87 Days

Towards the end of last night’s KCDP Election Night watch party, I was chatting with one of Knox County’s most dedicated canvassers. He, like I, had been door knocking until the last minute, trying to get every possible voter to the polls.

He told me that at one door, the man shared that he had voted just two hours earlier. Some canvassers might just thank them and move on, but he knew there was more to this door. The voter shared that he didn’t like his options on the Republican side, both in the primary and for the local general, but he had voted for them anyway.

They talked for several more minutes about the candidates and what they stand for, at which point the voter shared, “If you had been here two hours earlier, I would have voted differently.”

The conversation didn’t end there – they talked about the November election, and Tim Burchett, and Marsha Blackburn. My friend shared that as a result of this conversation, that voter plans to cast votes in the general for me and Jerri Green.

We’re Democrats in East Tennessee. We know we’re the underdogs.

But we do this work because we believe in what’s possible for our community.

Well-funded public schools to educate the next generation.

Healthcare we can afford.

For our young people to not have to move away to find opportunity.

Equal protection for all East Tennesseans under the law.

A government that serves us, not corporate interests.

We can’t expect voters to come to us – we have to go to them. To talk to them about what’s making their life harder, and how we can come together to solve the problems we can’t fix by ourselves.

That’s why I’m doing 100 days of door knocking leading up to the November 3rd election (today is day 13 – you can follow along on social media or YouTube).

And that’s what our local candidates did, from Blount county to Claiborne, leading up to yesterday’s elections. I am so, so proud of my fellow East Tennesseans who stepped up to run, knowing the personal sacrifice it requires and the amount of work it demands.

And that work paid off, and also showed us where we have more work to do until November and beyond.

In Blount, Terri Klozik lost by just 16 votes for County Commission. Sixteen votes. (Don’t let anyone tell you that your vote doesn’t matter, and that volunteering for a Democrat in East Tennessee won’t make a difference).

Across our district, turnout was up 64%, and our rural supporters showed up like never before.

In Jefferson and Loudon counties, Democratic turnout was up more than 80%.

In Grainger County, I received more than DOUBLE the votes of the 2022 Democratic nominee.

In Knox county, Democrats flipped a county commission seat. We held on to a competitive school board seat. And we flipped a school board seat, which flipped the school board!

The Republican nominee with an entire MAGA machine behind her barely squeaked out a victory for the mayor’s race.

There’s something else I’m taking away from the Knox county mayor’s race: the margin wasn’t determined by party members turning out to cast their ballot for their party’s nominee. It wasn’t just Republicans voting red and Democrats voting blue.

And in that race, about 2,000 Republicans and Independents voted for the Democratic candidate but didn’t vote for other Democrats down ballot. While I wish they had, you know what that means?

There’s a not-insignificant portion of voters willing to reject polarizing, partisan, culture-war candidates. Sounds a lot like the incumbent I’m running against.

That’s why it was no surprise to find out that more than 18,000 Republicans who voted in this election did NOT vote for Tim.

We have 87 days until midterms. We’ve spent the last ten months building the infrastructure for this movement, and we’re ready for exponential growth to get our message out: Congress isn’t working for us, but it should. And Michaela Barnett is the person to make it happen.

I’ll be door knocking every single day until November 3rd. Join me? Sign up to volunteer to speak with your East Tennessee neighbors through door knocking, phone banking, text banking, post carding, and more.

CHIP IN TO FUEL THE NEXT 87 DAYS