Pennsylvania canvassing report

I am canvassing near Pittsburgh this week with a group of around 30.  The first few days have been relatively uneventful.  The weather has been beautiful.  A few of my co-canvassers reported useful conversations, like one woman who wanted to vote but wasn’t sure who the pro-choice candidate was. 

I have had one conversation with an undecided voter, a woman who spoke to me from inside her house.  (I couldn’t figure out how I was able to hear her, she didn’t open the door.)  First she said she was a lifelong democrat but didn’t know enough about Harris.  So I said I thought Harris was well-prepared to be president.  She then said she didn’t like the way Democrats spend money – that it didn’t benefit people like her.  I said, yeah, I don’t agree with all of their spending priorities either, but Republicans will very likely control Congress, so it won’t matter.  She then pivoted to abortion.  She said she didn’t like the way Democrats put the President at the center of the debate, despite the fact that it’s the Supreme Court and Congress that are responsible for abortion policy (she acknowledged that the next President may well get a Supreme Court appointment).  I responded that the President has a lot of influence on abortion and birth control availability through the FDA, mifepristone, etc.   She acknowledged this point.  She then went back to how Democrats spend money.  She said she had had a difficult two years, and her property taxes were going to go up to fund schools that don’t benefit her since she doesn’t have kids.  I pointed out that property taxes are a local issue.  What I did not realize is that property taxes may go up as much as 50% in some areas.  I’m not sure if her town was included – but that’s a big cost increase for someone just scraping by.  Overall I would say she was much better informed and reasonable than I expected based on reporting about undecided voters.  She often countered her own arguments.  She said at the end of the day she would probably vote Democratic.

I also had a conversation with a young black guy with two small kids.  He wasn’t on my list, but I stopped and chatted with him.  He said he wasn’t going to vote.  He said the system only worked for the rich, not for everyone else.  He specifically pointed to how difficult it was to afford healthy food for his kids.  I wasn’t sure if he was upset about inequality or inflation.

For those of you who are Harris supporters and looking for good news, one of my co-canvassers pointed out that we have seen no Trump canvassers and little evidence of past Trump canvass efforts (not much Trump literature on porches).  And we’ve been in very mixed neighborhoods, so maybe Trump’s ground game really is in disarray, as some reports suggest.  We can only hope.