We just might pull this off

Driving home from a packed town hall in Claiborne county last night, my deputy campaign manager said, “These are the stories told by campaigns that win unwinnable races. About the moment they knew it was possible. An evening when nearly a hundred people showed up in a rural part of the district, on a church night, with a thunderstorm brewing.”

As always, we didn’t end on time so that I could answer every question. People were concerned about AI, education, healthcare, gas, the war, mental health and substance abuse, helping our veterans, and government accountability and corruption.

After I’d finished answering folks’ questions, a line formed with people wanting to talk a little more. One young man shared, “I got a text message about this event, and I wasn’t too sure. But I’m really glad I came tonight. I think you convinced me.”

One woman shared that she didn’t follow politics too much, but her husband did. In fact, he’d convinced her to register to vote so she could vote for Trump a few years back. “For him to say he’s switching his vote from Republican to you – that’s a big deal. He told me he agreed with just about everything you said tonight.”

Another young man, an Independent voter who’d asked one of the first questions of the night about abortion, came up to me at the end of the night. “Thank you for listening to me. I think you’re someone who cares about us, and I just ask that you remember me when you’re in DC representing us.”

I’m tucking away these moments with y’all from every event.

At our town hall in Karns last week, a Republican voter approached me and told me, “I agree with you on about 80%. That other 20% is tough, though.” I told him I thought 80% was pretty good, and that I hoped I’d earned his vote.

In Blount county, I couldn’t believe it when I turned the corner and saw a line 80-some people deep to get into our town hall. We ended up with about 140 people who came to learn about this movement and ask questions.

When we launched this campaign a year ago, I know there were plenty of people who thought this was a fool’s errand. That this was a waste of precious time, money, energy, and resources.

I didn’t think so. As I shared last night, I thought there might be enough people in TN-02 willing to vote for the person they thought might do the job best, not the letter beside their name. That there might be enough people who saw that the way things are going right now isn’t serving our neighbors. That we can have better representation – we just have to make sure we don’t talk ourselves out of the fight before it ever starts.

In gratitude and solidarity,

Michaela

Upcoming town halls:

Loudon County, October 7th, 6 - 7:30, War Memorial Building (101 N B Street, Lenoir City, TN)

East Knoxville, October 13, 6 - 7:30, Austin East HS (2800 Martin Luther King Jr Ave, Knoxville, TN)