People have been waiting on someone to vote for
Maybe it’s the looming towers that made the landscape around Sequoyah seem so still when I canvassed there. I’m sure the July heat kept many folks inside.
Whether I was walking empty suburban streets or driving long country roads, it was like moving through suspended animation. Lots of quiet time to marinate about things outside my control.
That all changed a week ago.
My phone blew up as I was trudging uphill in a newer subdivision in Soddy-Daisy. I had to find a patch of shade to see the texts. It was my family group chat. More specifically, it was my daughters.
Except for the group icon—Chuck Fleischmann in a hardhat—my family chat is surprisingly apolitical. It’s weird humor, random questions, comings and goings, and photos (kids, pets, food). We’ve always been a close family; it’s just a place for us to stay that way. It’s not a breaking news kind of space.
But when Joe Biden left the presidential race, the immediate outburst from my three daughters in three different cities was remarkable, and it gutted me. I knew they’d planned to vote for Biden; they understand the stakes for their own futures, and for the future of the planet. Their elation wasn’t just about wanting a candidate who inspires them. It was about wanting a candidate who inspires other people, especially younger people, so we can all avoid an existential threat.
I’ve been saying since March that things are very different on the ground in Tennessee than they were in 2022.
More Democrats are running for office. More people are volunteering to help. In a state with the worst election turnout in the country, we’re all working toward the same goal: giving disaffected voters someone to vote for. I’ve had so many people tell me they’d planned to sit this election out until I knocked their door.
For me, two things are true: I can feel the momentum, and much of July was a slog. But this past week has been extraordinary. People respond to hope. That’s why I’m always hopeful, and why I never give up.
Allison
If you want to be part of the positive momentum in Tennessee, please join my campaign! Click to donate, volunteer, or get a yard sign.
Allison
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