Ever since the FBI fiasco on Friday, I dreaded the fact that I signed up to canvass on Saturday. I really wasn’t looking forward to it. I did my best to put on a positive face when I headed to the campaign office to pick up my list of folks to canvass. For some reason, my first few houses were the absolute worst. I had two houses in a row who were solid Democrats telling me they may not vote for Hillary because of the email issue. I did my best to persuade them and reminded them to vote Blue down ballot. Both the folks said they may vote third party for President...at least they weren’t switching to Trump. I went to another couple of houses then had another person bring up the emails and declare that they were just staying home. They had it with both candidates. I stressed down ballot races, but they said it wasn’t worth their time.
I was feeling really down. In fact, I was to the point where I was about to completely give up. I decided to push ahead. Then, the most uplifting thing happened. I knocked on a door to find a group of women preparing for a Halloween event. They invited me in and there were 6 of them, all Hillary supporters. I asked them if they had voted yet, and none of them have. I told them early voting was open right now if they needed a break. Guess what they did? They went and early voted! It really made my day. That’s 6 votes for Hillary!
I knocked on a few more doors and found people who were excited to vote for Hillary, but waiting until election day. One man told me he was a Bernie supporter and wasn’t going to vote, but the FBI action really pissed him off so he was going to vote for Hillary. Another lady echoed that sentiment in another house.
One of the last houses I canvassed was a newly registered Democratic household. I knocked on the door and a Spanish speaking lady answered the door. My Spanish is ok. As soon as she saw the “I’m With Her” button I was wearing she said, “Yes Hillary! Yes”. Then her husband came to the door and said in broken English that Trump was “crazy”. They both plan to vote for Hillary and take family with them.
The email issue came up in several of these houses. In some, it was a de-motiving factor and in others it was a motivating factor. I heard similar experiences from other folks who canvassed the area.
I did find one registered Democrat for Trump. It was an African American man who told me he watched The Apprentice. I asked him what he thought about the way Trump spoke about women. He said he liked it and he said it made him a “normal person”. We talked about extending President Obama’s legacy by voting for Hillary and he seemed like he might consider it.
Overall, the experience was great and I HIGHLY encourage you to get out there if you live in a battle ground state. If you don’t, get on the phones. We need help pushing people to the polls. When I got home, I realized my own neighborhood had been canvassed. The Clinton team is using the early voting and nobody canvassed my house since we early voted already, but several of my neighbors had the Clinton door hangers that I could see from the street. Early voting saves the campaign time and money and lets them focus on folks who may not vote without a little prodding.