Hello, my name is Raul Noguera-McElroy, and I was an elections intern with TakeAction this summer! My last day was on August 16th. I hail from New Mexico and was connected to TakeAction through Carleton College alumni who are staff at TakeAction. The best part of my elections internship this summer was participating in what the Trekker Door Knocks. My favorite door knock was the one I did on behalf of Erin Maye Quade, who is running to represent the Apple Valley region in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Although the entire experience was incredibly fun, I want to highlight the moments that made the door knock both fun and powerful for me.
First, I appreciated meeting Erin before knocking doors and asking how she would work on issues facing Latinos like myself. Her answer shifted the narrative for me because as a Latino I felt powerful and listened to, an event that is a rarity in today’s political world. This experience sent the message to me that for the first time, my voice and my community would be heard and represented in St. Paul. Before this experience, I had felt like Latinos and our issues never made it past the front doors of the Capitol, let alone into the minds of legislators. Contrary to the numerous times where I had dispassionately knocked for candidates before that night, this feeling gave me incredible energy for knocking on behalf of Erin’s campaign.
The actual experience of knocking that followed this discovery was invigorating as well. In this case, I knocked with Jaime Makepeace, the Political Director of TakeAction, who’s fabulous human. Knocking doors with her gave me the opportunity to speak to someone who was experienced and could share either feedback or support when I struggled at the doors, and also allowed us to celebrate and be energized by the other’s experiences.
My favorite part of the evening was sitting down with Erin and my fellow trekkers for dinner after we finished our routes. I enjoyed how Erin took the time during dinner to ask us not only how our knocking went, but also about the issues we are interested in. It was here where I realized the underlying power of something as simple as a door knock with a candidate: the candidates will start to listen to us beyond looking at us as “just another constituent or volunteer” and will want to work with us beyond the basic interactions many people have with their legislators.
I would highly recommend that anyone who is interested in either getting to know candidates, or in building this kind of power, join TakeAction for any of their doorknocks! I guarantee you’ll have a great experience.
