Takeaways From Calling 1000+ Voters

People are more complicated than we give them credit for.

"Hello Mrs. Rogers! This is Vinit and I'm calling for the Biden campaign reaching out to ask if you are registered to vote?"

"Yes I am."

"Fantastic. So happy you are. Mrs. Rogers, would you mind sharing who you intend to be voting for?"

"I'll be going with Trump."

Clank. Onto the next call. Mrs. Rogers had had enough of me.

This was the most common interaction I had during a majority of my calls across the Lone Star state I call home.

According to my unofficial Google Sheet count, most of the thousand plus calls I had were with ardent Trump supporters who defended him earnestly and intensely. No story in the past six months changed their mind even slightly; instead only pushing them further into their unquestionable approval of President Trump.

There is no changing their mind. The discussion isn’t around policy or following conservative beliefs, it’s around following Trump. He’s created a binary default in the political landscape: you’re either with me or against me.

We saw the origins of these patterns in 2016 and are seeing it in its fully developed form now: people feel left behind and unheard.

Individuals like Trump who can galvanize and address this feeling of being disregarded by a rapidly changing economic and cultural landscape ultimately become the axis points for where public conversations begin and end.

Here’s a compilation of learnings in over one thousand conversations with people across Texas, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Pro-Trump or Anti-Trump Is The New Republican or Democrat

From the first day I called on voters in mid-August, I learned quickly how this presidential race is neither about Democratic policy nor Republican policy - everything has been framed as pro-Trump or anti-Trump.

I wish I could give a more detailed or nuanced view of the average voter, but over hundreds of calls that is what had become abundantly clear. Taking a step back and observing this insight, is it really surprising?

Not quite.

For the past four years, every headline has been dominated by five letters: T-R-U-M-P. His remarkable ability to stay in front of the camera, create controversy, and make offhanded comments to anyone and everyone, allows him to be the story.

His most sincere supporters get an unlimited stream of Trump stories, his fiercest opposers remain addicted to knocking him down any chance they get. Identity politics has mutated into a strange new form of individualistic fanfare around candidates.

For area codes representing the thousands of smaller cities and towns across Texas, I heard some version of “Trump is our man” and “We believe in Trump more than anyone else.”

When I dug further into that statement and asked questions to voters, a pattern emerged. Not only were they massive believers of Trump positions, but they would also demonize the Republican party for not going out as far on the limb as he does in his brash statements about immigrants, China, COVID-19, and other things.

This was a revelation to me. Trump created his own wing of the party. Trumpism is real. If he does lose this election as data currently suggests, the GOP will have a vacuum to fill that ordinary Republican candidates have thus far proven unable to.

Upon probing deeper into thoughts around Republican bigwigs like Senators Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, or Lindsey Graham, there wasn't anything said of much substance for all the screen time they usually consume in national coverage.

“I could care less about them” or “I don’t even know what Cruz has passed for Texas” were common sentiments I heard.

People are registered to vote. The numbers across the country could be historic.

The headlines aren't exaggerative whatsoever. The 2008 and 2016 elections featured eligible voter rates at 61% and 60%, respectively. This year’s early voter turnouts signal the highest rate of voter turnout in the last fifty years.

I was hard-pressed to find more than ~1 out of 20 voters who had yet to register. People were undeniably energized and invigorated in getting to the polls.

Multiple times over I actually had civil conversations with people who thanked me for the outreach and reminders around voter registration deadlines.

“Hi this is Vinit volunteering with the Texas Democratic Party, have you registered to vote already?”

“Yes I have. Thank you for calling. Getting a lot of these calls this year - and I'm happy because it reminds me there are real people fighting for a cause, not just those big people down in Austin or Washington making commercials.”

Those types of interactions warmed my heart and made me want to keep dialing away. When people notice genuine effort and outreach, they naturally gain more purpose and feel empowered to take action.

Due to complicated mail-in ballot voting policies in Texas, many senior voters were comfortable with going to the voting booth in person. For those residing in smaller towns, COVID-19 wasn't a point of concern and hadn't been for quite some time following the original quarantine period of March to May.

Mail-in voting was something the elder population was very uncomfortable with. Anytime I brought that up as an option, I was barraged (appropriately so) with questions on what would happen if there was an error in filling out the ballot or mistake made by the postal service.

The publicly debated topic of mail-in voting had its clear effects - most elder voters seemed to be dissuaded from trusting the system and preferred to vote as they've done their entire life.

Joe Biden is the ‘I-have-no-other-choice’ candidate

There aren’t many people going around with an ‘I love Joe Biden’ shirt. He does not excite people. His selling point is being the reasonable alternative. A decent person with humble beginnings who has overcome personal tragedy. People seemed to appreciate his calm demeanour during the debate and overall had a respect for his character.

But don’t get me wrong - no one was jumping out of their chair rooting for four years of Biden, they were ready for four years of not having to deal with Trump.

On a slew of calls after the first debate, a sizable number of voters pointed to how there was validity to Trump's pointed slight at Biden of "I've done more in 47 months than you have in 47 years" in reference to their political careers.

Trump aroused deep feelings of establishment resentment with that single statement.

The avid Trump supporting base clung onto this as a rallying cry and were happy to speak their mind when I asked about this.

Common phrases included but were not limited to “That's the swamp he's talking about”, “What the hell has he [Biden] done?”, “How come they don't go over Biden's record even more?”

For those leaning Democratic, they countered with how Trump has done nothing but con people for 40+ years and inherit his father's wealth.

Of Republicans who were undecided, they had nothing negative to say about Biden other than his age. Overall, there was a shared respect for Biden’s character and public service amongst on-the-fence Republicans and Democrats.

Younger Democrats seemed disenchanted with the current party

I was startled at the high volume of people singing Bernie's praises. When I dug deeper in conversations with millennials and Gen Z'ers, Bernie’s positions on income inequality and revamping social programs resonated strongly with voters during the ‘16 election and this year’s primaries.

He’s unlocked a visceral feeling amongst the category of millennials and Gen Z'ers who are extremely socially liberal and have developed a negative view on capitalism.

For this subset of voters, the pandemic added a new layer of angst against the economic system with college made completely online at the same cost, hourly jobs being suspended for over three months during the beginning of pandemic, and heightened difficulty in landing decent paying full-time jobs even with a bachelor’s degree in hand.

The burdens of student debt and not seeing a positive ROI on their educational costs were a major point of concern.

Sanders, Warren, and Yang all appealed to this pain point and represented a more drastic overhaul of the system compared to moderate Democrats like Biden.

Additionally, the George Floyd protests and heightened racial tensions felt this summer only further aggravated negative views of how fair the legal system really is.

Some variation of "I just don't understand what makes it so complicated to arrest officers for their obvious brutality against people who comply" was frequently mentioned.

To them, it didn’t add up how a city like Chicago or states like Oregon and New York could have so many problems when a majority of decision-makers were Democrats.

Morale in the government is low

People are truly disillusioned with how the government has handled the last 6 months. A frustration has boiled over for both sides - right leaning folks felt tired of being told what to do (especially elder folks), and left leaning people are tired of crowds gathering at non-socially distanced events while they still maintain quasi-quarantine discipline.

Whatever happens November 3rd, talking to over 1,000 people across Texas, Michigan, and Wisconsin reminded me why I was ever energized by politics in the first place - empathizing and understanding people's issues with how society currently treats them and their community.

People are more complicated than the lazy demographic-based pigeonholing and misstated polling data would lead us to believe.

I walk away knowing one thing above all else: polarization is real but it's not because of the message, it's because of the messengers.