As Ohio Goes, So Goes The Nation

Wow! This is such a fantastic trip! I am so thankful I had the opportunity to come here, and so glad that I took it.

Our bus trip was a lovely 14 hour trek through MA, NY, PA and then OH. We watched some great movies including "But I'm a Cheerleader", "Rent" and "Saved". It probably won't surprise you to know that I slept about 75% of the trip.

We also watched two documentaries on Ohio and the '04 election. I did not realize how INCREDIBLY close things were in Ohio and how crucial it is for a candidate to win. No republican has ever won the presidential election without Ohio and no democrat has since Kennedy! In '04 the democrats lost Ohio by approximately 9 votes per district.

So much is being done here to get people registered and voting. One of the biggest mistakes in '04 was lack of organization. This is absolutely not a problem now.

Today our group was the largest LGBT caucus in Ohio campaign history. We knocked on almost 4000 doors today in a very crucial area in Whitehall. We campaigned for Obama and a local representative candidate Nancy Garland as the democrats are hoping to win four seats and take the house majority. We also met some of the Obama's personal friends who came to join us this weekend from Chicago!

For me it has been a facinating experience so far. The people I met heading over from Boston are great. We have been welcomed by some extremely warm, generous people in Columbus. I am staying with a woman named Mary Jo, her partner Lynn and their three dogs. They have been so gracious to my roomate Cathy and myself. They seemed like regular people to us until we found out that Mary Jo is the "most famous lesbian in Ohio"! She is the first open member of the cabinet (and she got us VIP tickets to the drag show tonight!).

The canvassing was a little scary at first. Cathy and I went together but we split the houses and travel across the street from one another. Most people are not even home and they told us to expect to make contact with only about 10%. We ran into a few snags with apartment buildings and but apartment numbers on our lists; buildings that were locked with no tresspassing signs, people who did not speak English and an Ohio State Football game that kept many residents from taking the time to speak with us. Some people are thrilled to talk to us, others not so much-some of them kinder about it than others. :) We mostly went to low-income housing developments and lower middle class neighborhoods of single family homes. We found many more Obama supporters in the first of those groups and many McCain in the second.

We have had a range of people from a woman who was proud to announce that at 44 she had never voted, to a young woman who snuck out of the house to say she had voted for Obama but please don't tell her parents. I had a man offer to volunteer for the campaign and then proceed to tell me he would NEVER vote for a democrat. Sadly, I had a woman tell me that she would not vote because she does not have hope in humankind. But I had several people that had already voted for Obama in the early voting option Ohio is using.

I had a few conversations with undecided voters. I was worried about not having all the answers. What I realized is that if I just listened to what these people had to say and aknowledge their concerns, most were willing to listen to me as well. Hopefully some of them will remember our chat on election day and remember that someone took their opions seriously.

So today I knocked on about 70 doors and spoke with 11 people. It doesn't seem like many but if we each spoke to 11 people today and we each convinced one person to vote for Obama, we will have the numbers we would have needed to win in '04.

Our goal for tomorrow is to try and knock on about 100-115. We had a very late night at the International Drag King Community Extravaganza so I need to get some sleep! My feet are sore and my back is tired but I feel very envigorated.

I am truly lucky to live in MA where my rights are relatively well protected and secure. I am so grateful to be healthy enough and able to be here this weekend to make a real difference for our entire country.