Australians on the front lines of the American election
There is a ground rule in electioneering: think postive. We will win. Kamala Harris’s mantra has been “When we fight, we win”. But, oh, what a gruelling fight it is. More than we ever imagined.
We three – my American-born husband Bruce and politically savvy granddaughter, Ruby Harris – came here as campaign volunteers with hearts full of optimism, seeing Harris as a flow of fresh blood and enlightenment.
There’s a serendipitous co-incidence in our Harris names and, since I couldn’t help spruiking “Samela for Kamala” it seemed a good idea to put our money where my mouth was, so to speak.
We chose New Hampshire because we know and love it. Bruce used to work here so I called it a US home base for a decade in which time I joined forces with the Hillary Clinton campaign.
As we arrived for this 2024 campaign, people were calling this state “blue”, a shoo-in for Kamala.
But as the big voting day arrives I’m feeling a mood bluer than the Democrats’ political hue.
I am not alone.
There is fear in the air.
We’re in a desperate chase to the finish line.
Public notice
People don’t wear their politics on their sleeves here. They declare them on their front lawns and fences with signs, and the signs also jostle for space at rural intersections.
Harris/Walz signs pepper the New Hampshire landscape, in competition with TRUMP signs. My capitalisation is deliberate. Trump signs are bigger. They shout from the roadsides. They TRUMPet their message. They’re on New Hampshire cars and trucks, too.
As are Harris bumper stickers.
Some states are more overt with these placard messages than others. Massachusetts, for instance, is very low key. Few garden and street signs. Vermont, a fabulously blue state, reflects that in a lower showing of Trump signage. Maine is low key, and Connecticut. These are the states of America’s New England in which we have been moving about.
New York, however, which purports to be blue, feels very Trumpy indeed.
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Yep. Things feel worryingly red from the blue view.
The chosen one
Certainly, Trump cannibalises media coverage with his ever-weirder stunts and threats. He is Mr Headlines. Calls the Dems “nasty”, radical left, incompetent, “corrupt and horrible”. Kamala is called “low IQ”, the press “scum”.
His rallies have a cult-like character, shades of wild-revivalist religious tent shows. His adherents are adoring and justify anything he says.
Reporters have suggested that they are losing their edge. The polls don’t seem to agree.
Kamala’s rallies are prodigious. Her celebrity endorsements are legion.
But her messages of anti-racism, women’s rights, and middle class economic support are subsumed by a strange indifference among people with whom I’ve been chatting.
They are critical of the fact that she only took on the candidacy when President Joe Biden dropped out. She was not “chosen” as a presidential candidate. She’s a woman. What did she achieve as Biden’s Vice President? OK, they agree that VPs don’t actually have much power, but they do have the ear of the president, they say.
Her message of reproductive rights in the wake of the overturning of the famous Roe v Wade court decision does not resonate and they are not impressed by her reiteration of a middle class background.
They might not like Trump, but they tell me that they think he is “strong”.
They are impressed by his bluster and confidence and his litany of hatreds is “just Trump”, they say. He has celebrity clout. He is as rich as he is vulgar. Rich is merit in itself in America.
Searching for a miracle
Kamala’s rally speeches have been getting stronger and stronger. She had a career as a prosecutor but she was not born a great orator. She’s been honing that skill on this pressure cooker campaign trail. And, she has needed to. Simply to be heard over the din of incessant aggrieved aggression from Trump.
When we came here to volunteer for her campaign, we felt we were coming to be a part of a wave of positivity, of newness, of sanity. And, we are. Kamala is sane, educated, experienced, compassionate, fair and forward-thinking.
It is mind-foggingly incredible and against all commonsense and rational understanding, but the spirit of positivity heralded by her campaign messages has dwindled.
Now, with a day to go, we look for a miracle.
We can’t give up. We must plug on. Some of our campaign chores are old school and tedious.
Here, they call it “phone banking”. In Australia, we call it “cold calling”.
The local Democratic Party campaign office allocates us a print-out of registered voters in the area with a suggested patter we should give. The is to ease out of people their party of preference and to encourage anyone sympathetic to the Democrats to vote.
It goes like this: “Am I speaking to Nancy X? Hello there. This is Samela Harris and I’m a volunteer for the New Hampshire Democrats. Can you spare me a moment to talk about the imminent election? “
It turns out that most people do not have time. What they do have is answering machines.
Who knew there were so many ways not to answer the phone? Forget the usual “I’m not home, please leave a message’. Oh, no. They have Google devices. They have auto-redirection devices. They have screening devices. I’ve fallen foul of some because they had a ban on undisclosed numbers. Then there are the simple hang-ups the moment one identifies oneself. Click!
We mark them off on the sheets according to degrees of interest and support for the other candidates standing for important state positions. If they are supportive, we urge them to go out and vote and, in some cases, we can ask if they’d like to become volunteers.
There’s a wee box to note if they have been hostile, also. I have only had one hostile person. Even the couple of Republicans have been polite. One, in fact, was really charming. He showed the marked contrast between old-school Republicans and what we now call MAGAs or Trumpers.
We were forewarned that a lot of calls would be fruitless.
I’ve never done this work in Australia but have been on the receiving end and, bottom line is that most people, me included, find election outreach calls irritating. Unsolicited calls. Blech.
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Nonetheless, having said we were here to help and we have stolidly kept giving it a go.
Door to door
I have to say it is a strange feeling ringing up strangers in a strange country.
Doorknocking is even stranger.
They call it “canvassing”.
We have been doing it with a wonderful group of older Dems in the NH town of Exeter, a very beautiful old town.
The houses, however, are not like ours at all. Firstly, they don’t have fences. Secondly, they nearly all have front steps, called stoops. Thirdly, a lot of them have layers of storm doors designed to keep the wicked winter cold out.
It has been tricky working out upon which door to knock.
There is a sophisticated app for canvassing. One is allocated a particular section of streets and the app identifies which homes are likely to be Kamala voters. We are never sent into the jaws of the enemy, unless by accident.
Instead, we have met some utterly lovely Kamala supporters who have been astounded to discover that we have come all the way from Australia to support the cause. We are subjected to rapturous thanks.
In one case, we interacted with a family with small children out playing on the front lawn on a sunny afternoon as we covered the territory. Realising we were Aussies made the little children extremely excited and we were given messages to take home to Bluey. Yes, Bluey is really big here.
Hands on
Various prominent Democrats, Senators and Members of Congress, regularly visit the regional volunteer offices and give hearty rah-rah speeches, emphasising the importance of every single vote. Every vote counts.
The candidates do it, too, of course. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz both have been through New Hampshire but not since we’ve been here.
Politics can be very hands-on in the US.
And we’ve attended some very solid gatherings to hear major politicians, none more significant or satisfying than Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, who came to the darling rural town of Hollis and spoke to the crowd on an outdoor stage beside a classic old American red barn.
The landscape was in full fall colours and, as he spoke strongly and without notes about the urgency of getting the messages through and the voters out, golden autumnal leaves fluttered down around us in the soft breeze. Complete with decorative orange pumpkins, it was incongruously lyrical.
Jeffries is in his own electoral battle which rests on the Dems winning a majority in the House – a situation which would make him Speaker of the House, the position we know so well as that once held by Nancy Pelosi.
The polls have The House on a knife-edge. Jeffries is one of the most powerful Democrats in the country – hence, he was star turn in a line-up of outstanding high achievers gathered in the name of New Hampshire’s Maggie Goodlander, who is running in New Hampshire for one of those vital seats in the House.
None of the political rhetoric has been of the savage nature that we are daily hearing from Trump.
The Democrats disdain him and are scandalised by him and warn, warn, warn against the dangers that he promises.
And yet the reported polls have him gaining ground on Kamala. I’m sceptical of polls, but some people are so pessimistic that they are actually planning for life under Trump.
I was told that a major sportswear company was announcing it was buying in its stock for next year and would be forced to raise prices because of the tariffs Trump promises.
“It is going to be very difficult to keep products affordable for Americans,” its CEO told the media.
Government health administrators are among those bracing for massive change. Most of them expect to lose their jobs under Robert Kennedy and people are joking that his anti-vax stance may end up as a national policy.
One voter said that the Trump vindictiveness is so intimidating that she and others are feeling exposed simply by being registered as Democrats. That is probably an extreme sentiment.
But this is an extreme time.
The country is divided and even if Kamala wins, there’s apprehension about how Trump will take it.
So, for a few more hours we walk on razor blades here. We keep door-knocking and ringing and begging people to vote.
It’s all so down to the line that they brought in the big guns.
Yes, Bill Clinton came to town to rev us up over the weekend.
Samela Harris is an Adelaide journalist.
