As it turns out, a lot of people don’t want candidates knocking on their door right now.
In our daily Texas Minute email, we asked if a candidate going door to door in your neighborhood would be more or less likely to get your vote, given the current coronavirus climate. Just under 54 percent of survey respondents voted “less likely.” The results on Twitter were generally the same, trending just over 55 percent.
Here is a sampling of readers’ comments:
Michelle F. wrote that campaigns need to remember that “the message is what is important, not the handshake. My candidate needs to convince me that his agenda is right for my city/state/country.” That can happen, she says, with flyers, social media, and old-fashioned mail.
Sam G. wrote, “All things considered, and with everything that is going on, [the politician] would definitely appear selfish, with no regard for others … and I would ask myself, ‘How is this person going to handle future tasks regarding the entire population?’”
Several folks responded like Ginger K.: “Any politician going door to door would be violating the common-sense restrictions that are put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19. What if said politician is a carrier of the virus? To be sure, the politician is a carrier of the ‘I am above the law’ attitude.”
On the other hand, Jodie D. “would not mind if a candidate chose to walk door to door, or even interns out representing their candidate, because we still need to get the message out that we have for the people in our communities. People tend to get stuck in their everyday malaise, forgetting perhaps that huge elections are in our future, with or without the coronavirus. Of course, if either is ill, no communication should take place.”
The same goes for Roger T., who “would be more likely to vote for a candidate that came to my door because it would give me a better opportunity to access his commitment to liberty.”
If candidates are going to be doing any campaigning in public, Philip J. expects they “would take precautions against infection and infecting others.”
From the “of two minds” camp comes Steve S., who wrote that incumbents should “be at work” dealing with the crisis and not knocking on doors. Candidates and challengers, meanwhile, would be welcome so that “specific questions” could be put to them.
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