Many of us have been involved in various forms of voter outreach in swing districts over the past two years. Now it’s coming time to turn to a very specific kind of work called Get Out The Vote, or GOTV. By the final weekend before the midterm election on November 6, we all need to be working to get out the vote in critical swing states and districts across the country.
The Democrats are favored to win the House, and they have a good chance at the Senate, but these elections are expected to be CLOSE. That means it’s even more important this year than most years that the left comes out to vote in target districts, and we all need to do our part to make sure that happens. We need to knock on their doors and call them, or many of them will not do it—especially in a midterm year. We absolutely need more progressives in these districts to vote than voted in 2014, which means we need more people to canvass and phone bank than did so in 2014. So if you worked to get out the vote back then, we need you to step up again, and for those of us who sat that one out, it’s time to redeem ourselves. Looking back it’s easy to see how high the stakes were in the 2010 and 2014 midterms when we lost the House and then the Senate —because not enough of us voted—but the stakes are even higher now. If the Republicans again win a majority of seats with a minority of the popular vote, they will see it as a mandate to take away our rights and our social safety net and to continue the corrupt behavior that has gotten them this far. But there are more of us than of them, and if we vote, and hold each other accountable to vote, we will win.