I did my third straight week of 3-hour canvassing yesterday. Our turf was by far the toughest - lots of independents or ancestral Dems in VERY rural parts of Northumberland County, PA. I had to drive miles on dirt roads to get to some of these places. We only ended up talking to 4 people, 1 positive, 3 not interested in talking or not voting. In comparison, my turf 2 weeks ago featured a set of exurban houses in Union County with lots of retirees, several who had been Republicans or Independents who were voting Harris because they were sick of Trump and mad about Dobbs. My turf last week was a rural enclave in rural Snyder County with lots of Dems who had received mail ballots and were about to turn them in (or in some cases had just done so).
When I talked to the staff at the Union County Dem office after my round yesterday to discuss the tough turf, they said that they had already canvassed all the turfs in Union County and were focusing on voters in other counties that were bigger reaches. In effect, they are far ahead of where they were in 2016, when we were still canvassing the Democratic borough of Lewisburg, and even ahead of 2008, when the toughest turfs we were getting were in downtown Selinsgrove (Snyder County), which was then majority Republican but had several Democratic houses.
In my opinion, the Democratic ground game is the best I have ever seen - better than 2008. There are tons of volunteers and we are getting further and further out of our comfort zone to engage voters we would not have even tried to before.
Allow me to tell a story about both sides, but the most illuminating part being the other side:
My friend's mom and dad live in PA, Pittsburgh-area, and they're both strong Harris supporters and have a Harris lawn sign in their yard. And several days ago someone from the Harris campaign called his mom and tried to get her to vote early but she said she likes voting in person and after some friendly attempted cajoling to change her mind they realized that she wasn't moving on this and gave her a number to call if she needs help getting to the polls on election day. This past weekend someone from the Trump campaign (or it may have been Elon's group) went to her door and tried to give her some Trump literature. She declined but the kid, who according to her was probably not of legal drinking age, was very nice and polite to her and she asked him why he would waste his time talking to her given that she had a Harris lawn sign and he said "I don't get paid until I fill my daily quota"
Both DJT and "Ted" are sending out many texts indiscriminately. My ladyfriend, who lives in CA, is low-income, and votes Democratic, has been getting texts from them. She asked me "Who's Ted Cruz?" which reminds me that most people don't follow politics as closely as we do. Cruz isn't getting any donations from her! She already knows that she hates Tr*mp...
If someone tried to give me Trump literature, I'd quickly read it and then point out to them each and every lie and inaccuracy contained on it. This would probably take some time since I'm sure that almost everything on Trump literature is lies. But, like I've said before, while I'm talking with a canvasser, they aren't persuading other people to vote for Trump.
That probably wouldn't even be necessary in this case because it seems like once this kid hit his quota he was going to be done even if it was still the middle of the day
Ground Game Post 1:
I did my third straight week of 3-hour canvassing yesterday. Our turf was by far the toughest - lots of independents or ancestral Dems in VERY rural parts of Northumberland County, PA. I had to drive miles on dirt roads to get to some of these places. We only ended up talking to 4 people, 1 positive, 3 not interested in talking or not voting. In comparison, my turf 2 weeks ago featured a set of exurban houses in Union County with lots of retirees, several who had been Republicans or Independents who were voting Harris because they were sick of Trump and mad about Dobbs. My turf last week was a rural enclave in rural Snyder County with lots of Dems who had received mail ballots and were about to turn them in (or in some cases had just done so).
When I talked to the staff at the Union County Dem office after my round yesterday to discuss the tough turf, they said that they had already canvassed all the turfs in Union County and were focusing on voters in other counties that were bigger reaches. In effect, they are far ahead of where they were in 2016, when we were still canvassing the Democratic borough of Lewisburg, and even ahead of 2008, when the toughest turfs we were getting were in downtown Selinsgrove (Snyder County), which was then majority Republican but had several Democratic houses.
In my opinion, the Democratic ground game is the best I have ever seen - better than 2008. There are tons of volunteers and we are getting further and further out of our comfort zone to engage voters we would not have even tried to before.
Allow me to tell a story about both sides, but the most illuminating part being the other side:
My friend's mom and dad live in PA, Pittsburgh-area, and they're both strong Harris supporters and have a Harris lawn sign in their yard. And several days ago someone from the Harris campaign called his mom and tried to get her to vote early but she said she likes voting in person and after some friendly attempted cajoling to change her mind they realized that she wasn't moving on this and gave her a number to call if she needs help getting to the polls on election day. This past weekend someone from the Trump campaign (or it may have been Elon's group) went to her door and tried to give her some Trump literature. She declined but the kid, who according to her was probably not of legal drinking age, was very nice and polite to her and she asked him why he would waste his time talking to her given that she had a Harris lawn sign and he said "I don't get paid until I fill my daily quota"
Wow!
On a related note, I am getting so many fundraising texts from (1) Trump and (2) Ted Cruz!
If the fundraising involves a one-way ticket to Cancun for Ted, IтАЩm all in!
Not if it means going to Cancun with Cruz.
Both DJT and "Ted" are sending out many texts indiscriminately. My ladyfriend, who lives in CA, is low-income, and votes Democratic, has been getting texts from them. She asked me "Who's Ted Cruz?" which reminds me that most people don't follow politics as closely as we do. Cruz isn't getting any donations from her! She already knows that she hates Tr*mp...
If someone tried to give me Trump literature, I'd quickly read it and then point out to them each and every lie and inaccuracy contained on it. This would probably take some time since I'm sure that almost everything on Trump literature is lies. But, like I've said before, while I'm talking with a canvasser, they aren't persuading other people to vote for Trump.
That probably wouldn't even be necessary in this case because it seems like once this kid hit his quota he was going to be done even if it was still the middle of the day
Love it.
"Yeah, sorry, I gotta do this. I need the money."
Real believer there.
Also, the PA Dem voter determined to vote on E-Day matches a LOT of what I'm hearing.