It’s been a great few days since I last checked in...productive too! I am currently in suburban Philadelphia after a full couple of days in Blacksburg, Virginia, where great things are happening on the ground. My time is a little tight these last few days since I’ve been spending some time with extended family in the Philly area when I’m not out campaigning. As a result, I am publishing my VA and PA adventures in a two-part diary, one half today and the other half tomorrow (I hope!).
The day after the Obama/Clinton rally in Charlotte, I hit the road for Blacksburg, making a few stops along the way to see old friends (which always helps to break up a drive). I arrived at the VA Dems office in the late afternoon, with just enough time to make some phone calls to recruit volunteers for the upcoming weekend of action.
A handful of other volunteers were already hard at work making phone calls when I arrived, and I got right to work with my own calls once one of the organizers walked me through the script and got me a call list of my own. They pointed out that if I wanted to, I could make my calls outside, and I opted to do so after having been in the car for the better part of a day (plus, I sometimes have a hard time hearing if lots of other people are talking around me). Turns out I had arrived at the perfect time of day for making calls outside…the sun had started to set behind the buildings across the street, and a nice cool breeze blew gently though the air. I set up shop just in front of the brick wall and got to work.
For the most part, volunteer calls probably have one of the lowest “payoff” rates in terms of firm commits...makes sense, since it’s a huge ask in terms of people’s time and energy. That said, plenty of people expressed interest in helping later in the summer, and I have to give a hat tip to Harrold, an octogenarian from rural Virginia, who may have cemented his place as my favorite call of the entire election thus far. Harrold wasn't able to volunteer for the weekend's voter registration event, but he talked my ear off for about 5 minutes about how much he loved the Clintons and how he was working with his old Teamsters Union to get them on board with Hillary. "They're startin' to come back around to her!" he exclaimed in a thick southern accent. His commitment and enthusiasm were infectious; I sure hope there are plenty of other Harrolds on the ground winning over the hearts and minds of their colleagues!
After wrapping up for the night, I headed over to my supporter housing, where it turned out I was staying with another campaign organizer. That was actually a bit of good news, since I had a brief moment of panic upon realizing the housing coordinator had never actually sent me the address of the house I was supposed to go to, just my host’s phone number, and of course, I wasn’t able to get a hold of said host at that moment. Fortunately, I was able to get the address from said other organizer, and I headed over without much further ado.
My supporter housing was a gorgeous cabin-style house on top of a hill (dare I call it the “Hill house”? :-p) about 15 minutes from the office. I arrived at about 10:30 p.m. to a perfectly clear night sky with every star imaginable brightly twinkling in the black canvas overhead. Before I went inside I seriously spent about 5 minutes star-gazing as only a city person would. My home city of Chicago has many things, but a full sky of stars is not one of them, so whenever I get a chance I have to appreciate the view!
The other organizer staying at this gorgeous house graciously helped me carry in my bags, and we got to spend a few minutes chatting, drinking beer, and munching on fresh cherries that our host had left out on the counter for us while he entered in his data from the day. H. is working to organize several counties in rural SW Virginia. Turns out he had worked on the Bernie campaign during the primary, but had quickly switched over to work for Hillary once the primaries ended. “It really wasn’t that far of a leap,” he said when I asked what inspired him to get involved with the Hillary campaign after having supported Bernie. From his perspective, the two really weren’t that far apart on the issues. He also thought that his work for the Bernie campaign was a real benefit given his organizing assignment; his rural counties had gone overwhelmingly for Bernie during the primary, so he felt well-equipped to speak to the concerns of the people he encountered on the campaign trail. I asked if it seemed like most of them were getting behind Hillary?
“For the most part, though it’s a little slow,” he replied. News had just broken about the possible (now confirmed) joint event with Bernie and Hillary in New Hampshire. When I mentioned that plans for that event had just come out, H. got visibly excited. A Bernie endorsement, he thought, would hopefully go a long way toward getting his last holdouts on board the Hillary train. We spent a few more minutes talking about our respective adventures on the campaign trail, and then it was time to call it a day before hitting the phones again.
The next day, I went back down to the Blacksburg office a little after 10 a.m., ready to put in a full day of phone calls. H. needed some help with volunteer calls to his counties; he was organizing several weekend voter registration and phone banking events, and hoped to start building a volunteer base to carry both through the fall. After grabbing a burner phone from the back table, I sat down on the floor of the Blacksburg VA Dems office and over the course of about 6 hours, I churned through 300 volunteer calls, unearthing 2-8 volunteers for the weekend, depending on the maybes (for perspective, that actually is an ok response rate for these types of calls) and 35 potential volunteers for later events.
By the time I hit my 300th call, my brain had completely turned to mush and I joked with one of the organizers, who was now in Virginia after having worked Iowa, Colorado, and Idaho, that I fully expected to dream in phone numbers that night. He laughed, and proceeded to entertain us with tales of dreaming in spreadsheets. I guess when you are a campaign organizer or volunteer, to paraphrase Van Halen, “That’s what dreams are made of.”
I have to say I was a little sad to depart VA, between the beautiful view from my bedroom window and the hardworking organizers I encountered at the VA Dems office. I have every confidence that they will make great things happen in and around Blacksburg, so if you are a VA Tech person or if you just happen to live around there, go get involved! They need your help; this area will be important for winning VA in the fall, and I promise you will have a great time working with them.
Next up in Pt. II: My adventures in Philadelphia. Stay tuned!
Roadtripping for Hillary is an independent initiative by violining247 to travel across the eastern swing states in an effort to elect Hillary and other downballot Democrats in November. To support this effort, please consider a donation through GoFundMe.