My husband and I went canvassing for Obama today in South Dakota. The local Obama headquarters said that we might have been the first official canvassers in the state for Obama. We don't vote until June 3.
Neither of us had ever canvassed before, and neither of us are particularly extroverted. So I really didn't know how it would go.
We got our voter lists, brochures and maps, and headed out. Because we're chickens, we went together. We could have covered more territory faster if we'd split up, but it would have been more intimidating. Besides, I figured people would be less likely to be mean if there were two of us (South Dakota's awfully red.)
Here's what we found:
- McCain is NOT very popular here, which surprised me, because Bush won handily twice. We spoke to a lot of Republicans. Not one came right out and said he/she was voting for McCain. We had more than one Republican tell us that they had no idea who they would vote for in the general election (our primary is closed.) Some said they were considering changing their registration to vote in the Democratic primary (all for Obama.) We left them voter registration forms so they could change parties. I mentioned that they can change right back if they want to.
- Obama is more popular here than Clinton. We had several people tell us that they didn't know for sure whom they would vote for, except it wouldn't be Clinton.
- People say they are very aware of the primary. I decided humor was a good approach, so I said something along the lines of, "I'm hitting the streets today for Senator Obama, reminding people that there's a primary coming up, in case your TV is broken." Most laughed and said that there's nothing else to watch on TV. One guy (a Republican) said he found the back-and-forth between Obama and Clinton very entertaining. I bet he does.
- Clinton supporters are kind of nasty. Well, at least the two we spoke to. They actually were nastier to us than most of the Republicans. They refused our literature and more or less shut the door in our faces.
- People will always surprise you. We figured there wasn't any point in visiting this one particular house. Both were listed as Republicans, and they were in their 80s. Lo and behold, the gentleman there was the most pro-Obama person we met all day. He said Obama's got their votes for sure. It was really heartwarming.
- People are nice (for the most part.) Nobody chewed us out. Many thanked us for canvassing, even some who weren't Obama supporters. I think that there's a segment of the population (including me) that likes to see people engaged in politics, even politics they disagree with.
- More Democrats need to fly the American flag. I think every house we went to that had a flag was Republican. It's not fair that they've hijacked it. It's my flag, too!
- If you're going canvassing, take water, and wear sunscreen. It snowed all day here yesterday, so it never occurred to me that even though it was only 35 degrees out today, I'd still get thirsty and sunburned. Now I know.
- YOU CAN DO IT! I really didn't want to do canvass. I'm a behind-the-scenes kind of girl. I dropped out of Girl Scouts because I hated selling cookies. But I did fine. Once you get the hang of it, it's not as hard as it might seem to the uninitiated.
I'll hit the streets some more before June 3, I'm sure!