By Laura Haight
President, Dem Women

Recently, our outstanding state Representative Chandra Dillard raised a question on Facebook: How can Georgia and North Carolina be purple and South Carolina remains ruby red? 

I think Chandra knows the answer as well as many of us do.

They work harder at it. 

Recently, I’ve been presented with a few harsh truths about myself. Boiling them down: I am demanding, I push too hard, it’s hard for some people to feel the joy that they want to get from volunteering. 

They are not wrong. I am demanding, I do both work hard and push hard. But I do take umbrage to the “joy” part. 

• I see the joy when I look out at our meetings – at the number of men and women who have found us and each other. 
• I see the joy when I’m in a coffee shop or at one of our events and usually a few people say they didn’t think there were any Democrats here and they feel sooo much better to have found like minded people. 
• I see the joy when community members greet us with open arms in friendship because we’ve shown we care about their communities and will work to support them. 
• I see the joy when 46 people come out to learn about volunteering and when over 60 joined us at our Kamala DNC Watch Party. 

These joyful moments tell me that we are building something strong and meaningful. That our hard work and attention to bringing women together, to caring for our members, to serving our community, to setting goals and working together to achieve them, are all bearing fruit. 

And I will feel the joy on Nov. 6 when we have flipped at least one damn seat. When Taylor Culliver, or Shauna Johnson, Brann Fowler, or Octavia Amaechi, Kathryn Harvey or Karine Debaty,  Bryon Best or John MacCarthy, have put a Republican out on the street!

I will feel the joy when we can call Kamala Harris Madame President.

And I’m pretty sure you all agree with me about that. But here’s a hard truth. The joy is in the result, not necessarily the path to it. 

Getting there is not always half the fun.

As Chandra posted: We must believe our vote and activism can make a difference. We must educate, organize, strategize and execute a winning plan to get our neighbors to the polls. If we want changes in SC policy and political leadership, we must “Do Something”. SC needs you to turn our state blue.

And there it is: The “doing something” is often work. It’s going out on Saturday mornings to knock on strangers doors in high heat and lousy humidity. It’s phone banking and lit dropping. It’s being involved in GOTV activities from driving voters to the polls to helping to make thousands of phone calls to voters to get them energized about our Democratic slate and give them the information they need to vote. We try to wrap some fun up in it, stop for ice cream after canvassing, grab lunch, get dinner together after phone banking. But that still doesn’t put those activities at the top of anyone’s how-I-want-to-spend-my-summer list.

To win a smaller voter pool in 2023, the Dowe campaign started in April and knocked on 8000 doors. They did this with what the campaign describes as a “hardcore group of 8 volunteers” and with both Dorothy and Shelly canvassing six evenings a week. Dorothy benefited from being the incumbent and being well known in the community.

That effort produced 6,000 votes and a victory. In some of our districts, our candidates could need to get upwards of 25-30,000 votes to be successful. 

While personal contacts – as we saw in the video – are the most powerful tools we have. It’s also true that adults need a lot of reinforcement. We have to hear or see something seven times before we really absorb it. That’s radio, digital ads, social media, postcards, personal letters, conversations in the Publix parking lot with a neighbor. This is all part of the work we need to do if we want to flip one damn seat – or more.

In the video, one of the speakers makes a very important observation. ‘I didn’t want to wake up the morning after the election and feel that I hadn’t done everything I could.’ 

I know everyone in this room is supporting Democratic candidates – not only here but around the country. And that many of us are actively engaged with campaigns, but we have to ask ourselves, can we do more? 

Am I demanding, yes I am. Do I push hard, yes I do. Because I want us all to feel the joy on Nov. 6. 

So let’s all commit to “doing something” – maybe just a little more than we feel comfortable with –  and let’s go win this thing!