more Beasley signs a week (on average) since I pass by Cheri's HQ in Raleigh pretty often and they have CHERI spelled out on the windows made out of signs.

There are also quite a few Donnie Harrison signs on a route I take often, including some large ones posted up at homes along the roadside.

[wbrocks67]

A few more Shapiro signs have popped up in my area of Montgomery County. Still more Shapiro than Fetterman, interestingly enough, at least in my area.

Have yet to see a single Mastriano or Oz sign. The county GOP appears to not have put any up yet either in main parts of town like they usually do.

[coloradocowboi]

Where I live (DTLA) - not a sign in sight.

Where my bf lives (Hancock park area/ktown): lots of signs for Karen bass, kenneth mejia, Mitch o farrell, and bob hertz berg. Somehow fewer Caruso signs than during the summer

[GeorgiaModerate]

Today I saw a box truck parked in a driveway on a nearby busy road with the sides painted as a Kemp campaign sign.  I haven't seen any other gubernatorial signs, and none at all from the Senate race since one of my neighbors took down his Walker sign a while back (I don't know why).  There are a few signs for downballot races, but most of those are left over from the primary.  This area just isn't very big on campaign signs, I guess.

[Ferguson97]

I drove through upstate NY for RenFair, and saw a TON of Pat Ryan signs.

[Kamala's side hoe]

Haven’t seen any signs for congressional races. I’ve only seen Betsy Johnson signs so far- specifically in Central Beaverton and along Highway 26 in downtown Portland.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

seen a few Kay Ivey signs but most signs around here are for local races. Probate judge, sheriff, etc. All Republican which makes sense since the areas I see them in are south of campus, which are the most R areas in city limits.

[Schiff for Senate]

Saw 3 anti-Newsom signs on the way up from LA to Alameda County. Something about Newsom’s policy on dam water IIRC.

[Aurelius]

Saw 3 anti-Newsom signs on the way up from LA to Alameda County. Something about Newsom’s policy on dam water IIRC.

Was this along I-5? Those signs have been there for as long as I can remember, attacking whichever governor is in power and slogans like "is growing food a waste of water?" I-5 runs through the Westlands Irrigation District, which covers the driest areas of the central valley and where farmers grossly overdrew water for decades and are now butthurt that they can't keep using the same amount of water they used before.

[Schiff for Senate]

Saw 3 anti-Newsom signs on the way up from LA to Alameda County. Something about Newsom’s policy on dam water IIRC.

Was this along I-5? Those signs have been there for as long as I can remember, attacking whichever governor is in power and slogans like "is growing food a waste of water?" I-5 runs through the Westlands Irrigation District, which covers the driest areas of the central valley and where farmers grossly overdrew water for decades and are now butthurt that they can't keep using the same amount of water they used before.

It was the I-5 indeed. Thanks for the background information.

[bagelman]

Yard signs are popping up but they're all for the state congress race.

[This user has not been convicted of 34 felonies]

https://twitter.com/JakeMGrumbach/status/1567254983036514304

OK, which of you did this?

Joke's on you, this is my lawn--I'm planning to fraudulently vote for all of these candidates.

this is a joke i will not commit voter fraud in any state

[wbrocks67]

Oh, I also drove through a bit of Gottheimer's NJ district over the weekend too (unknowingly). Saw tons of signs for him.

[One Term Floridian]

I live and commute all over the OC. So far I’ve seen tons of Katie Porter (D) signs and Michelle Steel (R) signs, just a few of Porter’s opponent Scott Baugh (R) exclusively in Huntington Beach and have yet to see any of Steel’s opponent Jay Chen (D) signs. Bodes well for Porter and Steel I guess.

For uncompetitive seats, I’ve seen quite a few Lou Correa (D) signs and Robert Garcia (D) signs and none of their opponents’ signs.

[skbl17]

September 19 update in my swingy north Cobb County (GA) area: GOP still winning the "commercial property" sign war handily, but there seems to be a skew towards down-ballot candidates. Still no signs in people's yards.

- No signs for Warnock and only one for Walker;
- One sign each for Abrams and Kemp;
- A good number of signs for Loudermilk (GOP incumbent in GA-11; Safe R race);
- A LOT of signs for Robert Trim (the R trying to hold the open and now much-bluer HD-35, one of the few Dem pickup opportunities in the state House this year,) just one for Lisa Campbell (the Dem trying to flip the seat);
- A LOT of signs for local Kennesaw city council candidates.

[It’s so Joever]

September 19 update in my swingy north Cobb County (GA) area: GOP still winning the "commercial property" sign war handily, but there seems to be a skew towards down-ballot candidates. Still no signs in people's yards.

- No signs for Warnock and only one for Walker;
- One sign each for Abrams and Kemp;
- A good number of signs for Loudermilk (GOP incumbent in GA-11; Safe R race);
- A LOT of signs for Robert Trim (the R trying to hold the open and now much-bluer HD-35, one of the few Dem pickup opportunities in the state House this year,) just one for Lisa Campbell (the Dem trying to flip the seat);
- A LOT of signs for local Kennesaw city council candidates.

the fact we are losing the sign war in Northern Cobb county should be alarming. What was it like in 2020?

[skbl17]

September 19 update in my swingy north Cobb County (GA) area: GOP still winning the "commercial property" sign war handily, but there seems to be a skew towards down-ballot candidates. Still no signs in people's yards.

- No signs for Warnock and only one for Walker;
- One sign each for Abrams and Kemp;
- A good number of signs for Loudermilk (GOP incumbent in GA-11; Safe R race);
- A LOT of signs for Robert Trim (the R trying to hold the open and now much-bluer HD-35, one of the few Dem pickup opportunities in the state House this year,) just one for Lisa Campbell (the Dem trying to flip the seat);
- A LOT of signs for local Kennesaw city council candidates.

the fact we are losing the sign war in Northern Cobb county should be alarming. What was it like in 2020?

This is what I remember for 2020; even then there was a bit of a downballot skew:

- It was actually hard to find Biden or Trump signs in people's yards, which was weird. You could find them if you knew where to look, but it wasn't a "Beto 2018" style-thing, at least from my memory. There seemed to be a Trump-skew, but that was all on commercial property (except for this one family that hung this GIANT "TRUMP 2020" flagpole in their yard - that was a few minutes from our subdivision. They didn't take it down until months and months after Biden's inauguration, where it was replaced with a "NO MASKS" flag).

- Ed Setzler (R) was the incumbent rep in Biden-voting HD-35, and everywhere you looked there was an Ed Setzler sign - in people's yards (some even next to Warnock/Ossoff signs), next to businesses, all over roadside property, you couldn't go 10 feet without seeing a yellow "ED setzler" sign. He won by just 300 votes, but if you just looked at the signs, you'd think he would have won by 20 points.

- I do remember seeing more Warnock/Ossoff signs in the runoff than in the general election campaign. Not that they weren't there, but there seemed to be a greater concentration of them in December versus October.

- There's this one farm-like property (it doesn't seem like a personal residence) that goes all in for every Republican up and down the ballot; the front part of the property would be coated with GOP signs: Trump, Loeffler, Perdue, Loudermilk, Setzler, Tippins (R state senator), you name it. Right now, there's only signs for Loudermilk - no Walker, no Kemp, no Setzler (he's running for the open state senate seat now), none of that. Not to say those signs won't be appearing soon.

I think it's too early to draw any conclusions regarding the "sign war", especially since all the signs I've seen so far are popping up on commercial property.

Also, fwiw all the mailers and canvassers I've gotten so far are from Warnock and Abrams's campaigns. We'll see just how much that matters, but I do remember the Dems running an outstanding (and personally, with the sheer number of texts I would get, kinda annoying) GOTV operation in the 2021 runoffs.

[Progressive Pessimist]

September 19 update in my swingy north Cobb County (GA) area: GOP still winning the "commercial property" sign war handily, but there seems to be a skew towards down-ballot candidates. Still no signs in people's yards.

- No signs for Warnock and only one for Walker;
- One sign each for Abrams and Kemp;
- A good number of signs for Loudermilk (GOP incumbent in GA-11; Safe R race);
- A LOT of signs for Robert Trim (the R trying to hold the open and now much-bluer HD-35, one of the few Dem pickup opportunities in the state House this year,) just one for Lisa Campbell (the Dem trying to flip the seat);
- A LOT of signs for local Kennesaw city council candidates.

the fact we are losing the sign war in Northern Cobb county should be alarming. What was it like in 2020?

One Walker sign in Cobb, anecdotally reported, suggests that to you?

[skbl17]

Yeah, there's a very significant downballot skew in the signage I've seen. This is just a guess on my part, but it's probably because most people know who Warnock, Walker, Kemp, Abrams, et al. are, but nobody except political stalwarts know who Ed Setzler, Lisa Campbell, Robert Trim, or JoAnn Burrell (county commissioner) are - so they have to get their names out there.

I wouldn't read too much into this at this point; maybe if I see GOP signs blanketing people's yards and rear bumpers, then I'd be a bit worried if I was a Democrat.

Personal observation, but you'd think there'd be more Kemp signs in all the GOP-voting storefronts and parking lots, but nope, I've only found one so far. Maybe the hordes of Kemp and Walker signs will pop up as we move into October, but I don't know.

I go out for lunch pretty often, so I'll come back to this thread every now and then and update y'all. I should point out that we've got a pretty good mix of Biden and Trump precincts here (it was all Trump in 2016), and the percentages aren't too crazy.

[wbrocks67]

I will say, in my area of Montco, it's a swingy-area that has evolved a bit more blue-ish recently but still will elect the "right" Republicans - usually every election cycle I get terribly frustrated because the local GOP party is *very* good at getting their signs out early on all the local highways/commercial property/shopping center areas, even last year with just the super local races.

This year, it's still sort of early I guess, but based on their typical standards, not really so and yet I've seen... no signs whatsoever for Mastriano or Oz. I think I wrote in here that I did see one day, 3 Mastriano signs near one of our exits onto the highway and then two days later they were magically gone lol.

[West_Midlander]

Tons of Deborah Ross signs in Raleigh. Seems a bit of a waste though, since the district is safe blue. What do y'all think?

Not 100% relevant but I also received a mailer from my local D State Senate candidate. For some reason, Rs have been really dropping the ball on mailers in the last few years and sending me stuff late if ever. Maybe they think it's a waste to reach out to a D-primary-voting-Independent.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

- I saw a Tim Ryan bumper sticker on a window in German Village (very affluent area of Columbus), but that’s no surprise.  

- There was a sloppily arranged Terrie Jamison sign (Dem running for OH SC against Justice Fischer) and a few for that conservative third-party guy who got knocked of the ballot in the Governor’s race right by where you get off the highway in rural Delaware County.  These were likely put up by the campaigns themselves.  

- In the extremely pro-Trump county where I work, there are ~5-6 properties with Trump 2024 yard signs.  The only post-primary signs I’ve seen for other Republicans (there were tons for one of DeWine’s primary opponents and even a few “impeach DeWine” signs during primary season) are on one lawn that has about 6 variations of “Let’s go, Brandon” signs, two Trump yard signs, a Jim Jordan sign, but nothing for Vance or DeWine.  

[wbrocks67]

If there was any thought that Dem enthusiasm was low in Dem areas, that's gone now. Drove through Jenkintown/Abington in Montco yesterday and the amount of Shapiro signs was insane. It was like every house. I'd say like half of them additionally had a Fetterman sign, but the Shapiro signs were everywhere.