I don’t know about you guys, but I still think about the 2016 election a lot, especially the last two months, when I was working for Hillary down in Florida. These days, I’ll have just turned out my bedside lamp, put my face to my pillow, and suddenly a random memory from Brooksville will start replaying in my head.
The other day I remembered the shpiels I would give over the phone in my attempts to recruit volunteers. We were given a script, but we were told we didn’t have to use them. In fact, the scripts were kind of awful — if we had actually used them, I don’t think we would have gotten many shifts filled. The scripts had stuff in them like, “Our records indicate that you’re the kind of person who cares about blah, blah blah” and other lines that don’t exactly roll off the tongue.
About two weeks before Election Day, I came up with a phone pitch that worked quite well in terms of recruitment, but in retrospect seems cocky and ridiculous. I would say to people,
“We’re now somewhat confident that Hillary will win Florida, and that Democrats will retake the Senate. But we now think that with just a little extra push, we could even retake the House of Representatives! Your help canvassing could be the thing that puts us over the top..."
Oh boy, I’m going to hell for that, aren’t I? Yeesh. Oh well. That angle only lasted a few days before James Comey came out with his bullshit letter, and I was playing the fear card again (which usually works better), telling folks, “we’re really worried that Comey’s bogus statement has damaged Hillary’s chances. Can we count on you to...?"
Some of my colleagues were much more aggressive and um, better, in their phone pitches. I remember at this one phone bank at HQ in New Port Richey, I overheard an organizer saying to someone on the phone, “so you’re saying that between now and Election Day, there is zero time you can spend to prevent a Trump Presidency?” He got the person to sign up for a shift! Ah , memories.
How about you? Have you ever made calls for a campaign or progressive cause? If yes, what strategies worked best for getting volunteers and/or donations?
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