ONE Vote Organizer Charlie Harris reports from the Florida primary.
In my last post, I showed you some of the really cool things that can happen in a day in the life of a ONE Vote organizer. But sometimes, things don’t always go as planned. Such has been the case for my recent exploits down here in the Sunshine State in the build up to the primary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to complain about being near the beach, but patience is definitely a virtue on the campaign trail.
Thursday, I made the two-hour trek down to Pensacola, Fla., from where I am staying with family in Panama City Beach. As soon as I arrived at what was to be an event with presidential candidate Sen. Rick Santorum, a torrential downpour made the event soggy and unpleasant for someone who forgot their umbrella. But luckily, I had a cool ONE hoodie nearby (shameless ONE Store plug, check them out). To my dismay, the crowd gathered was told that Senator Santorum couldn’t land due to the severe weather threat, and thus I trudged back to my car for what was not looking like a fun ride back. But when life gives you severe weather that makes road conditions hazardous, get FroYo until the storm passes!
Then on Saturday, the big Governor Mitt Romney rally was right here in Panama City, so I made my way out on what was a beautiful, sunny and warm day (I know everyone experiencing real winter is yelling through their computer screens at me).
I came so close to getting a chance to speak with Gov. Romney, edging my way in through the crowds to get to the rope line (which has become an art form after all of these months) — but due to patterns of candidate hand-shaking dynamics (that’s the scientific name, right?) I missed out on speaking to the Governor. I still haven’t mastered the mathematics of when a candidate will move to the other side of the rope line, but I think the variable cute baby was the determining factor of this miss.
It all works out in the end though, because yesterday, I made my way to Speaker Newt Gingrich’s event in Pensacola. Using my crowd-dodging skills, I once again made my way into the path of the Speaker and had a chance to talk to him about ONE and smart investments that save lives and promote American security, the latter being something he had touched on in his remarks, to which I received a nice thumbs up. Awesome!
Being an advocate for the world’s poorest can present challenges, and some days are rainier than others, but the ultimate reward comes when you know your voice was heard!