Local Socialist Group Begins Campaigning with 59 Days to Election
The Party for Liberation and Socialism kicked off its outreach campaign at a local vegan restaurant. One volunteer recounts his time volunteering in the deep south.
(Kevin Martin speaks about his experiences campaigning in Mississippi for a socialist candidate for president. Photo: Winter Trabex)
Members of the Party for Liberation and Socialism (PSL) gathered at the Green Beautiful Cafe in Manchester, NH to start campaigning for their party’s candidates for president and vice-president, Claudia de la Cruz and Karina Garcia. There, they discussed how to speak to potential voters while canvassing. Unlike Democratic or Republican canvassing, which primarily involves reminding people to vote for the party they voted for in the previous election, PSL members aim to speak to members of both parties, including apathetic voters who may not have cast a ballot recently.
This comes after Claudia's campaign canvassed for two weeks in the deep south, which included Jackson, Mississippi. Kevin Martin spoke to the crowd about what it was like to speak to citizens whom both parties have given up on.
Some voters in Mississippi, seen as a safe Republican state, doesn’t receive attention from Democrats or Republicans. Democrats feel they can’t win in the state, having lost so many times before. Republicans feel they’ve got a lock on elections there, so they don’t spend time convincing people to vote for them. This was evident in Jackson, Mississippi, the state’s capital, where Martin found voters who felt disenfranchised.
According to Martin, Jackson is a town in which little to no investment public works have been made. The town didn’t have clean water; PSL volunteers there couldn’t drink the tap water. City streets had gaping pot holes in which were placed safety cones, advising drivers to avoid them. Building after building was closed and shuttered. Police cars sat in parking lots with their lights on. His description of Jackson made it sound like a town recovering from a missile bombardment.
(A pothole in Jackson, Mississippi. Photo courtesy of clarionledger.com)
While traveling to college campuses, Martin described less-than-friendly receptions by campus security forces, who Martin alleged acted like police officers themselves. He recounted incidents of forms being requested prior to their visit; even when the forms were filled out, administrators would say they hadn’t responded to emails involving the forms, leading to PSL members being escorted off campus.
Manchester, which has features one commuting campus at Southern New Hamsphire University (SNHU), also features a variety of single-family homes and apartment buildings. Luxury apartments and one affordable housing complex are under construction following Mayor Joyce Craig’s push for an increase in housing. Manchester’s roads, while in a state of disrepair, sporadically receive attention from the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW).
During times of high voter turnout, the town elects Democrats. During times of low voter turnout, it elects Republicans. Free State Project candidates such as Carla Gericke and Andre Rosa have not found success running for state and local office in the city. Members of the PSL are hoping that, with enough time and effort, socialist candidates can make headway into a deadlocked two-party system.
With 59 days to go until the election, they are currently working on an official write-in campaign for de la Cruz and Garcia. Now that Donald Trump has given up on the state of New Hampshire, the state’s biggest point of contention in the election is not between Kamala Harris and Trump, but between Harris and de la Cruz.
One sticking point for de la Cruz supporters thus far has been the Biden administration’s funding of Israel’s apartheid and genocide against Palestine. They find they cannot support a candidate, whatever else their virtues might be, who has not been an advocate for stopping the genocide altogether. With Harris riding high on a wave of popularity, it’s difficult to see how condemning the genocide would hurt her chances.
However, saying little, or refusing to say anything, might cost her voters she could have otherwise gained. At the very least, members of the de la Cruz campaign are willing to listen to the people and take their concerns into account- even if some policy proposals, such as the seizure of America’s top 100 corporations, come off as unrealistic.
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