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A conservative goes undercover on the Fetterman campaign




I’m a registered Republican in Florida yet the only email offer I received to be a campaign volunteer this season was from the Democrats. Is this a function of Google subverting my Gmail inbox or Republican dysfunction? I have no idea, but I was surprised to get a message on November 4 from “Official Democratic Headquarters” asking me to make phone calls on behalf of Democratic candidates. ...

My fellow volunteers were mostly women along with a smattering of men who appeared to be of retirement age. Based on what they reported in our chat room, the volunteers were mostly from major metro areas on both coasts. A man named Al, who had a professorial vibe, gave us instructions and told us we’d be making calls to Pennsylvania voters on behalf of Senate candidate John Fetterman. “This is a referendum on our democracy, so what you’re doing is so important,” he said, before I was bumped into a breakout room and given a link to start making calls. ...

The Democrats use software called Scale to Win. It sometimes took a minute or two to find a live person for me to talk to, but eventually the names of voters popped up on my screen. All my calls were to registered Democrats in Pennsylvania. If I confirmed it was the right person on the phone, I hit a button that would lead me to a script, which I never used. I had a lot of hang-ups but I was surprised by how many people were willing to speak to me about their voting preferences.

Many of my calls were surprising, hilarious, or enlightening, occasionally all three. I didn’t identify myself as a volunteer for the Democratic Party because I wanted to hear unfiltered opinions. ...

When I asked a voter named Warren who said he supported Fetterman if he was at all concerned about the candidate’s health and debate performance, he laughed. “It doesn’t matter one bit,” he said. “We have one legitimate party in this country and the other one is a (expletive) disaster.”

I spoke to several registered Democrats who said they had zero interest in the election. A woman named Mary told me she left Pennsylvania for Florida. When I asked her if she planned to vote in Florida, she said, “Who’s running in Florida?” I mentioned Governor DeSantis and his challenger, Charlie Crist. She was unfamiliar with both and asked me what DeSantis stood for. I mentioned him keeping the state open during the pandemic, and she said, “Oh that was dumb. I don’t think I’ll vote for him then.”

A woman with a smoker’s cough voice named Nichole asked me if it was a presidential election, and when I replied it wasn’t, she said, “Well then I don’t care” and hung up. A woman named Bridget told me she planned to vote for Fetterman but said she “hoped he’d clean up his act.” I asked her what she meant, and she said, “He goes around wearing a hoodie all the time. Middle-class white women want to see a man wear a suit and tie to be taken seriously.” ...

I got off to a bad start with a Democrat named Mikhail who said he was voting for Fetterman because his top issue was “the security of our democracy.” I asked him what his concern was and he said, “basically denying election results.” I asked him if he was referring to Trump and Republicans questioning the 2020 election and he confirmed that he was. Then I asked him if he had also been concerned with Hillary Clinton’s continued efforts to dispute the results of the 2016 election and his voice grew confused then angry. “Oh wow…Hillary…wait, where are you calling from?” I stumbled trying to decide what to say, and amid my hesitation, he hung up. ...

A Democrat named Kristan said she’d voted for Fetterman because she’s pro-choice. “I fear the other side’s agenda,” she said. “They’re extremists.” She mentioned inflation as another concern, and I asked her if she was satisfied with the Democrats’ performance on the issue. “Well…I don’t really blame them, and I don’t think the Republicans would do any better,” she said. I asked her about Fetterman’s performance in the debate, and she said, “it was really sad to see” him do so poorly. “But Dr. Oz is a sham, so it didn’t affect my vote.”

A pair of men I spoke to had no idea they were registered Democrats. Jeff told me his “views didn’t align with Fetterman at all. To be honest, I think we need more Republicans.” Jeff, who sounded like he was perhaps in his twenties or thirties, said he had never voted before and thought that perhaps his parents had registered him as a Democrat. He asked me where to vote and I gave him a website to help him find his polling station. One of my final callers was Gerald, a truck driver who was in Mason, Ohio, on his way to St. Louis. He too was surprised to learn that he was a registered Democrat. “Are you (expletive) kidding?” he said when I gave him the news. ...

Feeling eager to talk to some Republicans, I volunteered to make calls for Audrey Henson, a 32-year-old small businesswoman who is running for the Florida House as a Republican in left-leaning St. Petersburg. ...

I made dozens of calls, using my own phone, and got nothing but voicemail. “The Dems have better technology than us because the tech companies help them,” Henson said when I told her how many Pennsylvania Democrats I’d spoken to. Though I couldn’t reach any live voters, I eavesdropped on Audrey, who got through to several registered Republicans and independents. The Democrats portrayed Henson as a right-wing extremist, but I heard her tell a skeptical voter, “I’ve got good news for you, I’m not a MAGA Republican!

“She told me she doesn’t want to vote for Republicans because she hates Trump,” Henson explained after the call. “I think she’s going to vote for me. Sometimes you can just feel it.” ...

Henson said that she’d knocked on doors even if they had yard signs for Democrats, including her opponent. She’d heard concerns about abortion rights often but said the number one issue was the cost of living and affordability. In a left-leaning district, Trump’s unpopularity dogged her, but she said she’d found a way to rebrand herself. “I tell a lot of voters I’m a DeSantis Republican and it usually works,” she said.

Henson ended up losing her race by eight points. She says she intends to remain active in politics.