“Come knock doors for Dems — Canvass for Kamala, 3pm,” says a post on the Georgia Democrats website.
The invite leads to an open garage door in a cul-de-sac in the northern Atlanta suburbs where L Don Richard is sitting at a table covered with literature on early voting locations and local Democrat election candidates, party badges, Kamala Harris/Tim Walz hats and cupcakes with blue icing.
While a member of the team attempts to track down a nearby canvasser, Richard asks about Irish politics and mentions Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil when yet another looming election is mentioned. “They’re still kind of the same, right?”
Directions and a phone number are provided to help find Hughie Glidewell, who’s on the trail on Chestnut Drive, Doraville — an area with significant Hispanic and Asian communities.
A 70-something, originally from Knutsford in Cheshire, England, he began his canvassing career more than 50 years ago.
His mother, Hilary Glidewell, was a Liberal Party councillor who stood in the two UK general elections of 1974, a time when the Tories and Labour were in disarray. She performed strongly first time around, cutting the Tory incumbent’s majority in Nantwich, but found her own party in a mess at the second time of asking as lurid rumours engulfed leader Jeremy Thorpe.
He was later tried for conspiracy and incitement to murder after being accused of trying to have a man who threatened to expose their affair murdered by a hitman. Thorpe became tabloid fodder and, despite being acquitted after refusing to testify, the controversy ruined him.
Glidewell moved to the US in the early 1980s, initially to Florida and then to Atlanta, where he established a landscaping business. A tall and pleasant fellow, he adapted well to life in the US — now driving a pickup truck and sporting chino shorts.
But it wasn’t until 2017 that the political activism instilled in him by his mother, whose obituary in the Times from 2020 described her as a “warm and colourful champion of social justice”, sprang back to life.
“As soon as [Donald] Trump was elected a light bulb went off and it was time to get going,” he says.
The political scene on the other side of the Atlantic, he says, “is not that different”.
“Doing what we’re doing now, basically knocking on doors, is exactly the same as it was in Knutsford and Nantwich in 1973. People are very much the same, quite honestly, as far away and as long ago as it was. They’re easy and pleasant to deal with and very polite, generally.”
The “ground game” is kicking into action as Harris and the Democrats seek to repeat the rare victory Joe Biden had in 2020 in Georgia, with Bill Clinton (1992) and local son Jimmy Carter (1976 and 1980) the last to take the state before then.
[ US election explained: The swing states that will decide the presidencyOpens in new window ]
Today’s exercise is data-driven rather than hope-driven. Armed with an iPad displaying a map showing homes of people known to have supported the party in the past, the goal is to get them out to vote — ideally early.
At the first house, Glidewell is looking for Joyce, who is working on a fence in her garden. A small Harris/Walz poster is stuck on the lawn and she offers assurances about voting early and Democrat.
Stressing why this is important, in a state where electoral laws are being changed and challenged with allegations of fraud still swirling around the 2020 result, Glidewell says: “Regardless of whatever shenanigans happen on election day, you’re vote will be counted if it’s early.”
He adds: “And there’s a bonus, you won’t have me back here asking you about it again.”
Joyce is marked on the iPad as “strongly Democrat” and an early voter. One down.
At the Islam household, a woman says she and her husband intend to vote on election day as they want to feel a sense of occasion.
“Can we count on you?” asks Glidewell.
“It’s a secret,” she replies with a smile.
“I want Kamala,” says her young daughter. “Trump wants to give tax cuts to billionaires.”
Angelica answers the next door. She hasn’t voted yet but insists she will. She says her son will be casting his maiden vote. “He wants his first time to be for a woman president.” Glidewell inputs another “strong Democrat” marker.
At Rob and Denise’s, a bearded man peers around a barely open door and says: “I am not interested in talking about politics. Thank you. Good day.”
“Is Denise home?” asks Glidewell undeterred.
“We are not interested in talking about politics. Thank you. Good day.”
Next up is a house with a Tesla parked outside. Luther, who’s wearing an Atlanta United shirt, answers. He doesn’t know when, but he says he will vote early, pointing to a small Harris/Walz banner near the door. “You can count on us.”
Noting the electric car and football jersey, Glidewell says: “He was never voting Republican.”
Asked how he feels it’s all going, he replies, “it’s very hard to know” given he’s knocking on doors in urban Atlanta, where the Democrats tend, and need, to be popular. Biden won only about one-fifth of the 159 counties four years ago, but they were the ones with bigger populations.
“I own a business two counties away in Cherokee County and it’s just absolute night and day,” says Glidewell. “When you cross the county line, you’re immediately deep into Trump country.”
Does he think the groundwork will pay off and people will show up for Harris?
“Yes, I hope so. We’re scared for the future of United States, for the future of the democratic republic.”
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