Having heard from and worked with a few in the Edwards camp, it amazes me how much energy these young men and women have and the passion that they have for both the candidate and compassion for people. This story from Time is worth a read.
At campaign rallies, they're the head cheerleaders, whipping up enthusiasm in the crowd. At a multi-candidate steak fry, straw poll or debate, they're the ground troops fighting the "sign wars" — a surprisingly intense competition to put up the most campaign placards.
They are the hundreds of mostly young, underpaid campaign staffers and volunteers who serve as the foot soldiers for the presidential candidates vying in the upcoming fiercely-contested Iowa caucuses. Across the state, they can be easily spotted — driving compact cars sporting out-of-state plates and political bumper stickers, clutching cups of the best overpriced coffee available, handing out campaign paraphernalia and knocking on doors.
Just days after graduating from Brandeis University last May, Raena Davis became one of those hardy souls, packing a few belongings and driving from her childhood home in Miami to the temporary epicenter of presidential politics, Des Moines, Iowa. "I live in a pretty foul apartment," Davis, 22, says with a cheerful laugh. "I have no furniture except a mattress on the floor and an Ikea nightstand. I live out of my suitcases. I also have a coffee maker and cereal." She endures her Spartan digs, the hot weather, cold weather, countless stump speeches and 15-hour workdays as a staffer, all the while enthusiastically urging Iowans to vote for Joe Biden on January 3. "Sometimes it's so hard to get out of bed but I know how important the work is that I'm doing," says Davis. "In the office, there's so much energy from the other people, you feed off that."
Campaign staffers, of course, can be found all over the country. But thanks to the unusually complicated nature of the caucuses (which involves not a quick trip to the voting booth but an entire evening spent at a precinct caucus with complicated procedures) and the unusually keen participation of Iowans, the grassroots campaign here is longer and more intense than almost anywhere else. "Often times, the questions from 12-year-olds in Iowa are far more intelligent and relevant than a lot I've gotten from adults all across the country," says Carter Wamp, 23, of Nashville, a staffer for Republican Mike Huckabee who has lived since October in a West Des Moines apartment with a colleague, spending lots of time at schools and gun shows to spread his candidate's message. "People here are a great example for the rest of country of what a good citizen can do to choose the right person for our country." More
To these energetic and hard-working women and men, thank you for all you do.
1 comment:
I agree wholeheartedly. It's easy to get annoyed or angry when you're being inundated with phone calls or have someone at your door campaigning for a candidate you don't support, but it's important not to forget the commitment and sacrifices campaign staffers and volunteers are frequently making because they see the potential to change the world. And once you've gotten to know a few of those people, it's hard not to respect them, even if you do disagree with them.
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