My husband’s best friend, Dave (they were college roommates almost 60 years ago!) organizes political action trips he calls “Campaign Adventure Tourism.”*
Dave is the kind of guy who makes friends wherever he goes and he maintains his friendships over the years. In the last decade, since he retired, he’s called on his group of large and geographically scattered friends many times to meet in various spots in the U.S. in which Democratic candidates (local, state and/or federal) could use some help. He finds free housing for us (through fellow Democrats in the area). People arrive at different points and leave at different points and spend their days knocking on doors. Dave makes contact with the campaign and so it’s all very friendly and efficient.
I’ve joined with them twice, my husband has done it more.
So this last weekend we stayed with Dave and other friends of his in the suburbs of Detroit, a wealthy (and Republican, IIRC) suburb called Bloomfield Hills. (I do believe our very own Brainwrap lives in an adjoining suburb.)
We were canvassing for Haley Stevens, who is running for Congress, in the Michigan 11. Our canvassing took place in her district, the surrounding, more middle-middle-class suburbs.
My husband was born in Detroit, his father was from Ann Arbor and his mother from Detroit, his father and both uncles graduated from U. Mich, and two of our daughters went to U. Mich, so we feel a sense of connection to Michigan. And the state really needs our and everybody’s help after years of toxic (literally**) Republican rule that resulted in terrible damage to many communities of color and the out-and-out poisoning of the people of Flint, Michigan.
But there was an extra special treat for me in this trip — I got to meet Peregrine Kate!! We all met for dinner in Ypsilanti, Michigan — about an hour from where we were staying (by midwestern standards, that’s like being in the same neighborhood). “All” meant Dave and my husband and older daughter and me, my husband’s very liberal cousins from Ypsilanti and Peregrine Kate. We talked for hours — it was hard to leave.
My little family group spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday, pretty much all day, knocking on doors, asking people to vote for Haley. We had a list from her campaign of Democrats and “persuadable” people.
What I found interesting is the two most persuasive things we said about Haley Stevens were 1) pointing out her role (under Obama) in helping save 200,000 auto industry jobs; and 2) protection of the provision that forces insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions.
One woman told us that she (and her husband) would definitely vote for Haley after talking to us because she had cancer last year. I had explained to her Haley’s commitment to that, and how the Republicans were pretending to protect the pre-existing condition provision but their plan would mean only that she would be able to buy insurance, but not that the insurance would actually cover that pre-existing condition. She was shocked by that.
We talked to several proud union members who were very clear they were voting for Democrats. We talked to one who told us he used to vote Republican but not any more. He told us he was voting straight Democratic! One of the things that made him most angry at the Republicans was Kavanaugh: his lies and his totally un-judicial (anti-judicial?) behavior.
Another woman told us how she was an independent and how Haley had tried to call her back personally so they could talk about issues for children with dyslexia, the most important issue to her. She was impressed with that and was planning to vote for Haley Stevens.
Another guy told us that he hadn’t “always voted Democratic” but he was voting straight Democratic this year. And he asked us (we didn’t know) whether there was a way to do that with one check-off for the whole Democratic slate.
We came across people who were non-committal or undecided or had already voted and felt their vote was private, but the list was good — no Trumpists, no jerks. Most people were extremely courteous. (One guy told us that he would pray and Jesus would tell him for whom to vote, then he sincerely thanked us and told us that what we were doing was a very good thing).
All in all, it was a rewarding experience.
Next Sunday we’re off to northern Virginia (only about an hour from our home) to campaign for Abigail Spanberger in her neck-and-neck battle with RWNJ David Brat, a district once considered “safely” Republican!
* I’m trying to get Dave to do some of his organizing here on Daily Kos. He’d be able to reach even more people. He’s already inclined to like us because of the diary: Grant and The Lost Cause Myth by Camillus.
**I used “literally” correctly because the Republicans are responsible for physically poisoning the people of Flint.