Talk to a Voter
by Kathy Goodman
There are fewer than 30 days left before Election Day and it is important to remember that, as early voting and no-excuse absentee voting/vote by mail initiatives have spread across the country, Election Day in November is really just the last day of voting. People in a third of the states are already voting. And that is why we need to intensify our work as though our democracy depends on it. Because as Dan Pfeiffer made clear in his latest Message Box post, provocatively titled, “Stopping the ‘24 Insurrection in ‘22,” keeping proponents of the “Big Lie” out of office in this election “will help determine whether the winner of the 2024 election resides in the White House in 2025….The stakes will remain incredibly high up until the moment the Republicans are forced to walk away from MAGA extremism due to multiple asskickings in a row.”
Voting in these midterms is essential, of course, but it is also the very least any of us can do to protect our democracy. Dan Pfeiffer urges everyone not just to vote, but also “to find the people in your life and convince them to vote like their democracy depended on it. Because it does (annoyingly).”
It can be exhausting. But hard work in the midterms may bear more fruit than history might predict. Nate Cohn, in an October 3 piece in the New York Times, proposed that the foregone conclusion that the Democrats will lose the House may not be so certain. Races may be tightening, but the generic ballot has defied historical trends by remaining positive for the Democrats, and Cohn points out that there is extremely limited polling in House races across the country. He suggests that without the robust polling results in the Arizona and Pennsylvania Senate races, it might be easier to assume they were closer to toss-up races: “If we had as many House polls as we do in the Senate, perhaps Democrats would appear to be ahead in the race for the House as well.” The question as to whether the Democrats can hold the House, according to Cohn, “would be a district-by-district battle for control, one in which the race might come down to the strengths and weaknesses of individual candidates and campaigns. With a few lucky breaks, Democrats could come out ahead.”
And that is why Crimson Goes Blue is so focused on canvassing and phone-banking as Election Day looms. Talking to a potential voter–face to face or on the phone–is the single best way to turn out Democratic voters who can help save our democracy and help hold the House and Senate. We asked Crimson Goes Blue member Wallace Bachman if we could share his account of Arizona canvassing, to show how interesting and engaging it can be.
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