A knock on the door, a conversation with a neighbor, a text message: Campaigns make the final push toward a swing state

CROSS PLAINS, Wis. (AP) – At this stage of the electionthe arguments have been made, the airwaves have been flooded with advertisements, the inboxes and doorsteps have been filled with flyers. What remains is bad get out of tune.

It’s a crucial step that can make or break campaigns, turning Americans into voters by sending them to the polls – or to the mailbox or the ballot box – with their choices.

Democrats this year are relying on a traditional strategy of targeted phone calls, text messages and door-knocking, from the party and its allies, to encourage turnout for Vice President Kamala Harris. Former President Donald Trump did outsourced much of the Republican operation to groups like America PAC, the organization backed by billionaires Elon Muskwho has taken the unorthodox and possibly illegal step of giving away $1 million a day in prize money.

Now the two parties will go head-to-head to turn out their voters in battleground states:

Kathy Moran never imagined she would be standing on the street at sunset, with political flyers in a bag over her shoulder, trudging from door to door trying to persuade people to vote.

But Moran, a 64-year-old retired employment lawyer, said on a chilly evening in late October that she could no longer sit on the sidelines.

“With the overthrow of Roe v. Wadewhat I couldn’t imagine, I just had to get involved,” she said as she walked the streets of Cross Plains, a town of about 4,000 on the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin’s liberal capital.

It’s volunteers like Moran that Democrats hope will make a difference swing states such as Wisconsin, where four of the past six presidential elections were decided by 21,000 votes or fewer.

The Democrats’ approach to getting out the vote is clear: They use a vast network of activists, volunteers, Democratic Party believers and others to spread across the country to ensure their voters get to the polls to go.

What America PAC does it for Trump is less clear.

America PAC targets infrequent voters in Wisconsin by surveying neighborhoods and sending mailers and digital and text ads, said organization spokesman Andrew Romeo.

However, America PAC declined a request from The Associated Press to observe the work in person.

Republicans have privately expressed concerns about whether the American PAC is doing enough to vote for Trump on key issues states on the battlefield. Whatever their methods, more Republicans are voting early than in previous elections, again a sign of great enthusiasm.

“A ballot initiative can’t turn a jump ball into a landslide,” said Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “But it can absolutely turn a 50-50 race into a 49.5-50.5 race.”

Moran said that on a typical election night she walks between 8,000 and 14,000 steps and encounters mostly Harris voters as she knocks on the doors of homes decorated with skeletons, gravestones and a few political signs.

One woman refuses to talk to Moran, saying through the closed glass screen door that it is “none of her business.” Another man says he has already voted, but won’t say for whom.

Another sees her “Harris/Walz” and “la” buttons, smiles and says, “I see you’re with Harris.” He assures her that everyone in his house is voting for her.

Moran enters notes into an app so that voters who support Harris are no longer bothered.

The Harris campaign has more than 40,000 volunteers and 220 staffers working out of 32 field offices across the state. The campaign says its volunteers and staff knocked on more than a million doors, including more than 100,000 last weekend alone, and made two million phone calls.

“The ground game is very, very crowded,” said Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, a Democrat from Dawson. “We knock on doors every day, but the communities are huge. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we have extremely diligent volunteers who are doing everything they can for this race.”

Sims said she’s not sure who will win Georgia because she’s seen the same enthusiasm from Republicans on the ground.

The Trump campaign says it has nearly 25,000 volunteers working in Georgia and has hosted more than 2,000 events in the past three months.

At one event, eight women in matching pink Trump jackets with “47” on the sleeves and personalized etchings of their names marched around a spacious farmhouse south of Atlanta as part of Team Trump’s Women’s Tour.

The crowd in South Fulton was small, but RNC co-chaired it Lara Trump and former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler urged supporters to rally their friends to vote for Trump.

Kim Burnette signed up for the Trump campaign’s phone bank this year, calling irregular voters who are registered Republicans.

“A lot of people say they’re going to vote,” Burnette said. “It looks good.”

Candace Duvall drove about 30 miles to the event and showed up decked out in gold Trump merchandise — putting glittery letters with his name on her T-shirt and wearing earrings featuring his mugshot. She rushed to the polls to vote for Trump on the first day of early voting, but she is still receiving a flood of texts, calls and paper flyers from his campaign.

“He’s our only chance,” Duvall said. “I really think he was chosen by God, and I think this is good versus evil.”

Camilla Moore and Lisa Babbage, president and vice president of the Georgia Black Republican Council, also showed up to support the women for Trump.

The pair have been mobilizing black voters in South Fulton through events in recent months.

“It was easier this time than ever before,” Moore said.

People are less shy about supporting Trump now than they were in 2020, Moore said. They are more open to conversation as they advocate for the former president.

Charles Benson, 68, of Kinston, North Carolinasaid he is contacted several times a week, usually by text message, about the election and voting.

Benson, who is retired, was in attendance Trump’s rally in nearby Greenville in late October, two days after voting in person. Yet candidate mailers continue to fill his mailbox.

“I’m ready for it to be over,” Benson said. “I’m tired of getting that stuff out of the mail every day.”

Emma Macomber, 76, of New Bern, another Trump supporter at the Greenville rally, said she has been contacted regularly, largely by text message, and asked for political donations and to ensure she goes to vote.

Macomber said she has already cast her vote and made some contributions.

“I want it to be over, but I’m afraid it’s over,” she said. “Because I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, and I think everyone is afraid of the unknown.”

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Kramon reported from Atlanta, Robertson from Raleigh, North Carolina and Mascaro from Washington.