I’m a lifelong Democrat. The first time I ever voted was in 1992 for Bill Clinton, then again in 1996. I wasn’t informed or engaged enough yet to vote in mid-term elections. The first time I really started to get more informed was in 2004 for John Kerry. The first time I ever voted in a mid-term election was in 2006. At that time, I found DailyKos and became a lurker for awhile before joining as “Liberal in A Red State”. I listened to Air America radio and watched MSNBC.
I bought Markos’ book “Crashing the Gates” and even went to a book signing here in Atlanta where I met him and had him sign my book. I went to a political protest rally in downtown Atlanta. I started creating little cards (business card size) with pro-Democratic messaging and would give them out to people put them on cars and such. I felt like I was politically engaged. I even started voting in primaries and run-off elections — you’re welcome America for Warnock + Ossoff. :-)
Over the last two years, the entire political landscape shifted in the United States as Republicans have completely gone off the rails and lost their collective minds. The rapid descent of Republicans into a authoritarian, fascist, Christian theocracy has been terrifying. When Roe was overturned I almost became paralyzed with fear. What happened to the land of the free? How is this even possible that Trump hasn’t been arrested for stealing top secret classified nuclear documents?
I decided that in order to maintain my sanity, I had to pour myself into helping Democrats get elected. For the last two months I have been channeling my visceral rage and fear into helping Democrats here in Georgia, up-and-down the ballot.
I just started helping Mike Ford running for US Congress GA-09 with his Twitter and email blasts. I am currently helping Josh Uddin who is running for Georgia State Senate and Louisa Shell Jackson who is running for Georgia State House. They have both been amazing to work with. I assist with email blasts for Josh, manage his twitter and help his campaign manager with a variety of tasks that come up. Even MC’d a recent fundraiser event.
For Louisa Shell Jackson, I met her at an event Josh invited me too and actually Bob Christian running for US Congress in GA-06 (who I wrote some content for his website) introduced me to her on September 9th. So in less than one month I have created her entire website from scratch, her logo, her yard signs, launched her Twitter account, wrote and designed her collateral, got her profile set up on Ballotpedia, got her Act Blue page fixed so it looks professional. I have quite literally poured myself into her campaign.
Pretty proud of her website: www.louisashelljackson4georgia.com
Check out this page on her site where I am trying to lift up all Democrats in Georgia: www.louisashelljackson4georgia.com/...
(Her URL is too long but it was the existing URL so I had to work with it. I would have recommended it be LSJackson4GA.com but I digress.)
Because all three of them are my candidates and their districts overlap I am hosting a Meet-and-Greet event at my house. I created the invitations and have been addressing them myself for my first political mailing. The little cards I created and printed are coming in handy. I have done my first political mailing with more to come. I am working with her VoteBuilder account to find the addresses to reach out too. (All the printing I am paying for are “in-kind donations”.)
Honestly, I never thought I would do any of this for one campaign let alone for three campaigns at the same time. I am pouring 6-9 hours per day into this effort and still feel like I’m not doing enough. I am creating new ways to leverage other ways to get their name out there, hence this diary.
I want to know that when the votes are counted on Nov 8, that I will be at peace in my own mind and heart, knowing that I have done everything I could to help get them elected. That I have poured myself into it and I will know that I did my very best.
To this end, with positive energy in my ask, I encourage everyone to please find something more to do in these last few weeks. I know that many people on this website are already volunteers and some of you are even super-volunteers who have been engaged in helping campaigns for far longer than me. Thank you for all that you do, keep up the great work!
For everyone else, who was kinda like me, engaged to vote, active commenter here and on social media, but little else, I encourage you to join in with me to do more.
Please find your down ballot Democrats and follow them online.
Heck you can follow
Mike twitter.com/...
Josh twitter.com/...
Louisa twitter.com/...
There is so much more that can be done. Sign postcards for candidates. Make phone calls, knock doors if that is your thing. Repost events. Show up at events. Help people register to vote as time is running out. It’s not too late to connect with a campaign and pitch in to help out.
Thank you to everyone who is engaged. We are in the home stretch and if you have the bandwidth to step it up and do even more for this final push across the finish line, please do so. Together we can win and win big up-and-down the ballot and across the entire nation.
Yes. We. Can.