Canvassing

• A very long day, canvassing in cold and rainy Rochester, Minnesota. Rochester is in MN-01, where Dan Feehan is running against the invidious Jim Hagedorn for an open seat. It may well be the closest tossup race in the country.
• We had a Swing Left bus from Minneapolis-St. Paul via Northfield (home of St. Olaf and Carleton). Getting the bus was a real struggle: I was told repeatedly that busses were for New York and LA.
• We made 1375 voter contacts. That’s nearly the 2016 margin in the entire district.
• Nationwide, Swing Left knocked on 1,000,000 doors today.
• Waiting for people to answer the doors, I’d glance down at their name and age in Minivan and tell myself, “give them time: they’re old folks.” Then I realized that they were scarcely older than I. Thanks, Time!
• I was paired with a really good canvasser, South Carolina Lydia. A number of the door knockers had expressly Christian symbols; when I saw those, I found myself letting Lydia take the lead. Thanks, Gamergate!
• A number of people told us that they didn't know who they would vote for, and didn't want any information and didn't want to talk. They’d decide Tuesday morning. My sense is that some of these people just don't want their opinions to be known because they'd be embarrassed to defend them — but, remember, these were all likely Democratic voters.
• I did talk to a number of people whose background seemed to be Baltic (or Eastern European at any rate) who, I thought, might not want their opinions to be known because they're thinking ahead to Trump’s secret police — and they've got more experience of this than we do.