Grassroots Organizing Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Grassroots Organizing Amid a Pandemic For the Nikil Saval campaign, grassroots organizing has persisted despite going fully digital. May 2020 By Liam Scott The key to grassroots organizing is supposed to be simple: knock on more doors, talk to more voters, earn more support. But in the age of coronavirus, volunteer networks for campaigns and initiatives across the country have been pushed off the streets and onto computer screens and cell phones. For some, this is a cause for concern. Others see this idle and focused time as a bonus for organizing efforts, especially given the postponement of primary elections in some states due to the pandemic. For Tess Kerins, an organizer with the Nikil Saval for Pennsylvania State Senate campaign, the implications of the changes are more uncertain: “The coronavirus affects our abilities as a campaign but I’m not sure if it hinders us or helps us.” Saval launched his campaign to unseat Democratic incumbent Larry Farnese in the state’s urban 1st Senatorial district in December. His campaign champions progressive values and has already claimed big endorsements from the Philadelphia chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the Sunrise Movement, and Reclaim Philadelphia, an organizing group born out of the 2016 Sanders presidential campaign. “A lot of times grassroots campaigns win because they knock on doors so it’s frustrating that we can’t do that. But having an extra month means we get to talk to more people. I am optimistic, but I’m not sure how to tell in something like this.” One thing that has definitively changed in the case of the Saval campaign is how volunteers interact with voters when they do answer the phone. Beginning phone calls with gauging concern level, food and medicine security, and health of the voter have become increasingly necessary. With the foremost goal of outreach being to provide mutual aid to those who are facing heightened insecurity due to COVID-19, outreach calls have at times turned into referring someone to medical professionals, assisting someone is registering to vote by mail, or, more frequently, connecting someone with a local food resource site as provided by the city during the crisis. “From our perspective, the campaign is focused on recognizing the humanity in the crisis,” says Tess. “We want to make sure our neighbors are OK.” “Mutual aid is necessary in this time because thousands of workers have gone upwards of six weeks without any income,” says campaign Field Director Aileen Callaghan. “Before this crisis, thousands of people in the district were struggling to make ends meet. We want to fight for a PA that cares for all of us, and that means making sure that none of us are left behind during COVID.” In addition to providing help when possible, the campaign is utilizing new organizing tools and methods. For example, the REACH app is a digital grassroots organizing tool that allows users to use their contacts to spread information and outreach. The app has been used previously by the campaigns of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) and Tiffany CaBán. It is an ideal tool for an organizing effort disarmed of face-to-face options. The campaign is also running a neighborhood captain program in which local volunteers will commit to reaching out to around fifty members of their immediate community to check in with a few times leading up to election day. This is to both spread awareness for the campaign and also make sure that community members are registered, ready, and able to vote by mail or safely vote in person. Voter suppression is also a factor of concern in uncertain times such as these. In some places, like Wisconsin, governments have held elections during the height or lockdowns leading to accusations of voter suppression. In Pennsylvania, there are cases of voters who have applied as long ago as a month to vote by mail and have not received a response. Additionally, those without a Pennsylvania ID cannot register online to vote by mail. However, the state has made some strides to make sure that voters have access to the polls amid the pandemic, most notably postponing the primary election from April 28 to June 2. While the organizing efforts are continuing despite setbacks and have been granted an additional month due to the election rescheduling, there are still significant challenges. As one organizer put it, phone calls statistically lead to about two positive identifications per shift, with door knocking that number can be as high as six. Come election day in June, we will see how organizing fairs on purely digital outreach, or if the age-old practice of door knocking is still a necessary ingredient to a successful campaign. .

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