I knew things were off to a great start when the first group of people I talked to included a musician at Reverend William Barber's church. For those who don't already know, Reverend Barber is arguably the most influential and inspiring leader our movement has today. He is the spirit behind North Carolina's Moral Mondays and a man dedicated to building the biggest tent possible whenever and wherever he can. I let Musician Steve know that I was the Rev's biggest fan girl and he let me know that I had some stiff competition for that title.
Having answered CREDO SuperPac's call for GOTV volunteers, I spent three hours knocking on doors in a beautiful Durham neighborhood. For someone who has spent so many years in South Africa, it was incredibly inspiring to see how diverse and integrated the area I was cavassing was. Beyond South Africa, it is a reality that didn't exist when I was growing up in North Carolina many years ago. The fact that it exists now shows me that, despite all of the regression going on in this state, many things have moved forward in the right direction over the decades.
I don't know how many doors I knocked on but I would guess around 50. Many weren't home but those who were made me happy to be doing what I was doing - especially Catherine and her husband who immediately got in their car to go early vote.
CREDO does a great job of getting things ready for volunteer canvassers. My directions for how to get to my assigned neighborhood were clear (although I didn't see them until after I had already gone in circles trying to figure out what Google Maps was telling me to do) and I was definitely sent to knock on the right doors.
By and large, the people on the other side of those doors understood that this is an important election and they were grateful to get the list of early voting times and places. Motivated by having someone personally come to talk to them about the fact that every vote matters in this tight race, several planned to take care of it today (Catherine and her husband at that very moment) and even more started making plans to vote tomorrow.
By the end of my shift, my feet were the only things tired of pounding the pavement to defeat Thom Tillis. Tonight, they are resting up because the first thing I did when getting back to HQ was sign up for another shift tomorrow.
If you are in Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan or North Carolina, consider contacting CREDO to see how you can help GOTV. We only have 9 days left before election day so all hands on deck!
When we show up, we win.
Forward together, not one step back!