Yesterday, I drove from Buffalo, NY to Erie, PA for training to be an “in office” person during the busy canvasing weekends. In other words, I trained to be the person to sign people in, make sure they are set on the app, etc. They had someone come in from the Harris campaign who is in charge of the door to door operation for the region so I felt like I learned a lot.
Some things I learned:
- As we all know, this is a close race in the swing states.
- We have an advantage on the ground. We’ve been at it for months and Elon’s people (his PAC is handling the ground game) are just showing up.
- In no surprise to anyone, the Elon people are already behaving badly.
- Neighborhoods that are canvased have an 8 point difference in turn out over those who are not. You read that right. Canvasing can change the election.
- I said something about 2016 and the person from the Harris campaign and the person from the DNC office both quickly said this feels much more like 2008 vibes than 2016 vibes in the enthusiasm they are seeing.
- They had a woman come in that morning who said she had never voted (72) but she was voting in this election because we have to defend the country from a monster. Her husband too.
- Two Republicans voting for Harris came in while I was there.
- The office was bustling with people getting signs and merch.
- The organizer shared with us some of the amazing data driven ways that the outreach is done. Sounds like we will soon be switching from trying to sway people to pure GOTV. I won’t go into details, but they have tons of data and are using it well.
- Internals in PA sound promising. They are not seeing the signs of collapse that they saw with Hillary.
- Some of the other people at the training were worried that they were only getting mail from the Trump people. The organizer said direct mailing is the least effective way to get people to vote. Only retirees actually read the material and it barely sways them. He seemed bemused at all the funds Rs are putting into it. EDIT: I am not talking about postcards to voters here. People read handwritten notes! Keep writing!! But most people throw out the glossy things with barely a glance — and they cost campaigns a lot of money
- There are more of us than there are of them BUT Rs tend to vote more than our side. We outnumber then and can win easily if we GOTV. But we need to GOTV. It is essential.
What I took from this is that this is crunch time and GOTV is essential. The very best thing you can do is canvas for Kamala in a swing state. However, if you can’t do that you can help in other ways. For example, I am going to help out in the office to support the people canvassing. I’m happy to do the 3 hour round trip drive to help. It was exciting to be there!
Don’t live near a swing state? You can also make phone calls to voters from anywhere
go.kamalaharris.com/…
Or, you can travel to a swing state (at this link)
You can also text folks in GA or NC
You can call a Democratic Headquarters in a swing state and offer to buy them pizza when they need it. Ask them for their favorite delivery and a good time! I brought them money from my local Buffalo friends for pizza and they were really grateful.
The bottom line is we can win this but we do have to work for it. We need every person to chip in in these last few weeks. Including you! With so many ways to help, everyone can find something to do!
Thanks everyone. I am so proud and so lucky to be in this with all of you. ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 💙❤️💛💚✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
