Circulating My Petition
I've spent the last two days gathering signatures on a petition to get on the Spring ballot as a Precinct Committee Person for the Democrat Party in my county. The Committee basically doesn't exist right now. There's a single person serving as chair by default—a placeholder to prevent the org from dissolving.
Democrats are a very small minority around here; small fish in a big red sea. When I got my hands on a list of people who voted in the last Democrat primary in my precinct and it included 44 people I was surprised. There are approximately 10,000 people in my county (yes, the whole county) which is made up of 12 precincts. If every precinct has this many Democrats, that's more than 500 people in an area where many would assume there are none; and these are just the people who voted in a primary. I'm sure there more "I don't do politics" types who don't agree with what's happening in our country—I know there are, they've signed my petition! My county is more than a Republican county, it's more than Trump Country. There's more to the story, and that's why I'm running.
Since deciding to run, I've had moments of hesitation. I'm worried that I'll be the next de-facto chair and it'll all just be a waste of time. But door-knocking today energized me. Everyone was so kind and welcoming. Some recommended their neighbors, who they knew weren't on my list but would surely sign my petition. I got a little bit of joy out of the sudden change of their expressions when I would get to the end of my pitch and land on the word "Democrats." It would jolt them a bit—and that's exactly the effect I want to have.
I kept telling people "We may be a small minority, but that doesn't mean we can't be organized and work together." The message resonates. I have almost double the signatures I need, and I still have 26 homes to visit this week. Not only that—there are already issues uniting us! Local issues, pertaining to our local government. If I can get people in a room to organize around those issues, I wonder what else they might stick around for.