Democrats launch summer initiative
COEUR d’ALENE — The Idaho Democratic Party is planning to hit the Kootenai County pavement and engage with residents during what they’re calling “Resistance Summer.”
Why the word “Resistance”?
“I like that question a lot,” said Dean Ferguson, interim executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party. “We’re resisting the notion that our president should be autocratic. We’re resisting, up there in Sandpoint particularly, because of how Heather Scott’s supporters were behaving last election.”
Ferguson was referring to harassment allegations in Sandpoint that included a young Democratic field organizer who said he was stalked and a 90-year-old woman who was confronted by an armed man who reportedly disagreed with a bumper sticker on her car.
Resistance Summer kicked off Friday in Sandpoint, with Idaho Democratic Party field organizers and volunteers knocking on doors and listening to voters’ concerns. Ferguson said the summer will focus on training local volunteer groups, county Democratic organizations and activists in how to effectively outreach in the communities where they live.
“They’re excited and energized and willing to go to the mat,” Ferguson said, particularly those in the Indivisible groups that have sprouted up across the state. “But we want them to learn the best way to water the crops with the rain that they bring down, rather than just bringing flash floods.”
An aspect of that training, Ferguson said, is encouraging kindness. Ferguson added that he always asks people if their reaction to anti-Democratic sentiment from neighbors and friends would result in them being uninvited to a barbecue. Not being invited or welcomed because of “whining” or “angry reactions,” he said, means that a conversation cannot continue.
Shelby Scott, communications director for the Idaho Democratic Party, said the reaction they received during the first day of the initiative was great. The group, she added, is focused particularly on legislative races and distancing itself from the national party, which she said does not directly support Idaho Democrats.
“We need to separate and localize the issues,” Scott said. “It’s not about guns and abortion; it’s about infrastructure and schools.”
In addition, Scott said the group is telling local party leaders that they cannot exclude those who only recently became politically active. A “Where were they last year” attitude, according to Scott, will only diminish the anti-Trump energy she sees in those individuals.
“We have to use them and engage with them at the level they want to be engaged,” she said.
“We’re out there, and we can use their energy,” Ferguson added.
Residents in Kootenai County, Scott said, can expect knocks on their doors from locals who will participate in a large canvassing event in the area after being trained by a field organizer.