The Biden campaign and many other Democrats were justifiably cautious about campaigning in person during the coronavirus pandemic—a fact that may have hurt some candidates, as Republicans had no caution about it. But it was possible to go out in the field safely and effectively, as one union showed in several of the key states we’ve all been obsessing about for days now.
UNITE HERE knocked on the doors of 3 million voters, going to 20,000 doors a day in Arizona’s critical Maricopa County. They did it all with what a union staffer described on Twitter as “comprehensive safety protocols, including mandatory PPE,” and, she wrote, had “0 COVID outbreaks.” The organizing included an intensive focus on Latino voters in Arizona, part of the successful effort in that state. And the union did it all in a pandemic economy that has been brutal for its workers—these are hotel and restaurant and other hospitality workers, which means a lot of them have lost their jobs since March. Now, UNITE HERE is taking a well-deserved victory lap on Twitter, and it’s worth checking out the effort the union put in.