Californians head to Nevada and Arizona to knock on doors for Harris

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PHOENIX — 

Laura Banuet, a former cashier at LAX, was incensed by the Supreme Court’s decision to end federal protection of abortion access.

Recalling women, including a cousin, who risked back-alley abortions in her native Mexico, Banuet moved from Compton to Arizona earlier this year to try to make a difference in a battleground state where the last presidential campaign was decided by 0.3% of the vote.

“I didn’t want to keep on being angry at home,” she said. “I decided to do something about it.”

Clutching a smooth rock in her fist so she doesn’t bruise her knuckles, Banuet, 62, spends several hours every day, five days a week, knocking on doors in Phoenix and surrounding suburbs.

Some days, the temperature has climbed past 110 degrees as she urges voters to support Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego, and local candidates — as well as a state constitutional amendment to allow abortion up to the point of fetal viability.

Californians such as Banuet hoping to buoy Harris’ presidential bid recognize they can have little impact on the race for the White House in the Golden State, given its cobalt-blue tilt.

California voters last supported a Republican for the White House in 1988. Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-to-1, according to voter registration data released by the Secretary of State’s office in September.

So many head to Arizona and Nevada — nearby swing states that are expected to be critical in the tight presidential contest between Harris and former President Trump, as well as U.S. Senate races that could determine control of that body.

President Biden won Arizona in 2020 by 10,457 votes in a state of nearly 4.4 million registered voters, so swaying a small number of voters across the state’s precincts could make a difference.

Banuet is among roughly 300 people canvassing in Arizona who are paid for their efforts by Unite Here Local 11, a union that represents more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona.

The group also has more than 300 volunteers, mostly Californians, and aims to knock on more than 1.3 million doors in Arizona, the largest on-the-ground effort here by an organization not affiliated with a candidate committee, said Susan Minato, the union’s co-president.

They are focusing on low-propensity voters of color, particularly Latinos, as well as suburbanites, notably women, Minato said.

“People sometimes have two jobs, they sometimes have lost faith in the political system, and so maybe they don’t think that voting is really going to do that much,” she said, adding that face-to-face interactions with canvassers who share similar life experiences can be more meaningful than typical campaign communications.

“Most people are so inundated with texts and emails and commercials and literature that it’s kind of like, ‘Wow. How do I slog through this?’ So sometimes having that one-on-one conversation is especially helpful,” Minato said.

In the final months of the campaign, other Californians are volunteering to door knock in Arizona and Nevada in quick, grueling journeys.

In the Los Angeles area, weekend caravans typically meet at dawn on a Saturday for a drive that takes hours and return late the following night. Volunteers are typically provided a hotel room for a night and some meals, which are paid for by Harris’ campaign, Democratic elected officials or unions.

Paloma Corona, of Palms, woke up at 4 a.m. Saturday to board a charter bus to Las Vegas with a group of volunteers from the Service Employees International Union. After arriving, Corona and two other volunteers were sent to a neighborhood in East Las Vegas. A mobile app directed them to the houses of voters to approach, though many were not home or did not open their doors.

Canvassers can’t legally leave literature in mailboxes, so they tucked SEIU’s purple-and-white fliers — printed in English and Spanish, promoting Harris, her running mate Tim Walz and Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen as “champions for working people” — into security doors and wrought-iron gates.

Corona decided to join SEIU’s canvassing efforts after Harris entered the race. Now that a woman from California is running for president, she said, the way she talks about politics with her daughters has changed.

“I’m telling them that they could be president, too,” Corona said. And, as a child care provider, she said she appreciates that Harris talks about the rising cost of child care.

Shemika Pecot, who also traveled to Las Vegas from California this past weekend, said she wanted to help Harris win in a state where the Democrat’s victory isn’t as assured as it is in the Golden State. After their long drive to Vegas, the Vons worker joined more than 100 other volunteers to fuel up on breakfast burritos and pick up snacks, water and electrolytes in the Nevada AFL-CIO’s parking lot before hitting the pavement to promote Harris.

The Paramount resident, who has two daughters and three granddaughters, said she cares deeply about reproductive rights as well as electing leaders who support labor unions.

“We need to make sure that we have people in power that understand the working class,” Pecot said. “Sadly, that isn’t a given anymore.”

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell organized a bus of 45 volunteers from South L.A. to go to Vegas for the weekend, one of 26 that took Californians to Nevada organized by the Harris campaign, labor unions and the Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, of which Harris was a member, Kamlager-Dove said.

Californians “can surge resources into other states that need it. What we have is human capital,” Kamlager-Dove said. “We are in it because she is a California girl, and I think we are in it because no one wants a redo of a Trump administration, especially when he is becoming even more unhinged and unraveled and unsafe. When you’ve already voted, and when you know that you’re in a blue state, the next thing for you to do is to talk to your friends and neighbors in neighboring states and encourage them also to vote.”

Trump supporters in California also reach out to voters in swing states, such as by phone using mobile apps. But there is less of a visible public presence of California Republicans trying to sway voters in person in the states that are likely to determine control of the White House.

The Trump and Harris campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.

The former president leads Harris by 1.5 percentage points in an average of recent Arizona polling by Real Clear Politics. The closeness of the race was evident during a recent sweltering weekend observing canvassers who were handed plastic coolers filled with water bottles and ice, as well as electrolytes and snacks, before heading to neighborhoods in Phoenix and nearby communities.

Jose Manuel Cahuantzi, 40, a former hotel bartender near Disneyland in Anaheim, visited registered voters, mostly Democrats, in Glendale.

When Larry Stump opened his front door, Cahuantzi introduced himself and asked about his thoughts about Harris, Gallego and a local minimum wage proposal for hotel workers. After the 77-year-old expressed disdain, Cahuantzi asked why he wasn’t supporting Harris.

“No way. Do I look like a communist? I’m a Democrat and I wouldn’t vote for either” Harris or Gallego, Stump said. “No, no, she’s an idiot. … Trump was a great president. I might switch parties and become a Republican. The Democratic Party sucks. Sorry. Trump was good. Talk to you later.”

Cahuantzi said the interaction was more polite than some he has experienced with voters who oppose the Democratic ticket. And other encounters were more positive.

When Banuet knocked on Regina Knox-Dixon’s door in Goodyear, she woke the retiree up in the middle of a nap. But after Banuet explained that she was gauging support for Harris, Gallego and state legislative candidates, she had the 64-year-old’s full attention.

After Knox-Dixon expressed support for the Democrats, she was effusive in her appreciation for Banuet’s efforts.

“Girl, thank you so much. We’ve got a rough ride ahead of us, we really do. But if we don’t stick together, it’s gonna be hard,” said the former hearing officer for the Department of Corrections. “This is needed. This is really needed. It is, and keep doing it. Thank you.”

Mehta reported from Phoenix, Nelson from Las Vegas.