Join me and other Swing Left volunteers as we go out to talk to voters in NJD5 a  Swing District.

If you haven’t heard of it, Swing Left is a national grassroots network that helps people take action in their closest Congressional Swing District. The goal is simple: Swing the House in the 2018 midterm elections and put a check on the Trump agenda.

If you have never canvassed before, this is an easy way to get started!

Our main goal is to talk to voters in the NJ D5 congressional district to motivate them to re-elect Congressman Josh Gottheimer, the Democratic incumbent. Gottheimer won the seat for the 1^st time in 2016 - the first Democrat to win since 1933, but the margin was very thin. This district went for Trump in the presidential race.   Republicans have identified the NJ05 as their top target. We’ll be talking to voters about Social Security, Medicare, and education - things that are also Republican targets.

We will be going door-to-door in Hackensack, a working class neighborhood. We will use lists of voters registered as Democrats or independents put together by Working America – the community outreach affiliate of the AFL-CIO. The list targets voters who don’t always vote in mid-term elections or who don’t always vote the same party.

First we will meet at my apartment on the Upper West Side at 1:00 PM for a pre-canvass training session. We’ll go over the guideline/script I will have sent you earlier, and talk over what we want to tell people about what’s at stake in the election. We’ll go over the mechanics of canvassing  and, talk about the questions you have. Then, it’s off to Hackensack!

It takes about 30 minutes to get to the canvass neighborhood in Hackensack. We will plan to spend two to three hours canvassing. We will be canvassing in pairs using walk maps: each pair’s walk map has about 35 homes. Two to three hours is enough to get through the walk map.

Please let me know if you can come!  If you plan to stay even somewhat active in the NJD5 campaign until the November election, I think doing this early canvass will be very valuable to you – a chance to ‘get your feet wet’ get comfortable with the canvassing process, and get better at it. And…it will be fun and fascinating to talk to a people about what’s at stake.

When you write to tell me that you will join the event, please let me know if you have a car. We will need a few cars to get everyone to Hackensack!