Want to help get Bernie Sanders elected? Volunteer to canvas and phone bank
“Each one teach one,” advises an African-American slave proverb. It’s also the motto of San Francisco’s Delancey Street Foundation, which transforms the lives of ex-convicts by helping them reintegrate into productive society. Considering America was built on slavery and now incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, it’s an apropos motto for understanding how “We the People” must conduct this campaign to put Bernie Sanders in the White House. In “Democracy is not a Spectator Sport,” I explain why I went on a Journey for Bernie to Salt Lake City. You might say, “Each one teach one” is the method by which I learned to canvas and phone bank on Bernie’s behalf. And the education was swift.
I arrived in Salt Lake City on Saturday afternoon. By dusk, Greg Kuwaye, a software engineer for the San Francisco-based transportation company Lyft, was teaching Salt Lake realtor Kelsye Hale and me how to canvas. By Sunday morning, I was out with another newbie, Solstice Home Health and Hospice owner, Amy Hartman. Hartman and I learned together, laughed a lot, and met dozens of Utahans on our political “mission” across Taylorsville, Utah. By Sunday afternoon, Hartman added three more strong women to her SUV (Dwana, Alecia, and Torrey, all of whom appear in the photo above) and off we went to the Harvard/Yale neighborhood of Salt Lake City — conversations flying, interstate cultures clashing, sneaker soles sounding soft against pavement. Still, after a four-day Journey for Bernie, I only have about 8 hours of canvassing underfoot.
Since August 2015, when Kuwaye and fiancé Erica Calegari made their first financial contribution to the Bernie Sanders campaign, the couple has canvassed, tabled, and phone-banked together in Reno, Atlanta, and San Francisco. Calegari went to Columbia, South Carolina for several days in February. She had just returned from Wisconsin on Saturday, April 2nd, the day before the three of us met in San Francisco for a conversation. Neither had ever canvassed or phone banked for a politician prior to Sanders. Today, their commitment is consistent and passionate.
“You make the biggest gains when you knock on doors or call,” explains Kuwaye, who averages five to seven hours per week phone banking from home in San Francisco. He does this by making at least five calls per day. “Even when I’m feeling reluctant to talk on the phone, once I start calling, I really enjoy it,” he says. He and Calegari initially got involved with the campaign by attending a pair of phone-banking parties in San Francisco in late 2015.
To phone bank for Bernie Sanders, visit the short link: www.Bernie.to/pb. There, you’ll find the top priority states for calling. You can also RSVP for one of the campaign’s 30-minute “Intro to Phone Banking” webinars, which are offered four times per day, every day, at 8:45 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 2:45 p.m. and 5:45 p.m., PST. Can’t make a webinar training? No problem. You can also view a video tutorial or read a step-by-step guide to start phone banking now.
This presidential primary is moving fast
Last week, the Bern swept the Utah, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and Wisconsin caucuses and primaries. On Saturday, he also won the majority in Wyoming. (You can see how candidates are doing on a county-by-county basis at the New York Times.) Right now, the Tuesday primary is just five days away. We need to work hard.
Visit this link to start calling the states that are current phone banking priorities. If you live on the East coast, get outside this weekend.
“We need canvassers,” Kuwaye explains, “One of the top priorities in advance of each primary is educating low-information voters. The best way to do that is to talk to them face-to-face, to make a direct, personal connection.”
He and Calegari believe this so strongly, they recently helped three volunteers pay for flights from the Midwest to New York. While canvassing in Georgia, Nevada, and South Carolina, Calegari and Kuwaye observed that minority, working class, and rural voters with limited or no internet access had less information about Bernie Sanders than their more wired, better connected counterparts.
Fundamentals of canvassing: Talk to strangers and make new friends
If you live close enough to a Bernie Sanders campaign office, it’s best to go there, meet people, and get trained in how to canvas. Last week, Sanders for President opened two offices in Oregon, and tomorrow is a Statewide Day of Action. (Way to go Beaver State!) To find the nearest Bernie Sanders campaign office or event, visit the short link: www.Bernie.to/map. The Sanders for President subreddit also provides up-to-the-minute information on how to help the political revolution across the country.
To canvas for Bernie, you will need to download the MiniVan App, which you can do at Field the Bern. (Pro Tip: Read MiniVan’s Canvassing Guide before you get to field training.) The MiniVan app integrates voter lists with maps, a canvassing script, and the ability to collect data based on your conversation (or lack of one) with each voter. In Wisconsin, Calegari canvassed two “turfs” per day and estimates that she knocked on 150 to 170 doors with about a 20 percent “speak to” rate.
Here’s an overview of what canvassing looks like: About a week before a State’s primaries, volunteers begin visiting neighborhood “turfs” based on voter registration ledgers. You knock on doors and attempt to identify who the most likely Bernie supporters are. As you go along, you collect data and enter it into the MiniVan app. For several days, up to several hours before the primary, you go back and talk to the identified Bernie supporters to make sure they know where their polling location is and how they’re going to get there. You get them to commit to voting. Gently, and transparently, you attempt to forge a social contract.
Asking for a commitment to show up at the polls applies whether you’re canvassing or phone banking. Extracting such a commitment works best when there is mutual understanding. To the best of your ability, you want to understand the concerns of the person you’re approaching, and be able to inform that voter about Senator Sanders’ stance on the issues that matter most to him or her. That’s why, prior to picking up the phone or pounding the pavement, it’s a good idea to spend time reviewing the issues relevant to the demographic you’re calling or canvassing.
To find out where Sanders stands on a host of issues that matter to a wide range of Americans, go to www.FeeltheBern.org.
Stay positive and imagine what can be
This is no small feat in American politics. Whether you prefer mainstream media or alternative sources of information, right now, it’s easy to become distracted by the banality of the Republican party, and distraught by the stranglehold of Big Money on the Democrats. That’s why we must focus on the good fight before us, which is getting Bernie Sanders into the White House. Yes, once he’s there, we’re talking about long haul changes to American domestic policies that constitute nothing short of a political revolution.
Isn’t it about time?
Imagine an America where all children attend safe schools, drink clean water, and eat healthy food grown in community gardens. There are no food deserts. Imagine an America where any student can get a technical or college education that prepares them for the current and future job markets. There is no crippling debt to punish new graduates. Imagine an America where alcoholics, addicts, and the mentally ill are treated like human beings who need medical treatment. There is no shame in asking for help. Imagine an America where our taxes are used mostly for putting our own States and communities in order, rather than bombing poor neighborhoods on the other side of the planet. There is no victory in harming the weak, when the New American Prize is compassion.
If this makes me sound like a John Lennon-listening, California-dreamer, then I’m okay with that. I know I’m not the only one. From my perspective, this is what we’re fighting for. Through your eyes, the picture might look different. The point is to set your sights on a future that “We the People” can believe, participate, and excel in. We can get there, if we go together. So, let’s call; let’s canvas; and let’s vote in droves in every remaining Democratic Primary.
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To read more about why I believe Bernie Sanders is the best candidate to be the next President of the United States read, “Democracy is not a Spectator Sport.”
