Laura Banuet, a former LAX cashier, was outraged by the Supreme Court’s decision to end federal protections for access to abortion.

Recalling the women, including her cousin, who risked abortions in back alleys in her native Mexico, Banuet went to Compton earlier this year to try to make a difference in the battleground state, where the last presidential race was decided by 0.3% of the vote. Moved to Arizona. .

“I didn’t want to stay angry at home,” she says. “I decided to do something about it.”

Banuet, 62, spends several hours a day, five days a week, knocking on doors in Phoenix and surrounding suburbs, gripping smooth stones in his fists to avoid bruising his knuckles.

Temperatures hit 110 as Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, U.S. Senate candidate Ruben Gallego, local candidates, and even local candidates appeal to voters to support an amendment to the state constitution that would allow abortion up to the point where the fetus is viable. There are days when I go overboard.

Californians like Banuet want to support Harris’ presidential bid, recognizing that given the Cobalt Blue tilt, they have little influence in the race for the White House in the Golden State. There is.

The last time California voters supported a Republican in the White House was in 1988. Voter registration data released by the Secretary of State’s Office in September shows Democrats outnumbering Republicans nearly 2-to-1.

That’s why many people head to Arizona and Nevada. These battleground states are expected to be key issues in tight races between Harris and former President Trump, as well as in Senate races that could give control of the Senate.

President Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes in 2020, a state with nearly 4.4 million registered voters, so mobilizing a small number of voters across the state could make a difference.

Banuet is one of about 300 workers in Arizona who is paid for his work by Unite Here Local 11, a labor union that represents more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona. I’m one of them.

The group also has more than 300 volunteers, most of them Californians, and aims to knock on more than 1.3 million doors in Arizona, which is not part of a candidate committee. The union’s Susan Minato said it was the organization’s largest local effort. Co-president.

Voters arrive at City Hall in Surprise, Arizona, on October 9, the first day of early voting.

(Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)

Minato said they are focusing on people of color, especially Latino, low-propensity voters and suburbanites, especially women.

“People sometimes work two jobs and have lost faith in political institutions, so they may not think that voting actually has that much of an effect.” she said, adding that her face-to-face interactions with campaign workers: Sharing similar life experiences can be more meaningful than regular campaign communications.

“Most of us are bombarded with texts and emails and commercials and literature and we’re like, ‘Wow.’ How do we hang on and get through this? So it’s especially helpful to have one-on-one conversations every once in a while. “I will,” Minato said.

In the final months of the election, other Californians are making the hurried and grueling journey to volunteer door-knocking in Arizona and Nevada.

In the Los Angeles area, weekend caravans typically gather at dawn on a Saturday, drive several hours, and return late the next day. Volunteers are typically provided with an overnight hotel room and some food, with costs covered by Harris’ campaign, Democratic elected officials and labor unions.

Palms resident Paloma Corona woke up at 4 a.m. Saturday and boarded a charter bus to Las Vegas with a group of Service Employees International Union volunteers. After arriving, Corona and two other volunteers were sent to a heavily Latino neighborhood in East Las Vegas. Mobile apps directed voters to approach their homes, but many were not home or did not open their doors.

Recruiters can’t legally put documents in mailboxes, so they shoved SEIU’s purple and white flyers, printed in English and Spanish, into mailboxes. It touted Harris, her running mate, Tim Walz, and Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen as “champions of working people.” Security door and wrought iron gate.

Corona decided to participate in SEIU’s recruitment efforts in response to Harris’ candidacy. She said the way she talks about politics with her daughters has changed now that a woman from California is running for president.

“I’m telling them they could be president, too,” Corona said. And as a child care provider, she said she appreciates Harris speaking out about rising child care costs.

Shemika Pecotte, who also traveled to Las Vegas from California over the weekend, said she wanted to help Harris win in a state where Democratic victory is less certain than the Golden State. After the long drive to Las Vegas, Bonds employees joined more than 100 other volunteers in the parking lot of the Nevada AFL-CIO to refuel with a breakfast burrito, buy snacks, water, and electrolytes, and then head to Harris. went out on the sidewalk to advertise.

The Paramount resident, who has two daughters and three granddaughters, said she cares deeply about reproductive rights as well as electing leaders who support unions.

“We need to make sure we have people in power who understand the working class,” Pecotte said. “Unfortunately, that is no longer the norm.”

Congressman Sidney Kamlager Dove (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell organized a busload of 45 volunteers from South Los Angeles to travel to Las Vegas over the weekend. It was one of 26 vehicles planned by the Harris campaign to take Californians to Nevada. Kamlager-Dove said the unions and Alpha Kappa Alpha, a black sorority of which Harris was a member.

Californians can “push resources to other states that need them. What we have is human capital,” Kamlager-Dove said. “We’re in that situation because she’s a California girl. No one wants a do-over of the Trump administration, especially when it’s becoming more and more volatile, unstable, and unsafe.” If you’ve already voted and you know you’re in a blue state, the next thing you should do is talk to your friends and neighbors in neighboring states and encourage them to vote as well. .”

Trump supporters in California are also using mobile apps to reach voters in the battleground state by phone and other means. But California Republicans are rarely seen in public as they try to directly influence voters in a state where they are likely to take control of the White House.

The Trump and Harris campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.

The former president guides Harris to 1.5 percentage points In recent Arizona polling averages from Real Clear Politics. The closeness of the race was evident on a recent sweltering weekend as participants were handed plastic coolers filled with water bottles, ice, electrolytes and snacks before heading to Phoenix and nearby communities.

Jose Manuel Kawanzi, 40, a former bartender at a hotel near Disneyland in Anaheim, visited registered voters in Glendale, most of them Democrats.

When Larry Stamp opened the door, Kawantzi introduced himself and asked Harris, Gallego and their thoughts on a proposed regional minimum wage for hotel workers. After the 77-year-old expressed his disdain, Mr Khawanzi asked why he did not support Ms Harris.

“Outrageous. Do I look like a communist? I’m a Democrat, so I won’t vote for Mr. Harris or Mr. Gallego,” Stump said. “No, no, she’s an idiot. …Trump was a great president. Maybe she’ll change parties and become a Republican. Not a Democrat. Sorry. Trump was good. We’ll talk again later.”

Kawantsi said his interactions with voters who opposed the Democratic ticket were more polite than he had previously experienced. And other encounters were more positive.

When Banuet knocked on the door of Regina Knox-Dixon’s Goodyear home, she woke the retiree from a nap. But when Banuet explained that he was gauging support for Harris, Gallego and the state House candidates, the 64-year-old’s interest fully piqued.

After Knox-Dixon announced her support for the Democratic Party, she enthusiastically thanked Banuet for his efforts.

“Thank you so much, ladies. We have a tough road ahead of us, we really do. But if we don’t come together, it’s going to be tough,” said the former Department of Corrections hearing officer. “This is necessary. This is really necessary. It is, and please keep it up. Thank you.”

Mehta reported from Phoenix and Nelson from Las Vegas.