The Harris campaign is trying to transform women in battleground states into an organizing force who can drive their friends and family to the polls.
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Women gathered at a training hosted by a Democratic campaign office in Madison, Wis., late last month. The Harris campaign is counting on women’s personal experiences with abortion to drive their friends, family and neighbors to the polls.
One by one, the women shared their stories.
A middle-aged woman recounted how her developmentally disabled sister had been sexually assaulted at work, saying that carrying a child would “destroy her.” An operating room nurse wondered how she would care for her pregnant patients now that certain procedures were illegal. And an older woman recalled how she had taken a college friend for a “dehumanizing” back-alley abortion.
As they spoke, some began to wipe away tears. But the women, gathered on folding chairs in a Harris campaign office tucked away in a suburban Wisconsin strip mall, were determined. The group of about two dozen mostly female volunteers had assembled for a specific purpose: to learn how to take their experiences door to door.
“How are we actually going to use the stories that we just told?” asked Sammy Rasin, an organizer for the Harris campaign, standing in front of a wall of windows covered in Democratic campaign signs. “We elect Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz.”
It was the kind of political conversation that happened only at the margins of the last presidential race, when Democrats last fought to keep former President Donald J. Trump from winning another term and abortion rights were barely mentioned. But now, two years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Harris campaign see women and their experiences as one of their most potent political weapons in a razor-tight contest.
For months, Democrats have been training dozens of volunteers across battleground states to personally testify to the effects of Republican-led abortion restrictions enacted across the country since the overturning of Roe V. Wade two years ago. Some have taken on high-profile roles, appearing in television ads and prompting gasps across the convention floor during prime-time speaking spots at the Democratic National Convention. Many others have shared their stories in lower-profile ways, with social media posts and at local events.
And then there are the women in this room in Wisconsin. They haven’t made headlines with their activism for abortion rights, but they all claim a deep connection to the issue. The Harris campaign is trying to transform them into a hyperlocal organizing force who can drive their friends, family and neighbors to the polls.
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Source: nytimes.com
