Earlier this week, I had a phone call with a woman who wanted more information about volunteering this election cycle. She was ready to help, but she had one condition: she only wanted to volunteer for a campaign that was going to be impactful and win.
My immediate response? Honey, don’t we all?
I hear some version of this all the time. Which races can actually win? Where will my time make the biggest difference? Why should I spend my Saturdays knocking doors for someone who probably isn’t going to win? And I get it. We all want to be on the winning team. We want to wake up the morning after Election Day knowing all those doors, phone calls, texts, postcards, donations, and hours paid off.
But this way of thinking about Texas elections has always bothered me because it misses something incredibly important: Texas Democratic politics is a numbers game, and everyone has a role to play. Even the candidates who lose.
Yes, I said it. Even the losers matter.
A Democrat running in a difficult district may not win that particular seat, but that candidate is knocking on doors. They are meeting voters. They are introducing themselves to neighbors who may not have heard directly from a Democrat in years. They are talking about public schools, healthcare, property taxes, water, affordability, and whatever else matters in that community. And most importantly, they are giving people a reason to show up and vote.
Because when that voter goes to the polls, they don’t just vote in one race. They vote up and down the ballot.
That means the Democrat running an uphill race in a deep-red district may be bringing voters to the polls who also cast ballots for Democrats running statewide. And when our statewide races can come down to relatively small shifts in turnout and margins across millions of voters, activating another 1 or 2 percent here and another 1 or 2 percent there can become incredibly important.
One candidate finds 50 voters here. Another finds 200 there. Another knocks on the door of someone who hasn’t voted in four years. Another talks to a Republican woman who is furious about what is happening to her public schools. Another reaches a young voter who has never voted before. Another finds a family who has lived in that neighborhood for 20 years and says, “You know, nobody running for office has ever knocked on our door.”
Those votes add up.
Suddenly, those so-called “losing campaigns” don’t look quite so unimportant anymore. They look like infrastructure. They look like organizers. They look like voter activation. They look like thousands of little tributaries feeding one giant blue river across Texas.
So I asked this potential volunteer a different question: What is your personal goal?
Is it knocking doors? Meeting people? Building community? Getting Democratic messages into neighborhoods that rarely hear them? Helping public education? Turning out women? Reaching young voters? Finding those few extra people who might otherwise sit this election out?
Because once you know your goal, you don’t necessarily need to find the perfect campaign. You need to find a campaign where you can do the work.
And this is where Girl Math Democracy comes in.
Ladies, you know where I’m going with this.
You are going to need new sneakers. Obviously.
Go shopping. Find yourself a cute pair of walking shoes. This is democracy. We cannot be expected to save it with inadequate arch support.
Then put on your steps app and give yourself a goal. Maybe you want to walk a marathon between now and Election Day. That’s 26.2 miles of democracy. Maybe you want to hit 50 miles. Maybe 100. Maybe you want to knock 500 doors. Maybe you want to walk every Saturday between now and November 3. Whatever it is, make the goal about your contribution, not whether someone else wins or loses.
Then start walking.
Walk for the candidate who has a great chance of winning. Walk for the candidate in a toss-up. And yes, walk for the candidate taking on Goliath in a district everyone has already written off. Because that candidate might find the voter who helps elect a Democrat statewide.
That door still counts.
Now, obviously, if we’re doing Girl Math Democracy correctly, the sneakers are only the beginning. You need the VOTE T-shirt because that’s basically a uniform. You probably need the sweatshirt because November mornings can be chilly. New water bottle? Hydration is essential to democracy. Put all your voting stickers on it. Cute crossbody bag? Obviously. You need somewhere to put your phone, voter literature, sunscreen, lip balm, snacks, and the tiny bit of sanity you have left after someone answers the door and wants to discuss chemtrails for 20 minutes.
You can buy these on mothersagaisntgregabbott.com/shop
Girl math.
But here’s the deal: you have to earn it.
By Election Day, I want those cute new sneakers to look terrible. I want them dirty. I want them scuffed. I want the soles worn down. I want you to look at those shoes on November 3 and know exactly what happened to them.
You wore them out trying to change Texas.
Not because you were guaranteed to win. Not because someone told you that you picked the perfect race. Not because a spreadsheet said your candidate was the most important person on the ballot. You did it because democracy is built by people who show up. You did it because communities matter. You did it because voters matter. You did it because candidates willing to run uphill races deserve people willing to walk uphill with them.
And you did it because every voter we activate has the potential to help Democrats all the way up and down that ballot.
So stop worrying quite so much about whether you’re volunteering for the “right” team. Find the team doing the work. Find the candidate talking to voters. Find the campaign building community. Find the place where you can make a difference.
Then buy the shoes. Buy the VOTE shirt. Get the ridiculous water bottle. Track the miles. Knock the doors. Earn the scuffs.
Because this election cycle, Girl Math Democracy is all the rage.
And if you spend $150 on a pair of sneakers and knock 1,000 doors in them, that’s only 15 cents a door.
Basically free.
See? Democracy.
But make it Girl Math. Buy the cute Door knocking outfit and sneakers. Then go get’em.
Yours in resistance.
Nancy