The Young Conservatives recently came back from a trip to Jacksonville to campaign for Dan Quiggle, who’s running for Senate. I also went with them, going door-to-door hanging up flyers on the door-knobs which told a little bit about Dan and his achievements, as well as things he’ll do if (when) he gets elected. I feel that I know so much more about how a campaign works now than I did before, even though I have helped campaign for other conservative candidates before.
Four YCS guys and I stayed at the condo of the campaign manager, with two other guys from the campaign; (the condo has three rooms, so there was plenty of room). Our guys loved it because not only did he have a wide-screen TV with a library of HD DVDs, but he also had an Xbox! However, we only had time in the evenings to play because our main reason for going was to campaign.
Our days started out at approx. 7 am, & we were at the campaign office at around 7:30. The campaign was very generous because when we first got there on Thursday, they had pizza and drinks available for us, and then briefed us on what we were going to be doing. They basically told us that on Thursday and Friday we would just be hanging the pamphlets on the door. On Saturday, though, we would be knocking on the doors and actually talking to people, since more people are likely to be home than on weekdays. So after our briefing, Mrs. Watts drove us out to our neighborhood we would be walking and dropped me off with Santi, and an adult from the campaign. Then we walked door-to-door. But we only went to republican houses that had residents who voted in the past four elections, so we had quite a bit of walking distance.
But later that day, rain kept us from walking further; so the three car-loads met up and we drove back. That gave the guys staying at the condo a chance to unpack and get settled. I brought my blow-up mattress with me, so I was good to go for the two nights we were there.
Friday morning we went to Starbucks for our morning “fix” before starting, and after a day of walking houses, The Young Conservatives were invited to a party at Dan Quiggle’s house, and let me tell you that he has a nice house. It was right next to a golf course, and Dan told us that some well-known professional golfers even lived in some of the houses beyond the golf course. We also got to meet Dan’s family & his dog, Reagan.
But the only thing better than his house was his pool. It had several sections to it with a water slide, and all decorated with plants and trees. We had Chick-fil-A (compliments of the campaign) and then dived in from the 10 ft wall. We even got the honors of seeing Dan do his famous back-flip from it! His pool also has under-water speakers. While playing man-hunt later than night on the golf course, I sprained my big toe while chasing after someone going down a slope. So that meant that I wouldn’t be going door-to-door the next day. But instead I helped Mrs. Watts in the front seat of her van as “co-pilot”, helping her find the different streets with the map that the campaign gave us.
I did hobble up a few drive-ways, though, and knocked on the doors.
But the good news is what Dan had told us the night before at the pool party. He said that we had hit the record of most houses visited in one day! He said the campaign together had visited 2,000 houses, but The Young Conservatives alone had visited about 1,000 houses! He said that was the most houses visited he had ever heard of. We were all very excited to have done so much work for such a conservative guy.
Dan also took us into his office and showed us pictures of him with Ronald Reagan. He also told us all about working for him after he was president. He said that he attended Reagan’s funeral and that he got a personal letter from Nancy Reagan afterwards telling him how much she appreciated Dan. He also got one of the flags that was flown on the White House drive during his funeral!
I just thought that was one of the coolest things ever! Imagine a guy who has morals just like that of Ronald Reagan! We desperately need this man to become one of our senators, and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna win, too. The campaign told us that the elections are going to held earlier than it was before.
That was good, said Brian, because that gave the other candidates less time to prepare, and the Dan Quiggle campaign was already so far ahead. Plus, one of the candidates had dropped out on that Friday. So that leaves Dan and three other candidates now.
We woke up Sunday morning and packed up our stuff and loaded it in the cars. We drove home and didn’t get home until about 11:00ish. It was fun, but it was also tiring. But what an opportunity to help a guy like Dan! What an opportunity.
By David C.
