Residents of Michigan's 7th Congressional District are more likely to get a knock on their door as Democratic nominee for U.S. House William Lawrence hopes a massive ground game will help carry him to victory over U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, on Tuesday.
Lawrence’s campaign surpassed 200,000 doors knocked during the general election earlier this week, which it says is the most of any Democratic U.S. House campaign nationwide. The campaign knocked more than 28,000 doors last weekend alone.
Barrett’s campaign says its volunteers have knocked about 64,000 doors, but outside groups with paid canvassers have had additional conversations with voters not included in that count.
75-year-old Melany Mack hosts weekly canvass launches for Lawrence in her Clinton County home.
“I look at knocking doors at more than just an election. I look at knocking doors as an opportunity to build community,” Mack said. “It's an opportunity to actually talk to people face to face, which so often we don't get to do.”
Mack has personally knocked more than 2,600 doors for Lawrence.
“Yesterday, I was a little more ambitious than I should have been,” Mack said. “I did two turfs, 17,000 steps, and boy, let me tell you what, that took a toll. But it was worth it.”
The Lawrence campaign's top volunteer has knocked more than 8,000 doors. Barret's campaign said one of its volunteers is close to 2,000 doors knocked.
Michigan State University student Aleks Evans is one of the Barrett campaign's top volunteers.
Evans estimates he’s knocked more than 1,000 doors, but says he doesn’t keep track of the exact number.
“I feel like when you just do pure numbers, you kind of fall into the issue where you’re just going to have very insincere conversations,” Evans said. “You’re going to knock on someone’s door and try to sell them a yard sign, and it’s not really going to go beyond there.”
Evans said having face-to-face conversations with people reminds you that online discourse is not always representative of the general population.
“The extremes are the loudest, so I think it's really good for people to hear that … the average person isn't as extreme as others on the internet are,” Evans said. “I think that's a little comforting to see.”
Mack said she’s volunteered for many campaigns over the years, but she’s never been more enthusiastic for a candidate other than Lawrence.
She said she hosted a house party for Lawrence early in the primary and appreciated his community organizing background.
“He said, no matter what happened in this race, he felt that our district was going to be a better place because of the community that we would be building by knocking doors,” Mack said.
