This is a picture of progress:
More than 1,000 people signed up for our voter registration phone bank on Monday.
We all Zoomed into a video gathering at 6:30pm, got ourselves pumped up, and were off to the races, our first phone calls going out ten minutes later.
By 8:30, this group of amazing, persistent volunteers had made more than 80,000 phone calls to known Democrats who'd recently moved to Texas.
We called people who had reliably voted in the Democratic primary in their former home state, but have yet to update their voter registration in Texas. They'd been mailed voter registration forms a few days before our calls. We were calling to remind them that all they have to do now is sign it and put it in the mail.
Some people made 20 phone calls, some made over 100. I was able to make 88 over the two hours of our phone bank. Some wrong numbers here and there (which is OK, helps us to clean up our list) along with more than a few answering machines... but when you'd connect with someone it sure felt good.
My favorite was a special education teacher who lives outside of San Antonio. She answered the phone as she was walking her dog. "I'm so glad you called me!" she said. "I've got that form on top of the rest of all my paperwork and bills. I'll sign it and send it in tomorrow!"
We talked a little more and she told me how hard it is to teach in the midst of this pandemic. I shared my newfound respect for her after helping Amy supervise our kids' distance learning with their teachers here in El Paso and told her about the wonderful special ed teachers my sister Erin's had along the way. I wanted to her to know that we really appreciate what she's doing.
At the end of our phone bank, Kate told us how many calls we'd made (big cheers at the news that we cleared 80,000) and then drew two names for our big prize: home delivery of O'Rourke-baked chocolate chip cookies (our winners were Bella from Flushing, NY and Letti from Laredo, TX).
This coming Tuesday, we'll do it again — we have over 1,400 people already signed up to make calls — and then otra vez on Thursday.
We'll keep doing this until we've called nearly one million of our fellow Texans to make sure they get registered.
We are making the most of everyone's time at home by helping to create the conditions that will allow us to elect a Democratic majority in the Texas State House and stop Donald Trump by denying him our state's 38 electoral college votes.
Very grateful to be doing this work and to have your support to get it done!
Thank you,
Beto
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