How the Culinary Union made Nevada one of 2016's bright spots

[Omaha Steve]

X post from postmortem: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512617300
[ for discusion.

By Laura Clawson
2016/11/19 · 09:55

Nevada was one of the few bright spots for Democrats as election results came in last week—Democrats swept the state, from Hillary Clinton to Catherine Cortez Masto to the state legislature. UNITE HERE’s powerful Culinary Union Local 226 was key to those victories. In the wake of the election, union president D Taylor explained how the union organized to make that happen:

Organization doesn’t mean a fancy building or a fundraising machine: it means having the capacity to facilitate lots of people talking to lots of other people. Over 80% of what our union spent in this multi-billion-dollar election cycle went to registering and mobilizing voters through face-to-face communication. We knocked on over 350,000 doors and talked to over 75,000 voters. We shared our point of view and took the time to listen to what people wanted to say.

We often went back to the same person – twice or three times if we needed to. Our members have had doors slammed in their faces, but most voters were eager to talk. So much presidential campaigning is conveyed through television ads and glossy mailers. Real respect comes when another human being is passionate enough about an issue to knock on a stranger’s door and talk.

The union also went outside of its area of greatest strength:


FULL story: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/19/1601403/-How-the-Culinary-Union-made-Nevada-one-of-2016-s-bright-spots