For months now, ONE members have been hitting the trail in the Granite State to urge continued leadership in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease in Africa, and to make sure that the next senator from New Hampshire knows that saving lives in the poorest nations on earth is not only possible, but it is a priority. US Senate candidates Kelly Ayotte and Paul Hodes have seen ONE at their campaign events across the state, worn their ONE bands, posed for pictures and talked with ONE members about US efforts to save lives in Africa.
Just like ONE Vote ’08, we asked candidates to make time for the ten thousand New Hampshire ONE members, and the world’s poorest people, and answer our 2010 ONE Vote question:
ONE’s vision for Africa is rooted in a moral and humanitarian desire to help the most vulnerable people, a recognition that building economic opportunities abroad creates opportunities at home, and a strategic understanding that our national security is intertwined with the stability of poor countries across the globe. Through bipartisan cooperation in Washington, the US has been a leader in helping provide millions of Africans with life-saving medicine, children with the chance to go to school, and women with the tools to feed their families, while investing in sustainable economic growth and tackling corruption to ensure scarce resources are used as intended.
How best can the US continue to tackle global disease, poverty, and hunger?
Here is what each one of them told ONE:
Kelly Ayotte (R)
Paul Hodes (D)
We would like to thank both Kelly Ayotte, Paul Hodes, their campaign staffs and all of the ONE members who used their voices to help make this happen. We are proud of American efforts to save lives in the poorest nations on earth, and encourage continued leadership in the Senate, no matter who wins in November.
But we are not done yet, ONE members will continue to be in action across New Hampshire as we continue to advocate for life saving policies and programs for the world’s poorest people. Help us keep the pressure up over the next 11 days by joining Team New Hampshire: http://www.one.org/us/actnow/vote2010/state/join.html?state=newhampshire
And be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 New Hampshire members on Facebook and Twitter.
- Matthew Flanders, ONE Vote 2010 state organizer, New Hampshire
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
Tzviatko, Christopher, Hafsa, Amber and Chris Matthews
You have seen ONE rock the Today Show, but yesterday afternoon, ONE members crowded University of Illinois at Chicago’s campus for a live taping of MSNBC’s “Hardball” with Chris Matthews.
About 50 ONE members were in the crowd of 500 people, holding signs and representing for ONE and our efforts in the fight against extreme poverty and global disease. We were able to catch up with Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, who took a ONE band right before his interview with Chris Matthews.
After the interview, Giannoulias took time to talk with ONE’s congressional district leader Tzviatko Chiderov and me and told us how happy he was to wear the ONE band on national TV!
Tzviatko, Alexi Giannoulias and Christopher
We then gave a ONE band to Chris Matthews who stuck around to talk to students. It was a great time, and great way to lift high ONE’s visibility and work to ensure that the no matter who wins in November, the next senator from Illinois knows that our country can continue to help save millions of lives in the developing world.
Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Illinois members on Facebook and Twitter.
-Christopher Shaffer, ONE Vote 2010 organizer, Illinois
After being seen all over the Today Show last month, ONE was hot on the campaign trail in New York City last night outside a private event right by Grand Central Terminal!
In the cool New York night, we had the opportunity to connect the dots with Sen. John Thune (R-ND), who immediately recognized us after ONE members were able to talk with him in Colorado late last week.
And right after the event ended, I ran into senate candidate Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire. I was to able to talk with her about ONE and thank her for always making time for the world’s poorest people as she campaigns in the Granite State. She was very complimentary of ONE, and took time to snap an awesome picture while holding a ONE shirt!
It was a great night on the trail, and another great night for ONE in New York as we urge our elected leaders to do all they can to help fight extreme poverty and global disease in the poorest places on earth.
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like this one from our field team and organizers on the road.
Last night, a couple of ONE members and I attended a meet and greet with Senate candidate Rob Portman in Solon, Ohio to talk with him about efforts to fight global disease, lift millions of Africans out of extreme poverty, and save lives in the developing world.
At the end of his speech, Mr. Portman took a few questions, and someone asked about international trade. After Mr. Portman talked to the audience, he went up to the guy that asked the question about trade and asked him if he was a ONE member, noting that one of our issues was to help encourage trade in developing countries. He went on to say that we have seen a five percent growth in GDP in many developing nations in Africa due to efforts to expand and reform trade.
I thanked Mr. Portman for his ideas and efforts around trade, and for his leadership on PEPFAR as the former Budget Director in the Bush Administration. I urged him to continue that same leadership if he is elected to the US Senate.
Only 15 days until the election! Be sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter for frequent updates.
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
While on the ONE Vote campaign trail, I’ve learned that there is nothing more important than positioning yourself strategically on the rope line so you can catch a candidate as they come offstage. Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple because being one of the few individuals that actually shakes the candidate’s hand in a room full of thousands of people is statistically speaking, well, difficult. I encountered one such scenario last night at a rally for Senator Bennet featuring former President Bill Clinton.
There were 12 ONE members at the rally, so it was easy for us to split up and cover multiple parts of the rope line. Jeb Barrett and his sister were the first ONE members to grab Senator Bennet and President Clinton as they came off stage. Jeb gave both of them ONE bands before they continued down the line shaking hands. In the middle, ONE volunteer CDL Valerie Bobalek thanked President Clinton for his recovery work in Haiti following the earthquake. “It just breaks your heart, doesn’t it?” he said.
Finally, as Senator Bennet began to head backstage, ONE members Ismay and Kyrzia Parker grabbed him for one last picture. They also banded his wife Susan Daggett and his daughter. Ismay asked the Senator to continue to support ONE.org and the fight against poverty. Senator Bennet complimented ONE and our efforts as he made his way off stage.
President Clinton, who had pointed directly at Kyrzia’s ONE sign and gave two thumbs up as he went onstage, gladly posed for a picture with her on his way backstage. In his speech, President Clinton talked about the importance of cheap AIDS drugs for developing nations and his experiences in places where people live on less than $2 each day.
I was proud to watch ONE volunteers as their passion drove them through a crowd of thousands of people to the front of the rope lines in an effort to advocate for the world’s poorest people. They succeeded not once, but three times.
Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Colorado members on Facebook and Twitter.
-Nick Stevens, ONE Vote 2010 State Organizer, Colorado
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
This past Friday, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence held a lunch meeting with pizza for local college republicans at the state party headquarters in Indianapolis. I took this opportunity to listen to the Congressman speak about issues facing our country, and to talk with him about ONE and US efforts to fight extreme poverty and disease in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Upon meeting Rep. Pence, I gave him a ONE band – a small symbol of the 24,000 Hoosier ONE members who want our elected leaders to do all they can to save lives in the poorest nations on earth. I told him how proud I was of the leadership of both Republicans and Democrats in fighting extreme global poverty. Rep. Pence thanked me for my efforts with ONE, and I urged him as a man of faith to continue to work on behalf of least among us in this world.
No matter what politician or political party, ONE will be out to celebrate and encourage contuined international life-saving policy!
Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Indiana members on Facebook and Twitter.
-Maddison Klontz, ONE Vote 2010 state organizer, Indiana
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like this one from our field team and organizers on the road.
Last night, thirty-two ONE members and I threw on our ONE Vote 2010 shirts and attended a rally on the campus of The Ohio State University, featuring the President and First Lady. We went to raise the profile of ONE and the world’s poorest people, and also to encourage continued US leadership to save lives from HIV/AIDS, malaria and hunger in the developing world. Three of us were able to get up front and even pass a band and say hello to singer John Legend, who performed before the President spoke.
Everyone around us wanted to know what ONE was, and once they heard about our movement to fight extreme poverty and global disease in Africa, we had over fifty people wearing ONE bands and ONE pins!
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Though we were not able to meet the President and First Lady, we are sure that they saw all the ONE shirts and pins in the crowd of over 35,000, and hope that they remember the world’s poorest people!
Only 16 days until the election! Be sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter for frequent updates.
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