Indivisible Chicago volunteers pick up campaign literature and get their assignments in a Kenosha office building. (Photo by Bob Skolnik/for Chronicle Media)

Most political observers agree that this year’s presidential election will be decided in a handful of swing states.

Two of those states, Wisconsin and Michigan, are within easy driving distance of the Chicago area. That’s why a significant number of volunteers from Illinois, mostly Democrats, have been driving to Wisconsin and Michigan on weekends to ring doorbells and knock on doors and, when someone answers, talking to voters trying to persuade them to vote for Kamala Harris and the rest of the Democratic ticket. 

One of those volunteers is Jim Strickler from Evanston.  

“I think this is the most important election in my lifetime and I want to do what I can do to try and help Harris win,” said Strickler who has been to Wisconsin four times thus far in this election cycle.  

A group shot of the Indivisible Chicago volunteers before they head out to canvass in Kenosha. (Photo by Bob Skolnik/for Chronicle Media)

A number of progressive groups and a consortium of political organizations led by the Cook County Democratic Party have formed Operation Swing State to organize volunteers to knock on doors in Wisconsin and Michigan. The Chicago chapter of Indivisible, a progressive group founded after the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016, has also been sending volunteers to Wisconsin and Michigan for months. The numbers of volunteers have surged after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and after the Democratic National Convention.

On Sept. 14 Indivisible Chicago sent 31 canvassers to Kenosha and another 60 to Racine. On a warm, sunny late summer Saturday, the canvassers knocked on about 2,000 doors, according to Kathy Tholin, one of the organizers of the Indivisible Chicago canvassing. One of those volunteers was 69-year-old Chicago resident Kevin Limbeck, a veteran political activist who has been volunteering on campaigns since he was a teenager. 

“I’ve volunteered in many campaigns over the years,” Limbeck said. “One of the earliest and most important ones for myself and many of the folks that are canvassing now was Harold Washington’s mayoral campaign in the early 1980’s, and that was a very exciting time for many of us and we saw the value and difference that you can make as a volunteer investing some time and canvassing door to door.”  

On Sept. 14 Limbeck was ringing doorbells in Kenosha. Not too many people were home or answering their door Saturday morning and Limbeck talked to fewer than 10 people in a few hours of canvassing. But that didn’t discourage him. He knows that every contact helps and when the efforts of all the canvassers are combined it can perhaps swing a close election. 

Indivisible Chicago volunteer Kevin Limbeck canvasses in Kenosha. (Photo by Bob Skolnik/for Chronicle Media

“You have to realize that if you have 10 conversations in a two-hour period and you actually get one person to go and vote for Kamala Harris or any of the other candidates on the ballot that wouldn’t have done it otherwise and then you multiply that by 90 people that’s a huge contribution,” Limbeck said. “And if you do that every Saturday once a week for several months you’re really chalking up the numbers.” 

Limbeck said that effort is well worth his time. 

“Wisconsin is a very critical state, as well as Michigan, in terms of the presidential election, and for Chicagoans that are interested in seeing Kamala Harris win it’s a very good investment of our time and energy to make that trip,” Limbeck said. 

Donald Trump narrowly won Wisconsin and Michigan in 2016 while Joe Biden narrowly won both states in 2020. 

Canvassing with Limbeck was a woman who declined to give her name because she is job hunting and does not want potential employers to know her politics. It was only the woman’s second time canvassing. One woman she spoke to was not enthused about either major party candidate. 

“She said it was between a guy with a vendetta and a communist and she wasn’t voting,” the canvasser said. 

The canvasser said that she was volunteering because she didn’t want her two young nieces to grow without rights in a theocratic state and if they did she wanted them to know that she did what she could to stop it. 

Limbeck talks with a Kenosha resident. (Photo by Bob Skolnik/for Chronicle Media

When canvassing, the volunteers are given a route. They use a smartphone app called minivan that tells them which houses to visit and who to ask for. The app gives names, ages and rudimentary voting history of the registered voters in a household. The targeting is mostly handled by local political organizations or the Harris-Walz campaign. Saturday the canvassers from Indivisible were focused on two sorts of voters, those who have been identified as Democratic and progressive leaning who are sporadic voters and centrist ticket splitters. 

For the past few months, Indivisible Chicago has been sending volunteers to Wisconsin on one weekend and to Michigan on the next weekend. They typically go to Wisconsin on Saturdays because the organizers know that many Wisconsin residents don’t want to be bothered when they are watching the Green Bay Packers on fall Sundays. 

“We pay attention to the Packers schedule and try not to compete,” said organizer Bill Mengebier of Indivisible Chicago. “We know Sunday afternoons in Wisconsin (is) not a good time to try and get people to answer the door.” 

Soon the canvassers from Indivisible Chicago will go to Wisconsin and Michigan every weekend. 

“In October we’ll start going to both states every weekend,” Mengebier said. “So every Sunday we’ll be in Michigan, every Saturday we’ll be in Wisconsin.” 

In addition to canvassing, indivisible Chicago organizes phone banking and text banking efforts that people can do from home after a briefing and meeting typically held on Zoom. Mengebier said that Indivisible Chicago volunteers have already sent more than 1 million text messages to Michigan voters. 

The canvassing and other voter contact work has multiple purposes. One is to identify any supporters and make sure they vote. That’s typically called mobilization. The other purpose is persuasion, talking with voters who have yet to decide who to vote for. 

“We still run into a good number of people who are neutral or have questions or are looking for information,” Mengebier said. 

The work of the Indivisible volunteers is not limited to the presidential race. They also pass out literature and talk up Democratic candidates for local, state and Congressional races. 

“We’re grateful to all the folks who make the trip up and volunteer with us in Kenosha and communities across the state,” said Joe Oslund, the Communications Director of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “Our statewide organizing operation has powered us to victory in eight of our last 10 statewide races here in Wisconsin, and that operation is powered by tens of thousands of our volunteers from across Wisconsin as well as folks from across the Midwest coming together to do the work.” 

The Illinois Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment about whether they know of any Illinois Republicans volunteering in swing states.