A month and a half ago I set out to do my best to help Barack Obama capture Pennsylvania on April 22nd.
Unlike my previous contributions of physically volunteering, the only way I felt like I could do my part was through fundraising (work has made it an impossibility to leave Connecticut right now).
With that in mind I started the fundraising drive, Insignificant States for Obama.
The motivation for this particular drive, well it was none other than former Clinton campaign chief Mark Penn:
"Could we possibly have a nominee who hasn’t won any of the significant states — outside of Illinois? That raises some serious questions about Sen. Obama."
I have volunteered for Barack Obama in three different states during this primary season: New Hampshire, South Carolina and Connecticut.
I was there for the heartbreaking loss in New Hampshire. I was there for our blowout victory in South Carolina. I was there for our somewhat shocking victory in Connecticut.
Throughout all my campaigning, win or lose, I have to say that Mark Penn's delegitimizing of certain states has been one of the most horrific aspects of this campaign. If you'll indulge me, I'd like to share with you some highlights of my campaigning so far in 2008.
New Hampshire
I began working in Southeastern New Hampshire during late December of 2007. At the time it was primarily phone-banking and minor canvassing. Throughout my calls I gained an appreciation for the magnitude of responsibility that is placed on New Hampshirites during their primary season. These people were bombarded with calls on a daily basis, and it wasn't uncommon for people answering the phone to tell me that I was the fourth or fith campaign to contact them that day.
The people in the Hampstead, New Hampshire area where I was stationed in the days before the primary were hard-working, middle-class whites mostly. Many of which were not necessarily liberal, but were dying for change nonetheless. Many of the people I talked to were exasperated that conditions in this country were deteriorating at the rate they are. Everywhere I went people were interested in having a talk about the election, even if they didn't necessarily support Obama.
With the polls looking so promising entering election day, it was almost surreal watching the results come in. I couldn't believe that after all our hard work that Clinton had managed to pull the win out. I was depressed, no, devestated is more of an appropriate word. I was ready to give up, until I heard Barack speak that night:
It was at that moment I knew I couldn't give up.
South Carolina
Nothing I previously experienced in life could have prepared me for what I encountered in Fairfield County, South Carolina. Growing up in an upper-middle-class white family in New Jersey, I learned about segregation and racism from textbooks. To me segregation, civil rights, slavery and racism were all archaic terms with no place in 2008.
What I found in South Carolina was a 95% black community dying for something to hope for. I saw American Citizens living in near or in poverty. I saw American Citizens who fully expected to be disenfranchised on election day. Some of them didn't trust this white kid and his friend that were knocking at their door, and many of them simply couldn't believe that Barack Obama could actually be President.
I'll never forget this exchange I had with a resident while phone-banking one afternoon:
Me: Good afternoon sir I am calling on behalf of the Barack Obama campaign here in South Carolina [...] can we count on your support?
Guy: I don't know, you gonna kill him?
Me: Excuse me?
Guy: You're a white guy, right?
Me: Yes sir.
Guy: Well, if I vote for him are you gonna kill him?
Me: No sir, I certainly will not. I suppport Barack all the way.
Guy: Well, than I'll vote for him.
At 7 pm when the polls officially closed, I saw the absolute joy on the faces of those around me as it was clear that it was a blowout. I saw the hope in the faces all around me, black or white. And I had a smile on my face that would last for days to come.
Connecticut
By the time I got around to joining the effort in my home state I wasn't far behind the rest of the crew. Obama's rise in Connecticut seemed to catch the campaign by surprise, but in a matter of days the office on Pratt Street in Hartford was fully loaded and ready to go.
I arrived about a week prior to the election to volunteer my services. Being a veteran of the CT political scene and a previous two-state volunteer, I got placed in charge of two staging locations in Hartford. At this point in the campaign it became clear that Obama not only had a shot in CT, but all over the country on Feb. 5. This energized the entire state from Hartford, to Storrs, to Bridgeport, New Haven and Stamford.
I'll never forget watching Barack Obama absolutely pack the Hartford Civic Center to the gills. In an arena that holds 16,500 people, Obama generated more excitement from the crowd than any UConn basketball game I've ever seen (believe me I've seen many).
On election day I'll never forget looking out the window at 7 a.m. It was pouring rain and a friend of mine said to me, "It's gonna suck to canvass today." To this I simply turned to him and said:
"It's going to suck for everybody out there. We're going to win this one on the ground today, it's going to come down to whoever wants it more."
In Connecticut, we simply wanted it more.
...
Folks, there are no "insignificant" states in this country. Everybody's vote counts. Whether your black, white, latino, asian, rich, poor, red-state, blue-state - it doesn't matter.
Barack Obama has been committed to winning everybody's vote.
This is why he has my undying support.
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Thanks for reading, and have a great day!