Only three more weekends to get out the vote. Where will you go canvassing?
It's Get Out the Vote (GOTV) season, and more than two million Americans have already voted early. With only three weekends left before Election Day, I drove 100 miles this weekend to help Dr. Kermit Jones in California's 3rd Congressional District—a pick-up opportunity to flip a red district blue.
Democratic campaigns largely avoided canvassing in 2020 due to COVID, which observers say contributed directly to us losing many winnable seats that year. And with so much at stake in this election, we can't afford not to go knock on people's doors to get them out to the polls.
I live in San Francisco, and like a lot of blue-state progressives get frustrated with how this election will be decided in just a handful of swing states and districts. I can get my friends and family out to vote, but it is far more effective in mobilizing Democratic voters in battleground territory.
And with a little effort, you can get in a car and drive to a swing district for a weekend. So along with three friends, we booked a hotel room in Roseville and drove about 100 miles.
Donald Trump only barely won what is now California's 3rd District in 2020 (which stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to the Nevada border), so a solid get-out-the-vote Democratic operation can be the margin of victory. And we have a great candidate there this cycle.
Kermit Jones is an Iraq War veteran and medical doctor who previously worked in the Obama Administration. He is running against a dangerous right-wing State Assemblyman who was behind the unsuccessful effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. And it's an open seat.
After a brief canvass training on Saturday morning, we were given our turf assignments. I have been canvassing for 25+ years, and back in the olden days, they would give you a map, a clipboard, and a pen to check off the doors you knocked on and the contacts you made.
But now, you use the smartphone app PDI Mobile Connect—which includes your voter list, and allows you to directly input which voters you contacted, and the data feeds back to the campaign office. And believe me, this has made canvassing so much more efficient.
Gone are the days when campaign field staff would have to spend hours inputting your data after you returned canvassing. Gone are the days when you and another canvasser knocked on the same door twice, because you didn't have an app to tell you that door had already been covered. And gone are the days when you stand outside a voter's door with a big clipboard, which to some homeowners is a dead giveaway that you are a "solicitor."
Are you afraid to go canvassing door-to-door? Campaigns will pair you up with someone who has more experience to help you get your sea legs. I went with my boyfriend (who had never gone canvassing in his life), and pretty soon, he was handling the whole thing like a pro.
Roseville is a surprisingly diverse community, and we spent two days knocking on hundreds of doors. We canvassed a huge apartment complex on Saturday morning with a largely Latino, working-class population (where my limited Spanish helped a bit.) We then did a wealthier neighborhood in the afternoon with single-family homes, and I spoke to an older white woman who has lived in Roseville her whole life, from back when it was very conservative.
On Sunday, we canvassed a turf that initially felt discouraging (a few Republican lawn signs). But pretty soon, we found a lot of very engaged Democratic voters, and we were able to convince three households to put up a Kermit Jones lawn sign. It was a very political neighborhood!
Is canvassing effective? We talked to a 60-year-old Latino man on Saturday morning, who said this was the first time anyone from the Democratic Party had ever come to his door asking for a vote. He spoke about how scary Trump and the Republicans have become, and how essential it is to do outreach into his community. And then, he offered us a drink of water.
We only have 3 more weekends to get out the vote. If you don't live in a battleground state or district, consider taking a weekend trip. Many groups are organizing rides.
For example, next weekend, the California Democratic Party is organizing a bus from the Bay Area to walk precincts for Kermit Jones. And all over the country, the national group Swing Left is organizing carpools and buses to battleground states like Pennsylvania and Arizona. They're calling it the "Last Weekend," but you can also go canvassing sooner.
Not everyone can travel, and knock on doors. That's why there are many GOTV activities you can participate in. But with limited time (only three more weekends!), those who can are really needed out to staff canvassing operations. This weekend was the first time I went canvassing since 2018 (when we won back Congress), and it was a blast!!