It was a Saturday morning in early September, 2008, and I was at the place where I was spending every Saturday that close to the 2008 election – in a local Obama for America office in suburban Detroit, where I was the Volunteer Coordinator. I got the canvassing teams organized first and sent them out to canvass our registered voters before the voters got tied up running their Saturday errands.
The phone canvassers were due in after 10 AM, but they started showing up early, full of energy and enthusiasm to elect Barack Obama. Fired up, Ready to Go was not just a slogan to us. It was our way of life. Around 10:30 AM, there was lull and I got a chance to change our Countdown to Election Day calendar. That’s when I noticed her.
She was white, in her 50’s, and not at all unusual in our suburban setting. She seemed to be looking around for somebody in authority. Since our campaign office managers hadn’t made it in yet, I had no problem assuming that position. “Hi,” I said, “Welcome to Obama for America. What can I do for you?”
“I’m here to help get out the vote,” she said.
“Great,” I said. “Would you be willing to join our phone canvassers?”
She seemed relieved. “Absolutely. I like to walk, but not in this heat”.
When she completed a volunteer information sheet, I checked her name. Wait a minute. I knew her. “Marie” was a PUMA Democrat. I had phone canvassed her shortly after the Democratic Convention, where Obama was nominated. She had identified herself as a member of People United Means Action, a PAC that opposed what they saw as the selection of Barack Obama by party leadership in 2008. She took great satisfaction in telling me how the Democrats had really screwed this up. Obama wasn’t qualified to be President. She was voting for McCain. I had tried to engage Marie in a discussion of the issues, but the conversation didn’t go anywhere. It’s hard to reason with someone’s emotion and impossible to voice a political rationale to anyone who is just plain pissed. I’ll always remember her saying, “this was our one chance for a woman President and the Democrats blew it.” Even on the phone, I could tell Marie was in tears.
But now here she was in the OFA office, calm and friendly, ready to elect the candidate who blew her own aspirations to elect the first woman to the American presidency to bits. Marie stayed for four hours that day, making phone calls. She even paid for the pizzas we brought in for the volunteers. She came back every weekend and a lot of weekdays after that, and she spent the entire Election Day at the office making calls. She had a special talent with the people on the voter lists we had marked as die-hard Hillary supporters who were still reporting “undecided” late in the game. Within about three weeks of Marie’s visit, I turned over leadership of the phone canvassing team to her and concentrated on door-to-door.
Marie is the reason this Bernie supporter will go the local Hillary office in a couple of weeks and spend the rest of my free time canvassing and doing everything I can to get out the vote for Hillary for President in November. Hillary wasn’t my first choice, then or now. But I will do everything I can to make sure that Hillary Clinton will be our first woman President. As of tomorrow, I’m with her.