Canvassing- it works! Knocking doors and talking to people, going to where they live to engage with them!
Another weekend on the doors in my district. We'd been going strong prior to my incumbent Republican opponent fleeing, and we're going even stronger now- there's a very real chance the Republicans won't even field a candidate in this district now- after all, last November, my friend Josh Throneburg absolutely trounced Republican Bob Good in my district 61-39. There's been rumors here and there, but none of that truly matters. I'm not changing anything about what I'm doing and why; I got into this race in March 2022, long before anyone else, knowing I intended to make a positive case for myself and the future of our Commonwealth.
The opportunity to be in the field and talk to voters is one I've always relished; if I had my druthers, it's all I would do. Meeting with and talking to people, building a rapport with them, and finding out what we need to do in Richmond to make their lives better- the time I spend getting to do that is what makes all the mundane drudgery of campaign life (calling people and begging them for money, high school-esque drama in political circles, and a constant barrage of paperwork) worthwhile.
And it's been incredible. We did some back-of-the-napkin math at the beginning of our campaign on how many people I've personally seen and treated in our community, from working in the Pediatric ICU, to being a school nurse, to working in the ER. The number we came up for a total on that was a five-digit one; but even knowing that logically, every time I meet someone who says "I remember you from when I had meningitis!" or "You took care of me when I had my stroke!" or "You gave my daughter a popsicle after she got stitches!", it's a sincere and incredible honor all over again.
Now, clearly, even in the universe of voters we're targeting, that's not a universal response. Our voter database is, to put it diplomatically, ahh... a bit dodgy at times. One of the biggest reasons for that is because there has never been a systemic effort at any level to identify and build a rapport with the voters in my district. For years, our area has been relentlessly gerrymandered, and the powers that be at the state and national level have ignored us. Oh, sure: in 2018, they parachuted in to help outstanding candidates Leslie Cockburn and Cameron Webb, but it was far too little, too late. And every year, every election cycle, another campaign has to start from scratch, all over again- spending precious resources to reinvent the wheel.
So sometimes, because of that, our targeting is off. Twice, I've had someone scream "NO DEMOCRATS!" and slam the door in my face. I've now had a half a dozen encounters with people who've said "You don't need to speak to my wife, I speak for her, and she's not interested/doesn't vote/is a Republican/etc." But otherwise, even folks who haven't been interested have been (at worst) pretty milquetoast in their responses, and I haven't had the opportunity to really test my rhetorical skills in reaching out to someone who isn't a progressive.
That changed dramatically last weekend.
I knocked on the door of a voter. "Hi there," I said to the gentleman who opened the door, "my name is Kellen Squire; I'm an ER Nurse and I'm running to represent our community in the Virginia House of Delegates."
He eyed me warily. "Yeah? What's your platform?" he asked me.
"If you're talking about my top two or three priorities," I started, "number one, as an ER Nurse, would clearly be healthcare. I'm a bit bia-"
"What about guns?" he asked me, midsentence. Ahh... that’s how it’s gonna be, I thought to myself. But I smiled and soldiered on.
"Well, as an ER Nurse," I told him, "gun violence is something that isn't just a hypothetical issue to me. The first time you have to treat a kid for gunshot wounds, it changes you. So-"
"But the Second Amendment," he said, interrupting me again, "is there to protect our rights to own guns and to protect us against tyranny."
"Look, the Second Amendment was never intended to be a suicide pact," I told him firmly. "It's not an unlimited right, and it was never intended to be one."
This rebuttal earned me a grin. "Oh, really?" he asked me, smiling. "Well, neither is the right to have an abortion!"
He might as well have said "CHECKMATE, LIB!" out loud; I could practically hear it telepathically. Which is why I almost felt bad when, in response, a Cheshire grin sprang onto my face unbidden. It made his falter just a little; I think he was actually expecting me to back down or flee. I got the feeling he'd heard that argument made on a podcast or radio show, and was suddenly and unexpectedly given the opportunity to use it in the wild... and it wasn't going the way he’d thought it would.
"Well, sir, you're not wrong," I said, the grin evident in my tone. "The right to have an abortion isn't unlimited. Abortions are way harder to get than guns."
This was not the response this voter was expecting.
Not at all.
Now, I have to admit something: this conversation ended up being far less dramatic than it seems here on this screen, as you read it. The initial tete-e-tete was interesting to dance through, but following that, we had a pretty respectful conversation. It ended amicably, took maybe just over five minutes; certainly not ten. When I proved I knew as much about guns as he did, but wasn't afraid of discussing things like assault weapon and high-capacity magazine bans, it took him aback. "Tell me you've never been to the range and seen someone you know shouldn't have access to a gun," I challenged him, which he couldn’t argue against.
Honestly, the only reason I'm writing about this interaction at all was one of the parting comments he made while I was batting back on the disinformation he'd been fed. At one point, he tried to use the "abortion on demand up until birth" line on me, which I wasn't surprised to hear. I told him how many roadblocks Virginia already puts in place for those, that they are universally to save women's lives, and, as a kicker, told him I only knew of two "late term" abortions that had been done in Virginia in the last twenty years.
He frowned. "If it doesn't really happen like that," he asked, "then why would (the GOP) keep talking about it?"
My eyelid twitched involuntarily as I attempted to avoid having an aneurysm from the volume my internal screaming reached.
Now, I've been pretty unapologetic about the fact that I believe "message" and "messenger" are not two distinct categories. Who’s doing the talking matters just as much, if not more, then the words that come out of their mouth. It's been one of the key arguments I've made for my own candidacy. But I want you all to understand that nothing- NOTHING- I said to that voter was groundbreaking. Nothing I said was something that couldn't also be by someone else.
Sure, it probably helped I was a gun owner to build a rapport with him on why red flag laws and universal background checks are essential, and with my personal experience with abortion care I have more confidence about batting back at the falsehoods the GOP spews on the regular. But the key and only difference it took to make an impact in that conversation was simply showing up where he lived and talking to him like a human being.
It made me consider- not for the first time- that this is the price we pay for political campaigns that are run like Spirit Halloween stores. Particularly in communities like mine, we simply don't invest in the people here. We don't invest in a consistent effort to build infrastructure, to reach out proactively, to do any of the things that conservatives have been doing for decades. And when someone wants to run again, we make them pay- literally and figuratively- to start from scratch!
Hell, the conservatives around here do issue-based canvassing in off years! Why aren't we doing that, so people know that the issues that are important to them- and let me remind all of you that the progressive issues we fight for here on a daily basis are the true American center, the issues that a majority of Americans believe in!
I don't care if I don't have a Republican opponent this fall, or any other fall. That- building a continual rapport with the people of our district- is exactly what I'm committed to doing. Because this race can't be about just me- it has to be about more. And if it has to be me alone doing it, then I'll damn well be doing it alone.
But, then again... it won’t be me doing it alone. Because it’ll be you- all of you- standing behind me that’ll power me to get it done. This is exactly what the grassroots campaign we are building is designed to do, but I can’t do it without your support.
Chip in today. We’ve built our campaign $5, $10, and $25 at a time, lifted on the shoulders of thousands of people who believe, as we do, that working class candidates belong in public office; that people connected with, and going through, the same problems faced by everyday people face belong in the corridors of power. That we need to send people with real experience in fixing problems to Richmond to help fix them for all of us.
Join us today- and let’s bring progress to Virginia, together.
Kellen Squire is an emergency department nurse running for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 55th District. Donate today, and help us sending a working-class voice to Richmond to fight for progressives everywhere!
