Canvassing in Times Like These
In the wake of the terrifying shootings of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who was shot in the head for knocking on the wrong door while attempting to pick up his siblings in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kaylin Gillis, a 20-year-old white woman who was shot and killed after her friend turned into the wrong driveway in upstate New York, I have been reflecting a lot on my days knocking on the doors of strangers, canvassing. I have spent three full summers raising money, nine months on a ballot initiative campaign, a month on a congressional race, and many drop-in days supporting causes and candidates by knocking on doors. While the math is a little fuzzy, it’s fair to say that I have knocked on upwards of 6,500 doors. The vast majority of those interactions have ranged from mundane to mostly pleasant experiences, but to be honest, the bad experiences stay with you in a way that is hard to shake.
I still remember a beautiful late-summer evening canvassing in Western Massachusetts, the land of liberal lesbians, in the actual hometown of Rachel Maddow, when I knocked on a door and heard an eerie voice say to me calmly, “You have 10 seconds to get off my property, I own many guns.” A chill ran down my spine and I have never run so fast in my life. And yet, thinking of my managers, and the staff I supported, I felt that I had to keep going, and continuing on to knock on my next door like nothing had happened.
There are moments like these canvassing when you realize how vulnerable you are, out there on your own, with no idea who is behind the next door you approach. And let’s be real, these experiences have everything to do with identity. I have seen firsthand cops called on Black canvassers for simply doing their job. I’ve heard creepy comments made to women about the length of their shorts. I’ve had canvassers followed and harassed. I have also seen these experiences dismissed and buried in the dizzying energy of a busy canvass office and most concerning, a concerted effort to dismiss these incidents in the name of a larger mission.
With all of this said, I do not think we should stop canvassing. All of the data tells us that it is the single most impactful field tactic in our toolbox, and we need to be having conversations with our neighbors now, more than ever before. There are ways to help make our canvasses safer that can help people feel taken care of. Here are a few tips to make your canvasses and campaigns safer places for everybody.
Make it clear who you are to the community. Be sure to give every canvasser (even folks on their first day out) a T-shirt that says the name of your organization or campaign on both the front and the back of the shirt so that people understand that a canvasser is at their door before even talking to them.
Recruit people to canvass their own neighborhoods. This means canvassers are more likely to know their neighbors, know who to avoid, and you have the added benefit of many of these contacts being relational.
Build a strong team culture. Create a group chat so that folks have everyone’s number if they need to get ahold of anyone. Give everyone a map that shows where they are, and where the rest of the team is so that folks know that they are not alone.
Assign people (or let people pick) canvassing buddies. While it can be expensive and inefficient to have everyone canvass in pairs, it’s a good practice for a canvasser's first day out. For more experienced folks who still want a buddy, cut turf where canvassers can canvass across the street from one another.
Call the local cops before a neighbor does. Before you send canvassing crews out for the day, call the local precinct and let them know you will have canvassers in the neighborhood. This can save everyone time and headaches (and trauma!) so that police don’t respond to a call from a neighbor reporting “someone suspicious” walking around their neighborhood.
Allow people to skip doors! Cut the “clean plate club” talk and if folks feel unsafe approaching a house (think Trump signs and “Blue Lives Matter” flags on the front lawn), encourage canvassers to skip it. Chances are, these are not your people anyways!
Check-in regularly. Have the field manager or director send texts to canvassers to see how it’s going, or better yet, go join canvassers for a few doors.
If someone has an incident, send them home, and pay them for their whole shift. I know, we’re scrappy nonprofits that don’t have money to burn, but paying a canvasser for their whole shift will make everyone feel much better about the experience and is worth it in the long run.
Be explicit about the role. I have seen and been part of so many canvassing campaigns that bury the lead. People don’t realize they are going to be knocking on doors until they are on their first day of training. You wouldn’t do this with any other job, don’t do it with canvassing! Enthusiastic consent is important.
Believe people. If someone says something happened to them on turf, even if it’s something you’ve never seen or heard before, believe them and react appropriately. If you weren’t there, all you can do is trust your staff. There is nothing worse than having a terrible experience, and the people that you tell dismiss that experience. Yes, canvass offices are busy, but a little empathy goes a long way.
Campaigns (at least meaningful ones) are rarely without risk. But, when we design campaigns with care at the center of what we do, we can build movements that can sustain for the long haul. We don’t burn out our canvassers and supporters, but rather we let them know that we see the risks they take for the communities they care about and that we can support them in taking those risks. And finally, if you are someone who has never experienced fear or uncertainty when knocking on a stranger's door, that is your privilege and it probably means that you should pick up some extra canvassing shifts in your next local election!
2024 will be here before we know it. And a ton of local races are happening between now and then. The world is a scary place and seems to be getting scarier every day, which is why it is more important than ever that we have meaningful conversations with our neighbors about our values, important issues, and the candidates who care about those things. Let’s get back out there and knock on some doors, and let’s do it with the compassion and care that our staff, our volunteers, and our movements deserve.
