The Campaign

Many people have asked me to write about my experiences with the Obama campaign, so here I will attempt to briefly outline my experiences.

As I have written earlier, I returned to Toledo, Ohio where I volunteered as an Obama Organizing Fellow. I worked long hours and was away from my wife, Jen, for a month. We laid the groundwork for the campaign, recruiting other volunteers and opening an office. I met some wonderful people and forged some great friendships along the way. The difficulty of our task, the long hours we worked, and the like-minded sense of purpose that we shared brought many of us close together. At the end of July, I was offered the paid staff position of Field Organizer in Ohio. While I was happy to be offered the position, I was not sure if I would be able to keep with the long hours and most of all even longer time away from Jen. As those of you who are close to us know, Jen and I do everything together, so such a long time apart would be unthinkable but for the fact that the dire situation our county found itself and for our complete confidence in Barack Obama to address the nation’s ills. So we agreed to continue our sacrifice and do our small part to secure our nation and the world’s better future. After a brief four days back in San Francisco, I returned to Ohio to begin work as a Field Organizer. I was told I would be assigned to Cleveland, but at the last minute, I was sent to Newark, Ohio in Licking County. I was familiar with Newark, having visited back when I was growing up two counties away in Cambridge, Ohio. I began working with another group of dedicated Obama supporters, many of whom had also quit their jobs to help Barack Obama win election in the critically important state. The work was similar to what I had done as a fellow. I was tasked with recruiting, training, and managing volunteers, who would build teams, make phone calls, canvass door-to-door and convince people to vote for Barack Obama. This work was much more difficult in an area that was more conservative and demoralized than Toledo, where the excitement for the election was quite palpable. Slowly but surely, we built neighborhood teams, opened our own office (see the pictures with me in front), and reached in an organized effort the likes of which Licking County had never seen. I was very lucky to have supporters house me, and the use of another’s car for the duration of the campaign. It certainly helped a great deal and I am truly grateful for their contribution.

A typical day for me began at 9:00 am, with meetings and a conference call. The rest of the morning was spent preparing for the volunteers’ arrivals, and it went by very quickly – sometimes we forgot to eat. Early afternoon was often a mix of meetings, returning phone calls, training new volunteers and assisting other volunteers. Late afternoon until 9 pm was our “sacred call time” and we spent the whole time (or very close to it) on the phones, finding new volunteers and rescheduling others. At the end of this, we had a few minutes to scramble to get our call numbers and results together to report first to our region which consisted of Licking, Delaware and Knox counties, and then to a regional conference call which consisted of ¼ of the state. Later, we would also have a statewide call. After all of this, we had to enter data. Luckily, I had some great volunteers, and one in particular who did a massive amount of data entry which probably saved us a couple of hours a night, so we could get home by 11:30 pm or so each night. Although, as we got closer to the election, I was not getting home until after 2:00 am. It was very rough – and working last few days of the campaign was the hardest thing I have ever done. Jen came out to spend the last few days of the election with me in Ohio and even helped canvass on election day. I was so glad to have Jen at my side while we watched the election results and we shared tears of joy as Ohio was announced for Barack Obama. It had been worth all the struggle and sacrifice.

I was happy that I was able to see Obama and Biden once with Jen (she visited for a few days in August).

In addition, during state-wide training for the campaign staff in Ohio, Obama did show up to encourage us. I also was able to see the future Vice President when Joe Biden came to visit Newark.

It was amazing to have been a part of this historic campaign and now I look forward to doing my part to help this incoming administration rebuild America.