I had the pleasure of volunteering at the Westside Republican Headquarters Friday. For about six hours I watched a steady stream of interested and engaged voters come through the door and request yard signs for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan along with bumper stickers, lapel buttons, and literature. Visitors also took home yard signs and literature for candidates running for Harris County offices and state representative office. Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate yard signs were also popular.
The one and only vice presidential debate was the shown the night before so that event was a hot topic of conversation. I think that much like the first presidential debate, the vice presidential debate revved up the voting population. Both debates allowed the campaigns to show very clear choices in the candidates and that motivates voters to become involved in the process. The conservative voting population is fired up and ready to vote.
I heard some interesting stories from those who walked in and asked to pick up yard signs and anything else available from candidates. One 40-something looking woman talked to me about moving from Ohio to Texas so that her husband could continue to work in the auto industry, as he had lost his job during Obama's famous saving of the industry. She remarked that it is a mystery to her how any Ohio voter could support Obama in November.
A man came in and talked about a fundraising event he is having next weekend and was looking for items to use for it. He came in wearing a Romney t-shirt and thanked us for opening the headquarters for the campaigns.
A man came in from Chicago. He is in Houston working and wanted to do some phone banking on his lunch hour. He talked about Chicago politics and the lack of winning Republican candidates there. He had a lot of energy and promised to come back and work the phones again. I don't doubt his word for a minute. He was one motivated man.
A pilot came in and wanted to connect with any groups going to swing states for get out the vote efforts. He is offering to fly them where they need to go during his week off from work.
Some people came in with their children in tow. It was fun to watch parents explain the process to their children and note the excitement in the behavior of the children as they began to understand things. Been there, done that.
Two men came in looking for an answer to a question obviously carried over from their lunch time discussion. They were dressed as though they worked in a nearby office building. They were arguing about the electoral college. I hope we answered their question. Having been around politics for so long now, I was somewhat hesitant to get too deep into that conversation. Cynical as I can be, one cannot be too careful against the other party. For all we knew, these two were Democrats looking for something good to feed to a reporter somewhere. These two men were wondering how Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan can win if the electoral college totals point to an Obama victory. I don't agree with that premise at this stage of the battle and I wasn't about to say anything to give them any disparity against the Romney campaign, which I believe is surging now.
It was a good day. There is renewed enthusiasm out there, from what we are seeing at the headquarters.
Onward.
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