Rose won a district that had voted for President Trump in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first time Staten Island had flipped in a midterm for many years, and that story went viral, and we were invited into Pennsylvania,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were happy to be invited in because we knew we wanted to use CTC\u2019s efforts in an important part of the country. There are several key areas in the country that are continuously seeing these very close elections.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The group started deep canvassing in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2020 election. They continued to canvas in Philadelphia ahead of the 2022 and 2024 elections, focusing on areas like West Philly \u2013 where Barbanel-Fried said the impacts of policy decisions are often felt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter this past election, this current year, we really started talking to folks about the cuts to Medicaid and other social services,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were canvassing in West Philly for the last series of years, and the impact that is going to be felt by people in neighborhoods like West Philadelphia or Philadelphia, or all the lower-income neighborhood communities around the country, is huge, and yet there\u2019s this huge universe of people who either they don\u2019t know or if they know, they don\u2019t know how serious it is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the 2024 election, the group canvassed for voters to support presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The group\u2019s focus wasn\u2019t to change people\u2019s minds if they were set on their vote, Barbanel-Fried said, but to help educate residents about politics and to help encourage nonvoters to register to vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_8343.jpeg\")
A canvasser knocks on doors in West Philly ahead of the 2024 presidential election (Photo courtesy of Changing the Conversation Together) <\/p>\n
Barbanel-Fried recalled an example of the group\u2019s efforts in a conversation with a woman named Faith sitting on her porch with her partner in West Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The conversation often starts by testing the resident\u2019s willingness to vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to her, \u2018How likely are you to vote on a scale of zero out of 10?\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cAnd she said, \u2018Probably a four.\u2019 So four, obviously, that\u2019s a very low chance. I asked, \u2018Why is that the right number for you, Faith?\u2019 And Faith says, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t really get involved in politics very much.\u2019 That is when I, as any of our canvassers would, start telling a personal story.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The group is trained to avoid lectures or lists of facts at that moment, he said, because this isn\u2019t very effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne option is I could just jump into a lecture and say, \u2018This is why you need to vote,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cBut we believe that that doesn\u2019t work. No one likes to be lectured. The reason people do or don\u2019t do things, it\u2019s not necessarily a rational thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The stories are often unconventional, Barbanel-Fried said, but have one theme in common \u2013 love. In this situation, he chose a story about a heartwarming present he received from his wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI came home one summer and it was my birthday and there was no one around,\u201d he said. \u201cShe had sent me this wonderful gift that was handmade. The packaging itself was so elaborate, with streamers and drawings and poetry and songs and just very celebratory things. And I was so surprised. It meant a lot to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The point, he said, is that sharing this kind of personal story and showing vulnerability can help others feel more connected to you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is sort of a universally relatable story, and Faith said, \u2018That\u2019s really sweet,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cAnd I asked her, \u2018Well, what about you? Who are some of the people who you love?\u2019 And she told me about her sister, and she started opening up with a story about her sister who really showed up for her right after her mother died.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barbanel-Fried shared that he could see that Faith valued \u201ccaring for others\u201d during difficult times. That\u2019s when he shifted the conversation back to politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to her, \u2018And that\u2019s what I think politics is basically about. There\u2019s a world of people who are advocating that. We don\u2019t take care of the most of the least fortunate, but I think that people like you and me and most people in the world, we care about each other.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the exchange ended with Faith saying she was now a 10 when it came to likelihood of voting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The conversations that canvassers have tend to invite \u201cauthenticity\u201d rather than a set script, said Elizabeth Eagles, a volunteer with CTC.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the types of conversations that we have, deep canvassing is leading with your humanity, rather than a specific agenda, in a way that really invites an authentic conversation with someone,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eagles came to CTC with more traditional canvassing experience. She said the flexible nature of the organization\u2019s approach also makes it stand out from other canvassing methods.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike most of the canvassing I\u2019ve done in the past, where you were really wedded to your \u2018knock\u2019 list, like you wanted to talk to the precise individual who was on your list, CTC actually encourages you to strike up a conversation if you encounter somebody on the street, so that is a sort of more organic approach,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_8369.jpeg\")
A CTC canvasser stands with a member of the community who has decided they are now a \u201c10\u201d on a scale of 1-10 in likelihood to vote (Photo courtesy of Changing the Conversation Together) <\/p>\n
Impact\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/976D76FE-485C-48EF-844F-3DC08FE60BF8_1_105_c.jpeg\")
CTC members meet to train and roleplay situations before going out to canvass (Photo courtesy of Changing the Conversation Together) <\/p>\n