Meeting disengaged voters on the phones

These days, I'm calling voters in Nevada for Joe Biden along with members of the hotel workers union. (You can too -- just give me a holler and I'll connect you.) As always, actual voter contact is a good remedy for all sorts of misconceptions and preconceptions. It's also sometimes oddly comforting about the values of my fellow citizens. In these pandemic days, a great many more people than I'm used to will actually talk about their anxieties (massive) and their dreams (often quite submerged by their anxieties) for their country and for their kids. If you have the generosity and patience to talk with, not at, these voters, you can learn a lot about what moves this country.

Nevada voters are a particular breed. Sure, there are some highly aware, long-time, Nevada political partisans, like anywhere else. But that's not who we're calling. We're calling much more the ordinary citizens who don't live and breathe politics, who are part of the most transient state population anywhere, who are often unemployed. The hotel and gambling industries have been crushed by the pandemic. Nevada's 13.2 percent unemployment is more than 4 points higher than the national figure. These are often less consistent voters and often new voters.

Aside from a few Trump partisans -- who hang up quickly -- these people don't need to be convinced there is something wrong with Donald Trump's presidency. Between COVID and job losses all around them, they are done with him. But Joe Biden might as well be a ghost to them. Most of them simply know nothing about him.

For these folks to become reliable voters, they need to think through what they are voting for. Phone conversations can help that happen. And we, the callers, need to know how to talk with them about Joe Biden.

Jon Favreau and Ben Greenfield at Pod Save America have just reported on a battleground state poll that captures exactly what I've experienced. My calls seem quite similar; that's not surprising since the Trump team is treating Nevada as a state they can steal from the Dems.

The polling confirms that Trump is going to have a hard time putting across an "October surprise" that justifies re-election. Even these disengaged people don't believe anything that comes from him, including in a magic vaccine.

But Biden draws a blank:

We asked voters an open-ended question, what they’ve heard recently about Donald Trump and Joe Biden. For Biden, the top response was “nothing” (11%) – most of the other responses were about his public appearances or were criticisms of Biden.

If we want to help Biden (and ourselves) win, we have to get out the messages that can turn a resigned voter into a determined voter. Here are some suggestions that polled well with people like the ones I chat with; these are by and large very practical people.

"Donald Trump wants to eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions and take away health insurance for 20 million Americans in the middle of a pandemic. Joe Biden wants to give everyone the choice to enroll in a Medicare-like insurance plan, make sure no American pays more than 8.5 percent of their income on premiums, and bring down the cost of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug companies."

Yes, this election is still about access to healthcare -- after all, we're under assault by a deadly virus at moment when President Trump is working to kill Obamacare through the courts.

And furthermore:

"Donald Trump says the economy is great because the stock market is up, and he wants to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in order to fund more tax cuts for the rich. Joe Biden says a strong economy depends on a strong middle class, and wants only the wealthiest 1 percent to pay higher taxes so we can expand health coverage, invest in clean energy and infrastructure, and create 5 million manufacturing and technology jobs."

You may feel like you know all this -- but there are millions of voters who don't. Dan Pfeiffer's summary of the research rings true to me:

Forty-one percent of the undecided universe have no opinion on Joe Biden, which is a truly stunning finding in a highly polarized nation for a politician that has been on the national stage for decades. Opinions about Trump are locked in. ...

If these folks can be convinced there is a reason to vote at all, they are going to vote for Biden. In this situation, making contact with them has to help them work through for themselves what they might want from a different President and provide some assurance that Joe Biden will provide at least some of it. This isn't rocket science. It's human conversations.