Give Your Aunt in Trump Country A Call Today

For the past 20 years I have canvassed in a swing state in the final week of a Presidential campaign. As much as I love my city and state, I’m compelled to go where the fight is and to contribute what I can to help get out the vote. I also genuinely love talking to voters on their doorsteps. It breaks through all of the “information bubbles” and gives you a chance to have real conversations with real people. This weekend I have been canvassing in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Wisconsin is one of the handful of swing states that will decide the Presidential race. US Senator Tammy Baldwin is also in a close race with Republican challenger Eric Hovde and Rebecca Cooke has a good shot at flipping a US House seat in the Wisconsin 3rd Congressional District.

Stevens Point Brewery, operating in Steven Point, Wisconsin since 1857.

Stevens Point is a city of 25,000 people at the convergence of the Plover and Wisconsin Rivers. Its name in Menominee is Pasīpahkīhnen which translates into “point of land”. Many residents just refer to the town as “Point”.

Today, Sunday November 3rd, I was canvassing in a working class neighborhood of modest homes near the tip of that point made by the two rivers. It was a typical November day in Wisconsin, 45 degrees and raining. The Packer game didn’t start until 3pm CT so you had until then to knock on doors. Don’t knock on doors during the Packer game if you want people to actually like your candidate.

Most canvassing for elections these days is done through an app on your phone. It shows you a map and list of voters to contact, most of whom have voted for your party in the past, but people do change their minds. The neighborhood I was in looked to be pretty evenly split between Harris and Trump voters, at least from the looks of the yard signs.

The app will also tell if the voter has already been contacted by the campaign and no one on today’s list has already been contacted. A few addresses came up on the list that had Trump signs or flags displayed in the yard. At first I decided not to knock on those doors. The list is long, the day is short, and it’s raining, better to just focus on your voters and get them to the polls.

I approached a house that was on my list. It was an older ranch home on a corner lot with a gravel driveway. There were a few trucks in the driveway that looked like they hadn’t moved in a few years. It looked like the house I grew up in, which also had a few trucks that didn’t move for years.

The app gives you the name, gender, and age of the voter you are looking to speak with. This voter happened to be a woman in her 70s. It was the only name listed for that address, but it was clear she didn’t live there alone. I knocked on the door a few times but no one answered. I left information on where to vote Tuesday hanging on their storm door, getting pelted by the rain.

I walked down the gravel driveway to the street and turned the corner. From that vantage point I could now see that a Trump sign was on the other side of the house. I went into the app and checked the box “leans Republican”. I may have been the first person to knock on that door but I would probably not be the last.  By checking that box I would make sure that no one else would “waste” their time on that address, but as I kept walking I could see there was another structure on that corner lot.

The gravel driveway wrapped around the side of the house and led back to an old small garage. At the front of the garage there was an overhanging roof. Underneath the roof there were all kinds of terra cotta pots and other gardening supplies. And in the middle of it all was a figure in a raincoat. which from the street looked to be the woman in her 70s that was on my list. I decided to go back.

I walked back around the corner and down the long gravel driveway, around the house and back to the small garage. I announced myself as soon as I went around the house. “Mrs. _______? My name I Geary and I’m a volunteer for the Wisconsin Democratic Party." The hooded figure looked up. She had a green fleece turban on underneath the hood. Her eyes and face smiled. It was the older woman on my list.

She said she was glad to see me and that no one else had come around yet. She explained how she could not believe how anyone could want “that man” to be President again. In particular she cited how “that man” had been speaking recently about Arnold Palmer’s “privates”. She was voting for Kamala Harris. I thanked her for her vote and made sure she had transportation to the polling place. We shook hands and said goodbye.

As I walked back down the gravel driveway, I opened up the canvassing app, unchecked the “Leans Republican” box under her name, and the checked the box “Strong Harris Supporter”. For the rest of that day, if there was a woman’s name listed at the address, I knocked on that door regardless of what sign they had in the front yard.

For certain, I got a few looks of disbelief, a door shut in my face, and a younger mom that said she could no longer vote for Democrats. But I also met another older woman that came to the door literally with curlers in her hair and quietly told me she was voting for Kamala Harris while the rest of her family watched the noon NFL game behind her.

I think Tuesday’s results will be driven by women, younger women, married women, older women, and yes, “childless cat ladies”.

These women are out there, and they are one of the reasons I have hope for Tuesday. In our modern political discourse we tend to overanalyze and over segmentize voters. I think Tuesday’s results will be driven by women, younger women, married women, older women, and yes, “childless cat ladies”. But I can’t stop thinking about these older women I met while canvassing, quietly biding their time, getting ready for next year’s garden, and getting ready to vote for Kamala Harris.

In these next 24 hours, call your mom (always call your mom), call your aunt, your grandmother, your sister, or your old friend. Support them and reassure them that their vote is only between them and their maker. Older women are for too often ignored in our society but I believe on Tuesday their power and their strength will shine through in the results.

When we vote we win.

Geary