This past weekend, members of Smart Girl Politics NC, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas traveled to Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina to team up with Americans For Prosperity for our 'Heels on the Ground' get out the vote in swing states campaign.  All of the participants were regular Americans ranging from career women to stay-at-home mothers, who chose to leave their homes in order to work in swing states and have an impact.  Almost everyone who participated typically does not enjoy the traditional get out the vote methods of phonebanking and walking door-to-door, but had the resolve to do whatever it takes to make an impact this November.  However, we were pleasantly surprised by what met us when we arrived at the Americans For Prosperity offices in the two cities.  The AFP technology is outstanding, so this was a far different experience in phone banking and walking than we have had in the past.  The training and support from the AFP staff and fast paced technology made both activities productive and enjoyable. 

 

The Smart Girls arrived in North Carolina and started phone banking Friday evening with a break for dinner brought into the offices.  During the dinner break, the Raliegh AFP staff and volunteers visited and shared stories with us about the AFP Obama's Failing Agenda bus tour that was in the state earlier in the week to greet the Democratic National Convention.  We made calls steadily, and speedily due to the technology, until 9:00 p.m. when the two groups had completed approximately 3000 calls in the course of the evening.

 

Saturday morning, we returned to the AFP offices and renewed our phone banking efforts.  We were greeted by the staff with Chick-Fil-A breakfast sandwiches and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  At mid day, we were given a tour of downtown Raleigh and went to lunch with the gracious AFP staff.  After some downtime to rest, we met up and were ready to start knocking on doors.  Again, thanks to earlier phone banking by AFP, our walking was directed to specific registered voters and not random door-to-door.  We were each trained on the AFP walking app on the tablet and went on our way in pairs.  We knocked on doors and asked if the person who answered would be willing to respond to a short survey.  I was surprised not only that only two people declined, but that people were also very plesant when answering the questions.  We were able to get in over three hours of walking and surveying, reaching over 140 homes in Raleigh before torrential rains descended. 

 

Fortunately, at that point, it was dinner time, and the AFP staff took us to an Italian restaurant, where we shared our experiences from the day with each other, discussed the AFP staff's experiences during the recalls in Wisconsin, learned more about each of our own personal backgrounds and why we made the trip, and finally the owner of the restaurant came over to say hello and after seeing our t-shirts, he let us know that he did build his business.

 

The overwhelming feedback from Smart Girls was that it was a wonderful experience, and it changed the way we felt about phone banking and walking in get out the vote efforts.  We appreciated having the opportunity to help out in swing states, and really appreciated not only the professional, but the hospitality of the staff from Americans For Prosperity in both cities. 

 

The one consistency with Smart Girl Politics, is that every time I meet up with Smart Girls from other states, I am always amazed and grateful to be part of a group of such strong, intelligent, interesting and determined women.