Biden HQ in Manchester, NH

                                                                                                                                   

Canvassing in Manchester, NH

The first thing we did today was eat breakfast at the hotel. There, our professors divided all of the campaigns into three different buses based on where the locations of the headquarters were. This would be something that would happen every morning before leaving for the rest of the trip. The Biden people were dropped off last in Manchester, which was not exciting given that I had a little too much water for breakfast and had to hold it in for a long time! Once we got there, we met with a guy named Sal DeFrancesco. He had been working for the Biden campaign since the summer and was from Scranton, Pennsylvania. He asked us if we wanted to try out canvassing for a little. Given by the words he used, I thought it would not take a long time. To my surprise, we were left outside walking around for 4 hours! I am certainly not complaining, but I would like to be told ahead of time how long these things would take. Given that this was my first time canvassing, I was a little worried about how I needed to interact with voters. As time went by, however, it got really easy for me to talk to strangers about politics. I learned that NH voters are very welcoming in hearing what people have to say, for the most part. I was alone in these 4 hours as was another student, but the two girls went in pairs after an unpleasant event that happened to them. After the canvassing, we went to the HQ and ate pizza. As we waited until our van driver got there, we did a little phone banking until we were picked up and went to this Mexican restaurant called Margarita's to await the Iowa caucus results.