Texas Two Step
Posted by: Dana
I had hoped to blog everyday while in Texas but no wireless connection so no can do! Following is my recap of the events….
Sunday…..I picked up my mom at the airport without getting lost and we went to get a nice Texas meal and called it a night. In the morning we went to the office and received out assignment to “table” at the local kite festival. We loaded up the car with the plastic table, a couple chairs and had outs on the Texas two step where you vote during the day and caucus at night–not sure this makes too much since to me but it is what they do in Texas. We ended up having to drag the table and chairs for a good 1/2 mile. We set up and then are told it is only for sponsors (they just don’t like Hillary at the family function if you get my drift). We park the table at a public location where there is traffic and engage voters in conversation we are successful with this for about an hour till we talk to the wrong person and are asked to leave the park. We fold up the table and chairs and just hand out materials this is a public park, we are then escorted out of the park- not sure about the warm Texas welcome. We did manage to meet some great people and the women are really excited for Hillary that is for sure they want change and believe that change starts with electing a woman- I’m good!
Perfect timing of getting kicked out- Debra and Angie have arrived and are ready to work for Hillary. We pick them up and to HQ where we recieve our next assignment- it is time for visibility! We get to the location with our signs and voiced and enthusiasm and stand on the street corner for Hillary. We are in Austin and this is Obama country and we know it. We are ready for the finger but what we find is supporters lots of them!
My mom has never campaigned before so she didn’t know what to expect and I think she was even a little nervous even though I told her it is not hard it is just a lot of work. She loved doing visibility and watching all the cars honk and give us waves and the thumbs up. Nothing like engaging people in the process, especially people who have never been engaged before. We headed back to the office made some calls about Hillary coming to town and voter ID calls, easy enough! We went and had Tex Mex and gear up for the next day- the temp. is going to drop and it is looking like rain!
Monday
We wake up early and look outside- it is pouring down rain and we need to go do visibility in a Hispanic precinct. Rain or shine we have a job to do! The entire crew is now with us….Bree and Michael arrived around midnight. We have a challenge one SUV and 6 people. I take the first crew and will come back for the 2nd. It is COLD and raining and still dark. I drop of Bree, Angie and my mom and will come back for Debra and Michael. Not much to say but we stood in the rain about 20 of us and froze and never really complained- we made the most of it and had a lot of laughs. When the clock hit 9:00 we all piled in the car and Michael found his place in the “trunk” of the SUV or at least that is what we called it! Mission accomplished!
Back to the hotel, we changed into dry clothes and grabbed some breakfast and then hot showers and to the office we go. We are asked to make calls for a targeted district and we blaze throught the calls. Mom is not so comfortable with calls and ends up being recruited to help with the kitchen- she loves it! We receive a surprise visit from a bunch of stars, Ms. Kentucky, Melanie Griffin, Christine Lotty and others. they do photo ops, thank us for all we are doing and work the room. When they leave back to the calls we need to get through the list and that we do. The calls are going great and Hillary has a lot of support- we are feeling really great. We decide to go to the Rally with Hillary and Chelsea and still have a list to call. We take the call sheets and call on the way to the rally. Michael reaches a voter and talks about why he is supporting Hillary and tells the voter he is so committed he is calling her from the ”trunk” of the car. We can’t help but all bust our laughing.
The rally is great and Hillary is amazing. What is really special is having Chelsea there and watching her with her mom. She is so proud and it just shows how much she loves her mom. I really want my mom and Michael to meet Hillary but no luck! The crowd is going wild and there are so many young women you want the same for them. Security is really escalated too. Oh well it was still an amazing event!
Election Day!
We wake up early and drop off the first group to their polling place and Debra and Bree stay with me. Our polling place is the Ann Richards school for young women leaders- how COOL is that! We watched all the girls being dropped off at school very excited about the election and for Hillary! We tried to talk to the voters and reminded them about the caucuses at 7:00. Many people had questions as they have not really had a caucus in 40 years. When we were done with our shift we went back to the hotel to clean up and have breakfast. We just happened to spot Ann Lewis and invited her to join us, what a treat!
We went to the office and received our next assignment visibility at a high school. We got a little lost and decided to do visabilty at the state capitol where the press set up shop. What a great idea! We ended up teaming up with a few flight attendants and focused on the global media market. We did interviews with a German, Russian, Australian, Japanese and CNN Espanol! We also did interviews with the local NBC and an alternative paper from San Francisco. We had a blast and talked about how this was a global election and the rest of the world would like to see the US economy bounce back if we do well, the rest of the world does well and we all know they love the Clinton’s!
Time to go back to the polls and when we arrive at the Ann Richards school, the President is there! Wow! It was amazing and the girls were just thrilled to meet the former President.
We stay till the caucuses and what a mess. The people line up at 7:00 and can’t go in till the last voter has voted which is 8:00. At 8:00 they start to let them in, they vote again and leave. At my location Obama won by 2-1, it really is the caucusing of the fittest, this is no way to conduct and election for president, at least in my opinion. The caucus is over it is time to party!
Party we do! We win Rhode Island people are happy. We win Ohio, crowd goes crazy. We believe it will be a late night…CNN calls if for Texas- people loose their mind! The President comes out and thanks us. He reminds us that the crowd looks like America- it does! Hillary speaks and she is amazing- just amazing. Everyone is crying we knew this was a must win if our dream will continue. Our dream continues, next state PA and we are all ready to go! Yes she can!!!
2 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
It was such a fantastic time Dana!
Just amazing!
-Bree
something we will always remember…so glad you were able to make it. You can always buy a new pair of shoes you can only help the first woman president once in a lifetime!