Hello, friends! I am new to the DailyKos community, and I am so excited to be here!
I know we’re all feeling frantic right now, but I hope you’ll indulge me and let me tell you a little story that might put some wind in your sails as we all push toward the Election Day finish line.
A few months ago, I didn’t have a job, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next, and I was, you know, living in a pandemic. I decided to spend some time volunteering, calling people and (hopefully) helping them register to vote, and I wound up talking to a woman named Beth in North Carolina.
Beth told me she was sitting this election out. That she and her friends do not vote and don’t talk about voting or elections. But we started talking about that stuff, and by the end of the call, Beth was actually registering to vote online and committed to voting this year.
Before we hung up, she said, “If I’d had a friend like you years ago, I probably would’ve voted a lot sooner.”
I hung up from that call and burst into tears, wanting to go jump in my car and find all the Beths who needed help. Who didn’t know how to register. Who didn’t think this election was important. Who hadn’t been exposed to the power of voting.
I knew then what I wanted to do: I wanted to create a community and a resource for people like Beth and her friends, because friends who vote together become friends who volunteer together, who march together, who advocate together and who ultimately change the world together.
So I founded the grassroots group called (you guessed it) Friends Vote Together, and if you have a moment, I’d be honored if you took a moment to check out what we’re up to on Instagram, Facebook and our website. Especially if you have a friend or family member who maybe needs a little extra push to get involved in these next critical last two weeks, you can tell them that Friends Vote Together is designed for people just like them, people who maybe want to help, but aren’t sure how to get started.
If you’re interested in learning more about FVT, I also wrote up a Medium post that explains more.)
But that’s not the whole story I wanted to tell y’all. (And don’t worry, that free special offer I mentioned in the headline is coming.)
You may have seen the story this weekend in The New York Times about the “Midwestern moms” who cast their votes for Donald Trump in 2016, but now, they’re not only ardent Biden supporters; they’re also doing the grunt work we’re all doing to try to ensure a blue wave.
One of them, Kate, even said about becoming an activist, “It’s just not something that I ever would have described myself as, if you talked to me a year ago.” Later on, the piece notes that Kate “gathered with three other women, all mothers of young children, to discuss their political evolutions.”
I hope that small detail fills you with as much hope and enthusiasm as it did for me. We are winning this thing one backyard, one block, one neighborhood at a time. That’s in large part to activists you like, who have been participating in the political ground game for years — but in 2020, it’s also in large part to people like Kate, who are just walking into their power as engaged, informed citizens.
And if you’re having one of those moments when the enormity of our goal overwhelms you and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s your 100% FREE OFFER! Drop a comment on the Friends Vote Together Instagram asking for help and we’ll slide into your DM’s with a free, personalized phone-banking or text-banking plan for you this week — one that works for you AND for saving our democracy!
And/or, just drop a line to say hi — and let me know how you think we can reach more of the Beths and the Kates out there in America who need a little push toward becoming more civically engaged voters. Finding them, educating them and motivating them is my new life’s work, but like anything else in life, it’s great to have some help along the way from friends like you.
Your friend,
Cate at Friends Vote Together