Couch Surfing for Kamala: How I Plan to Put My Love of Canvassing to Good Use This Fall

I’m a retired Brooklyn College professor, a grandparent and a union and climate organizer.  I’ve been involved in left political organizing for more than 50 years and I must say that I (mostly) love doing the work. I feel connected to the world and its future in profound ways and I keep meeting fabulous people who are also committed to the work.  My focus changes over time, but the basics of working for a just and sustainable world are constant.

Of course we are in a crisis!  Climate change, economic inequality, attempts to roll back past victories against racism and sexism as well as global crises are brewing up a storm.  Of course Kamala Harris and Tim Walz won’t save the world, but they will protect it way more than their opponents. Their election may give climate protection a fighting chance.  They are likely to support workers, women and people of color more than any administration in U.S. history. And they are way better powerbrokers to organize against than the Republicans.  I’m delighted to be able to join their campaign and work for their election and the down-ballot candidates running with them. I wish there were a truly left and viable party but, alas, there is not.

I’ve canvassed a lot over the years, for third party candidates in the early 70’s, for Kerry, Obama, Biden and lots of local races since then.  I like canvassing because you meet people, hear their stories, learn how they frame issues and make human connections.  I don’t get to initiate a conversation at most of the doors, but when I do, I usually start by asking the person what are the most important issues to them in the particular election.  I can usually riff off their starting point, make a human connection, share some of my thoughts, but mostly learn from them.  I love checking out their porches, their apartment buildings, their kids, the playgrounds, the local stores.  The further away the community is from my own experience the more I enjoy canvassing and the more I learn. I love getting out of my bubble and discovering, over and over, that most people are good and interesting.  

This year I plan to spend all of October canvassing across the Midwest in some of the “swing states”.  I went to grad school and did politics in the Midwest in the early 1970’s and have lots of friends with whom I stay (though not more than four nights each) and plug into the local AFL-CIO canvassing operation wherever I am.  I also know that working people, and that’s the demographic I am usually assigned to canvass, need to have conversations on what differences the Democrats and the Republicans have on offer.  Because the Democrats are such poor communicators, many people need to know the differences in the policies of the two parties and how it will affect them in their daily lives.  Put me in a working class community and I’ll connect around unions, work and family.

You can join the canvassing and voter turnout operations of many different groups, even if you can only go on day trips outside of New York City. Philadelphia, the largest city in the largest swing state, is only 100 miles away. There are also several competitive congressional districts in the suburbs outside New York City that need to be turned “blue” too in order to flip control of the House of Representatives to the Democrats.  The Harris-Walz team is highly imperfect.  They are not leftists for sure.  But they give us a chance at survival and an opportunity to keep trying our best to turn the tide toward a just and safe world.  Let’s put our collective shoulders to the wheel and make it happen!  

Here’s a list of organizations that you can plug into to canvas, make phone calls and send out postcards:  Working Families Party, Stand Up Pennsylvania, AFL-CIO, Seed the Vote, Movement Voter Project.

Nancy Romer, professor emerita, Brooklyn College, CUNY, is a life-long activist. She is presently on the executive council of the Professional Staff Congress of CUNY (AFT), the union local that represents 30,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York, and co-chairs its Environmental Justice Working Group. She’s lived in Brooklyn for over 50 years.

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