A voter file can provide valuable information, such as a person’s voting history and the political party they last registered with. But that information becomes dated the moment it goes to print. It can’t tell you what issues are troubling that voter at the moment or if they’ve started to regret any of their past votes. And if someone’s never voted before, they won’t appear in the records at all.
Only a human conversation can pull out that deeper information. And that real-time person-to-person intelligence is the key to actually winning elections.
On the podcast this week, our guest, Karen, told us about a day when she was out walking in her community. A friend from her RWB Network group waved her over with good news: another neighbor, Jean, was interested in joining their group.
The wrinkle? Karen knew from looking at voter files that Jean was a registered Republican.
Instead of saying, “Of course Jean can’t join our group,” Karen was excited. Because it meant Jean was against extremism too. It meant that Jean agreed with her group’s work to support public schools and immigrants in their community. And the more Karen chatted with Jean, the more she realized they had in common.
If you know anything about Red Wine & Blue, you know that we’re kind of obsessed with friend-to-friend organizing. Not just because having conversations and connecting with our neighbors is good for our spirits and our communities, but because it works.
Can you commit to talking to your friends, family, and neighbors about voting before the midterms? If it sounds intimidating, we’ve got your back. Rally, our Get Out The Vote tool, helps you track who you’ve talked to and gives you tips on how to start those conversations, too.
With all the voting-rights shenanigans we’re already seeing, friend-to-friend organizing is more important than ever heading into the midterms. We won’t win by preaching to the choir. We’ll win by chatting with Jean.
