Canvasser's Notebook

A look back at the week when everything changed

By Dean Briggs

PHILADELPHIA, JULY, 2024 — Kamala Harris had just announced her candidacy, and in this battleground state, electricity was in the air. The numbers — of donations, of new volunteers, and of newly registered voters — were staggering. And on the stained, trash-strewn sidewalks around the transportation hub at 40th and Market Street, you could feel the excitement. 

As a new voter registrar with Swing Blue Alliance, I joined a seasoned group of volunteers from Massachusetts and across the country for a week of voter registration and evening door-to-door canvassing. As we threaded our way through the hurried crowds of commuters, many middle-aged and older people in this largely Black community saw the Register to Vote! signs on the back of our clipboards and gave us thumbs-up. Some said, “Thank you for what you’re doing!” and quickly moved on. 

Each evening as we knocked on doors — the most effective means of getting out the vote — we received the same response from residents in the Brewerytown and Fishtown neighborhoods. Most were excited about Harris’ announcement, but some strong Biden supporters felt that he was pushed off the stage. But they quickly added that they will support Harris. 

Philadelphia is Pennsylvania’s Democratic stronghold, with over 778,000 registered in this eastern county; and getting out the vote here will be key to a Harris/Walz victory in 2024. But party voter registrations have shrunk in the state since 2008, while Republican and Independent registrations have grown. One reason is that voters in western Pennsylvania have increasingly turned Republican as union jobs have gone elsewhere.

Getting out the vote takes multiple conversations

I was surprised by the number of young people who told me they weren’t registered to vote, “because it doesn’t matter.” A few older men were unregistered as well. I don’t recall having convinced anyone that their vote mattered. Our canvassing leaders told us that it takes ten ‘touches’ to get a non-voter to the polls, and I was just one in the mix. Perhaps the next volunteer would be more effective, I thought, hoping voters remembered my conversations with them. 

We quickly learned that it is as important to capture voters’ changes of address as it is to register new voters, and we gathered many such changes, particularly from young people.

One afternoon, I was thrilled to be at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration office, registering new Americans to vote as they left their naturalization ceremony. All were dressed in their best clothes, carrying small American flags and large manilla envelopes. Friends, relatives and children surrounded them. Everyone was beaming and taking pictures. “Congratulations!” we shouted, and we, too, were filled with emotion.

Canvassing in Brewerytown and Fishtown

At the beginning of Swing Blue’s months-long canvassing campaign, our job wasn’t to rally the committed. Rather, it was to check on the Democrats and Independents who hadn’t voted recently, to see if they are still at the addresses we had.

Following the lists on our phones, we knocked on hundreds of doors in evenings after work. We encountered vacant lots or new houses under construction, voters in their 80’s and 90’s who didn’t answer the door, and people peeking through curtains. The Harris campaign had barely launched, so we left literature — an introduction to our new candidate.

While canvassing, we signed up a lot of volunteers — often random people who answered the door, people on the street, the wife of a pastor waiting for him in the car, the young woman who had new energy after seeing Harris’ emergence.

Puzzling and concerning to me were the evangelical Christians voting for Trump. Some told us they were afraid America’s adversaries would consider us weak for choosing a woman as president. Others said they were not impressed by the many examples we gave of countries who have had female presidents or prime ministers — England, Canada, Australia, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Greece, India, Mexico. . . Many prefer Trump because he seems strong. We moved on.

Midway through our week, the Brewerytown Harris Campaign office had page-size printed cards with pictures of the candidate. We offered them to people to put in their windows, and they became a hot ticket. We offered one to a 73-year-old woman, and when we came back down the street it was in her window.

I’m back in Pennsylvania now — with Swing Blue Alliance.  Come join me!

Dean Briggs is a member of Indivisible Mass Coalition’s Communications Committee and Swing Blue Alliance.