Joel lives with his partner Mara, and two cats, Cassie and Luna, in south Durham.
Check out this Q&A with Joel – who has participated in every single one of our Durham canvasses this year! – and then sign up to join him at an upcoming FLIP NC event. Or get started dropping lit on your own!
How did you find out about FLIP NC?
I honestly don’t remember! I knew I wanted to be involved again in 2018 to help make the blue wave happen (and it did). The likely answer: a friend talked me into it. Moral of the story – listen to your friends.
How many times have you volunteered with FLIP NC?
Joel (right) canvassing with John in April
I volunteered for phone banking four or five times in 2018 and did a postcard-writing session in addition to some text banking. This year, I’ve done one lit drop party and every Durham canvass since March. That’s seven canvass events. Canvassing is the least stressful and most fun, so I’m happy I’ve been able to focus on that this year.
What surprised you most about our voter outreach?
How few people answer their doors, even when they are home. On the flip side, I’m also surprised by how many people are fairly reasonable or even want to have a conversation about politics in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. Many people just want to be heard and want to know someone is listening.
Have a funny story or touching moment to share? A conversation with a voter that stands out?
On one canvass, we knocked a door, and the person came out and said their partner was out canvassing with us. On another – a very hot day – an older woman invited us into her wonderfully air-conditioned home and read us the riot act on all of the things she hated about what the Republicans were doing. We were all in agreement, and we were all a lot more comfortable!
What’s your top canvassing tip?
Be authentic! Make your own script and figure out how best to connect to people, especially early in the conversation when you are still just a random person at the door. Listen and ask questions. Be prepared for each conversation to go differently for each household. Have a stance of offering information and being in a position of support, rather than trying to tell people what to do or think. And finally, let them know that you really care, too. You’re a volunteer, often walking around in the heat, and I think that means something to people.
Oh, and wear sunscreen and a hat!
That’s one tip, right?
If you've participated in other voter outreach efforts, how are FLIP NC's different?
Joel (third from left) with fellow FLIPsters at Motorco Parts & Labor after FLIP NC’s May canvass
Events via political party tend to be a random group of people each time, and you feel like you are part of a more top-down organization. And that makes sense, given how big party operations are – they have to cover a lot of ground. With FLIP, I feel like I’m a part of a community. I see many of the same canvassers at each event. We hang out afterwards and talk politics. Since we aren’t part of the party or a campaign, it really does feel like we are a group of concerned citizens speaking to our neighbors. That is, to me, a lot closer to the ideal of political mobilization.
What's your top tip for someone who is new to voter outreach?
It may feel really scary, and you may feel very awkward. All of that will improve. Remember why you signed up and let that energy drive you through the anxiety that comes with doing a new thing. In time, you’ll be great!
What is really motivating you to get involved? Obviously, you want to FLIP NC, but tell us a bit about the "why."
Some time back in 2017, I remember reading something along these lines: “Remember how you felt on November 9th, 2016? Do you want to wake up on November 7th, 2018 and feel that way, or do you want to wake up to a different result, and if not a different result, at least the feeling that you did what you could to try to make the outcome different?” I had canvassed and phone banked in 2016 and also in 2008, in somewhat of a token effort. But now I felt compelled to be more consistently involved because I did not want to watch us go through another 2016. I did not want to see the citizenry remain tuned out, uninvolved, and despairing. Politics ought to be the art of collective action, of people coming together to advocate for their needs and the needs of those who are not numerous enough to earn a seat at the table (yet). And that means doing. That means talking. That means building networks and connections. Working with FLIP NC is the start of that process, and it’s very important to me.
How are you feeling about the 2024 election?
Joel (right) chats with Judge Carolyn Thompson and fellow canvassers after a FLIP NC canvass
A lot more optimistic than I was a few months before, that’s for sure. It’s very difficult to read the tea leaves of polls and pundit analyses, despite spending way too much time doing just that (we all have bad habits). We won’t know for sure till the first results come in, and I have to remind myself of that regularly. But I can see right now the energy among volunteers and the Democratic base, and that is certainly a good sign. We’ve had a bunch of new folks at the last two canvass events with FLIP NC as well, and the positive feelings are palpable.
Other than politics, what’s a passion of yours?
Like most Durhamites, I go to several regular board game nights. I can’t say I’m great after all these years, but I still enjoy it. I also do social dancing, mainly contra dancing and would always recommend people give it a shot because it’s pretty fun.
Who do you admire in politics? Why?
I don’t find myself admiring individuals much. There are actions and processes and archetypes that I like. I’m attracted to pragmatists – the doers over the idle idealists, even if I agree with the latter.
This may perhaps be an unpopular opinion because of other things he did, but I think that LBJ getting civil rights and voting rights legislation passed, despite being from the party of segregation and despite having the awareness that the backlash would hurt the party for decades among a chunk of its now former base, is laudable. He had political capital and wherewithal and used it to do the moral, if unpopular, thing.
What would you say to someone who is feeling totally dejected by our current state of politics? And how do you stay in the fight?
I would tell them they are right. A lot of things are broken. But nothing gets fixed by tuning out. By remaining uninvolved, you let other people make the decisions whose outcomes you probably already don’t like (and yes, those decisions get made, with or without you). If you are wracked by anxiety, the antidote to anxiety is action.
There are many different ways to get involved. Currently, I am focusing on direct voter outreach. But that is not the only way to be active. The key is to find something that you care deeply about, that you feel would do the most to fix things that are broken, and then get involved in a way that is true to you. Perhaps you think that first-past-the-post voting excludes many voices and leads to a partisan duopoly. There are groups that are trying to get ranked-choice voting and other alternatives in place, and in a few states, they have succeeded (Maine and Alaska so far). Find those groups and donate your time, money, or expertise to help them be successful.
Point is: There is always something to do and someone out there already trying to do it. No big movement in history started quickly and ended with immediate, resounding success. When people get involved, learn to take losses in stride and keep moving – things do change.