Sydney's Road to the White House 2020 Blog

Mitchell takes a seat in a traditional New Hampshire snow chair.         We have been hard at work the last several days hitting the pavement of New Hampshire, converting voters into supporters one door knock at a time. Overwhelmingly, New Hampshire's voters are incredibly kind and hospitable- one friendly conservative gentleman invited my 3 person canvas team into his house for a good 45 minutes to warm off (stranger danger was not a concept that the Yang Gang ingrained well into its interns).            We encountered many of Nashua's natives on our trek through the snowy suburban jungle. Some were human and some feline, but all were as kind and welcoming as the last!      Of course on the way back to our offices, Mitchell and I paid a visit to the Pete Buttigieg offices to see if we could spot any of our fellow RTWH interns. We even met some friendly Tuls...

     Today we did some guerrilla warfare at Nashua Community College. Mitchell, David (another similarly young/hip field organizer) and I were charged with heading down to the local campus and spreading the word about Andrew Yang’s town hall tomorrow by handing out merch, putting up posters, and peer pressuring our fellow youth to come out to the event (this part was not terrifically difficult- convincing college students they need $1000 a month is not exactly persuasively rigorous).       It was clear to me, however, that whoever had decided we should wait to recruit students until the day before the event hadn’t been in college in quite some time- no one is on campus on Fridays. I stayed and manned the table to recruit any poor souls who had registered late and had Friday classes, while David and Mitchell decorated the walls with hundreds of copies of Andrew Yang’s face (much to the chagrin of the custodial staff). We were told to suspend our u...

     It snowed today! Somehow the cold felt a little more tolerable when there was a little snow on the ground to validate our feelings. Today we were given a tour of Saint Anselm’s College which seemed to have a little to offer to any student- along the hallowed halls of Saint A’s, as it’s nicknamed among locals, visitors can find politically incorrect vintage political propaganda, a working TV studio, several monks, and Japanese dignitaries, among other oddities. This paper thin dress, pointed out to us as exactly what we would have been wearing as women had we gotten involved in the campaign process a few decades prior, would look really good on me. They seemed to get upset when I tried to try it on but I feel like that was their fault for not having a dressing room available.      After this tour it was off to our office, where we were in for another productive day of harassing local households and slowly but surely phone banking our way down ...

Us at the State House with New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardener. We've visited the State House twice the last couple of days to attend the executive council meeting with governor Chris Sununu. The executive council meeting deliberated over all sorts of statewide decisions being made, from awarding government employees promotions to approving the use of electroshock therapy in New Hampshire (this was a real topic on the agenda!). Though admittedly the meeting was not the most exciting event to watch, I appreciated everyone’s passion for the proceedings and the ceremony/tradition involved, with traditional New England musicians as entertainment and jokes from Governor Sununu. Couldn't resist a photo op in front of the State House's famous wall of presidential memorabilia., Visiting the NHDP with Raymond Buckley.  It felt like the epitome of democratic organization to have a board of officials charged with checking the governor’s decisions...

          Starting our internships came with a wave of emotions, the strongest of which was hunger: I had forgotten to eat this morning and was regretting it on the van ride over. Good thing our centrally located Main Street Nashua office located in the Corriveau Insurance Agency building was near a multitude of restaurants, shops, and was fully stocked with snacks donated by volunteers and supporters to keep us going through our more vexing phone banking sessions.           History in the making: Mitchell and I calling Academic Advising to let them know we'll be dropping out of college and moving to New Hampshire permanently Grant, from Tampa, who has shown me the invaluable New Hampshire resource that is the hand warmer.      Downtown Nashua is absolutely beautiful. It has so much to offer: some restaurants that have been recommended to us from the get go are Martha's Exchange [EDIT 2/9/20: I ate at Mart...

Today is the day! I’m a weird mix of nervous/excited/completely unable to imagine what I’m about to get myself into for the next 10 days, so it’s kind of all I can do to remain calm and make sure I actually end up on the plane before I worry about the campaigning. Despite my many and numbered accomplishments/good qualities, organization is not one of them, so right away my day started off panicked. Through the stress and 1001+ things to do the day of the flight, I managed not only to forget my coat at home, but to remember it the SECOND we pulled into our parking spot at Tampa International. So instead of relaxing with a pre-flight coffee, we had a somewhat Fast and Furious style drive home filled with hyperventilation and anxiety. Thankfully I did end up recovering the truant jacket, and despite the firm words had with it before heading back to the airport, we continued our airport journey relatively unscathed and met up with the class. Sitting in the smokers’ prison at th...