It’s all-hands-on deck in Pennsylvania, which is one of the battleground states that will likely decide the winner of the 2024 presidential election. One of the groups doing canvassing there and in other swing states, is Seed the Vote, which recruits volunteers from around the country to canvass for Democrats with the slogan “Block and Build” – meaning: block Donald Trump from another term in the White House, while building the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Seed the Vote, partnering with the hospitality labor union Unite Here, is canvassing neighborhoods in the Philadelphia suburbs. Volunteers there knock on the doors of registered Democrats, independents and Republicans, urging them all to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and defeat Trump and his Republican MAGA agenda.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spent four days in the Philly suburbs with Seed the Vote in mid-October. While there she met and interviewed volunteer canvasser, Dr. Kate Sugarman, a family physician in Washington, D.C., who’s knocking on doors in Philadelphia through Election Day, Nov. 5. Tuhus began by asking Dr. Sugarman why she’s using up her vacation time to work on the election.
DR. KATE SUGARMAN: I’m using all my vacation days. I am just terrified of Trump coming back into office.
MELINDA TUHUS: Do you have any concerns about her (Harris’) positions, but you think she’s just, you know, we just have to stop Trump. Right?
DR. KATE SUGARMAN: So I am concerned and, you know, I’ve been very active in the ceasefire movement for Gaza and now arms embargo to stop the bombs. I’m very active in, Jewish Voice for Peace. I’m very active, and if not now — you know, I had to think long and hard about volunteering for this campaign. What finally put my mind at rest is that I made myself a promise that if and when Kamala wins, I will continue to protest from Day One. You know, there’ll be no honeymoon. I will put her feet to the fire immediately. And I know that if Trump wins or steals the election, whatever, that we won’t even have the luxury of protesting. You know, if and when she wins, I will be pressuring her immediately for an arms embargo and for this genocide to stop.
MELINDA TUHUS: I know you just started this time and you’re gonna be there through the election, but you’ve done this before though, right?
DR. KATE SUGARMAN: Ever since 2016, I started canvassing because again of the horror of Trump. So I’ve canvassed a lot. I really like Seed the Vote. They’re very well organized, but I really, really share their progressive values. So I learned about Seed the Vote because I volunteered for Summer Lee in Pittsburgh, because AIPAC was targeting her in her re-election for Congress. And so I really like the motto of Seed the Vote, which is “Block and Build.” Block the fascist, block Trump from taking office and build the progressive wing of the Democratic party and build the future that we wanna see. So I really, really like the Block and Build and that helps me kind of with my discomfort over things about the Harris administration that I’m very upset about.
MELINDA TUHUS: Anything you wanna share about any impressions you have about how, how it might go or the people you talk to?
DR. KATE SUGARMAN: It’s been time extremely well spent. It’s hard to believe, but there are in the city of Philadelphia, there are still undecided voters and we were able to have conversations to move the needle. It’s hard to imagine being in the ground zero of the United States of America and there were undecided people. But I spoke to a young man, maybe a 21-year-old man today and I asked him who he was supporting and he was like, “Nah, I don’t do politics.”
He was a registered voter. And so, you know, I asked him what was important to him. And I’m hopeful that I was able to convince him to go out and vote for Kamala Harris. You know, it’s the end of the day. I’m not quite sure what he said, but, you know, we were able to find issues of agreement that were important to him and why politics actually was important and it was important for him to vote for Kamala.
What’s very exciting is that Philadelphia just started early voting. This is not something that has traditionally happened in Pennsylvania. Some voters seemed really interested in that, so we were able to really promote early voting. Yeah.
And one of my canvassing buddies, she spoke to somebody who was just completely undecided and the canvasser here said, “Well, what’s important to you?” “Veterans benefits and mental health.” Yet this voter was undecided. It’s truly unbelievable. Yeah. Between the early voting and undecided voters, this seems like time very well spent.
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