Junior Elizabeth Crawford flew across the country to knock on strangers’ doors and advocate for the pro-life cause.
Despite the six blisters on my feet and the 20,000 steps I walked per day, my fall break was well-spent knocking on doors and speaking with people about pro-life gubernatorial candidates in their state.
During my time away from campus, I went on a deployment with the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life activist organization that campaigns for pro-life candidates in battleground states.
They recruit students from different colleges across the country all committed to one goal: the end of abortion in America.
Juniors Emma Burbach and Ben Kennedy, SBA’s student ambassadors at Hillsdale, recruited myself and some of my friends for the fall break deployment to Atlanta, Georgia. SBA List pays for students’ room, board, and transportation. After flying out of the Detroit airport, we arrived late Wednesday evening and found hot food waiting for us.
After falling into bed exhausted from a long day of midterms and traveling, we all got up around 7:30 a.m. to eat breakfast and learn the ropes of door-knocking.
SBA List uses an app called i360 Walk, which gathers and records people’s data, such as voting history and consumer habits. This helps political organizations, such as the SBA List, in targeting their campaign efforts to people who are either inactive or independent voters.
Our work as door-knockers involved tconducting surveys on people’s opinions on abortion and how their views on abortion would affect their vote in the upcoming election. Our hope was to inform people of the radical positions of Senator Raphael Warnock and gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams, who according to the SBA List wanted abortion access up until nine months gestation.
Herschel Walker, the GOP challenger for the Senate seat, and Governor Brian Kemp were the two candidates endorsed by the SBA List. Walker has come under fire, however, for allegations that he paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion.
The days on the trip with Susan B. Anthony List seemed identical to each other because the schedule was unvaried. I woke up around 7:30 a.m. so that I could have enough time to get dressed, and time to rest became more valuable after so much exercise.
I knew this trip would involve a lot of walking, because I had done a deployment with the SBA List before, but the hills of northern Atlanta took me by surprise.
Aside from climbing steep driveways, my interactions with the citizens of Georgia were varied. Some families were happy and supportive of the work we were doing. I met a Catholic mother of seven children who was a proud donor to both Hillsdale and the SBA List.
However, others were nervous about having their political views recorded.
When I became frustrated with people’s apathy towards the issue, I took consolation in Georgia’s beautiful weather. The sky was a robin’s egg blue, and the dappled leaves of the trees shone in the sunlight. The wraparound porches, colonial brick, and shuttered windows of Southern homes made a charming nieghborhood.
One of the members of my group, freshman Maggie McGee, expressed her disappointment with most voters’ knowledge concerning the issue of abortion.
“Beyond just what’s wrong or right, so many people don’t know truly what a late-term abortion is or that a baby is viable in the third trimester,” McGee said. “They assume all abortions to be the same in every case.”
Ella Witt, the national director of the student program, maintains a positive view on the program’s efficacy.
“So far, the Georgia deployments have been a great success,” Witt said. “Our students have already knocked on 66,000 doors in October alone. The student program is on track to reach 100,000 Georgians this month. When we share the truth of abortion extremism at the door, our efforts are effective and I know we will see that reflected on election day.”
While the polls seem to favor incumbent Brian Kemp, the polls do not look so kindly on Walker. Very few independent and Republican voters were enthusiastic supporters of him, and the enthusiastic few were so because he had former president Donald Trump’s endorsement.
When I talked to Hillsdale junior Truman Kjos the last evening of the trip, he said he was optimistic about Georgia’s future.
“I think Herschel Walker is a controversial candidate even among those who would vote Republican,” Kjos said. “I still think, however, that Republicans have a good shot at reclaiming the governor and Senate seats.”
But after a long hard day of walking up rolling hills, standing in the sunshine, and talking to strangers, nothing hit better than an eight count chicken nugget meal from Chick-Fil-A and a large sweet tea.
In the evenings I met students from different colleges as well as other Hillsdale students whose paths I had never crossed. We hung out in the lobby after the day was over, playing MadLibs and laughing till we were crying and out of breath.
Everyone agreed, though, the trip made the physical discomfort worth it. .
“I would encourage them to try something new,” Witt said. “This is a great opportunity to make a huge difference, get out of your comfort zone, and meet other like minded students from across the country.”