Battleground PA: What We've Seen and Heard From Voters in York
Help Move PA From A Toss-Up To 19 Electoral College Votes For Harris/Walz!
Yes, they do exist!
Melody Hoffman told me she doesn’t agree 100 percent with either Trump or Harris, and, because of that, she doesn’t know who to support. She might not even vote.
She told me she’s afraid to talk with her neighbors or her family about the election. She works in social services, and she’s been struggling as a single mom. She’s 47, divorced, a registered independent, and she says it’s been hard to make ends meet even though she lives in a nice, if modest, single family home in the Manchester borough, a suburb just north of York, PA.
As her teenage daughter listened in, I asked her about the issues most important to her. She doesn’t want to feel so stressed financially. She said she was concerned about what might happen under Trump, but she just doesn’t trust Harris either. We talked about how Harris grew up with a working single mom. How she has supported policies to help working families. How she cares deeply about the freedom for women like Melody and her daughter to make the best health care decisions for themselves and their family members.
I told Melody, it is voters like her who will decide which direction this country will take. And that I hope she’ll seriously consider casting that important vote for Harris/Walz and the Democratic ticket in Pennsylvania, because to help working families like Melody’s, Harris needs a strong team behind her.
I closed by telling Melody I wouldn’t be spending every weekend of October trying to talk to voters like her if I didn’t think her vote mattered. That she mattered.
She told me she’ll definitely vote, and she’s starting to lean toward Harris.
This past weekend, 29 fellow DC/MD/VA residents from this list made the trek to southern PA. Sure, a majority of doors we knocked on didn’t answer. There were some knocks that were truly joyous, like when we met Katherine Akers, who initially looked at Marlene and me quite suspiciously: “Who Are You With?” she sternly asked, with the leash to her german shepherd grasped tightly. When we showed our PA Dems badges, she brightened up: “We Gotta Get That Crazy Man Out of Our Lives!” Katherine is a retired IBM employee, who grew up in York and moved back because she couldn’t afford housing costs in Colorado where she worked most of her career.
But there was also Brett Baker, a steelworker and registered independent who said he was voting for Trump because he thought his company did better during his presidency. And fellow independent and Navy veteran Eldon Baltzley, who said his veteran healthcare got better under Trump. Also, he added, Harris spoke in word salad, and he recited other Fox News soundbites and misinformation.
This is why the PA Dems want us to head back to York this weekend. The York, Lancaster, and Harrisburg area was highlighted in a New York Times op-ed as one of 21 microcommunities that will decide this election.
The key to victory: Expanding those blue dots and making them deep blue!
It’s now or never: If you want to head up on your own, email me and I’ll give you the exact launch location in York or you can sign up here. Or take a bus to PA leaving from D.C. courtesy of the Democratic Party Saturday and Sunday. Or click on the button below and join a carpool for Kamala!
I get it: Many of us can’t travel five hours every weekend to knock on doors. But there’s a lot you can do from D.C. and home:
You can phonebank! This link is specifically for out-of-state volunteers!
Or you can join the Woman's National Democratic Club on Winning Wednesdays to write and call voters.
Some tips if you can head to PA by carpool, by bus, or on your own:
Pre-load the Minivan 9 app on your phone and make sure your phone is charged up! Change your settings to low battery mode! Here’s a volunteer training you can do before coming to PA!
Make sure you have water and some snacks with you.
Layer! Temperatures fluctuate over the day!
And have fun! If you choose to take one of our carpools for Kamala, it is likely we’ll stop to get ice cream at Sweet Willows Creamery.
Noah and Joan enjoying a sweet treat after door knocking!
There are two weekends left to preserve Democracy and D.C. Home Rule!
Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. We just can’t.
Elissa.