This morning in Lee’s Summit over fifty individuals showed up at the start of a full day of phone banking, literature drops, and canvassing for Hillary Shields, the Democratic Party candidate in the 8th Senate District special election.
Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander spoke to morning campaign volunteers before they set out to cover their assigned door to door turf.
Jason Kander (D): ….I really appreciate all of you being out here for Hillary…
….You know, the reason they’re doing it [negative ads] is they’re scared. You’ve got ’em scared. [cheers, applause] For a really, for a really good reason. Um, you know, I’m, after this I gotta go do some get out the vote stuff up in Virginia today. I’ve been, sure [applause], to tell you that I have now, in twenty-seventeen, spoken to Democratic groups in thirty states. And I’ve, I’ve seen just like the incredible momentum that’s out there. So, I tell you that to tell you that, um, you’re here because you’re excited about Hillary and that’s awesome… But, what I want you to know is like this is not an isolated incident, right? What’s exciting about this is that I, like I know that when you wake up every day if you, if you aren’t actively involved the way all of us are it can be very frustrating because then it feels like every morning is November ninth, right? But, instead, if you’re actively fighting back the way all of you are you’re really part of something pretty great.
[….]
Who was I talking to? Raise your hand, maybe there’s more than just one of you who’s just gotten involved this year. Um, well, yeah. [laughter] Alright, look, but that’ cool. Like, how cool is that? A whole bunch of people out here plus the candidate. This is real, what’s happening in the country.
Some of you have heard me tell this story – a couple months ago I was in Tennessee and a woman picked me up and she was driving me around to different Democratic events where I was speaking for the Tennessee Democratic Party. And her name was Dawn. At every event we went to it was like, remember when Norm would walk into Cheers? [laughter] Norm! It was like that. Dawn! Everybody knew Dawn. She was the ace number one MVP volunteer, it seemed to me, of the Tennessee Democratic Party. So she goes to, she goes to drop me off at the airport later that day ’cause I’m gonna come back to Kansas City and I asked her, I said, ‘Dawn, how many years have you been volunteering with the Tennessee Democratic Party?’ She said, ‘Honey, years?’ She said, ‘I started volunteering on January twentieth, twenty-seventeen.’ [laughter]
And I have, I mean, I’ve just seen that so many places. And, and it’s so appropriate that now you have a candidate who really got involved this year. And I think I about to be a state senator [cheers, applause].
[….]
But what always happened was the same thing, ’cause I would hit that hill, look at my watch and so, ‘Okay, you got it.’ And then I would have this rush of adrenaline and I would sprint like the last quarter mile, right? And I always thought of that ’cause people in campaigns would always say to me, and they’ve probably said this to you a million times, they always say, ‘You know, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.’ Like whenever you look tired, they would say that. And I’d always say, ‘But if I sprint the whole marathon I’m probably gonna win.’ [laughter]
And so, you know, you’ve been through this. It’s been, it’s been a marathon, it’s been, you know, now you’re at the last hill. And the thing is like now you are the adrenaline rush. Like now you are the adrenaline rush for her as she starts to sprint. So that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to get out there, you’ve got to spend a much time a you can today, over the next few days, continuing to do what you’ve been doing, hitting as many doors as you possibly can.
Because, like we’ve seen the polling, we’ve seen where this race is. This is gonna come down to whoever’s side works the hardest. And all along it’s been really clear that this is a good example of passion is persuasive. Like, our side has passion. Their side has a sense of entitlement about the district, right? Yeah, they got tons of money and they got a sense of entitlement. And what we have is passion. We have people standing out here shivering….we have people who are willing to do that because we have a candidate who’s deeply passionate and is going to do an amazing job.
So all you’ve got to do is be the adrenaline rush and print for her over the next few days. Well you do that? [voices: ‘Yes.’][applause]
