Morgan Harper, a House candidate for Ohio’s Third District speaks during the United For Access Press Event at Otterbein University in October.
Duane Prokop/Getty Images
“This is all very new,” Morgan Harper said.
It was Tuesday afternoon, a day that was supposed to have been a milestone for her. Since July 1, Harper has been running to oust incumbent Rep. Joyce Beatty in Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District. She’s a member of the second wave of progressive young women—following Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley—bypassing the traditional route into high-level politics to stand as a viable challenger to a Democratic incumbent.
But late the night before, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine closed polling sites, extending the state’s primary to June. The health department deemed it too risky to send voters and poll workers into crowded public balloting during the coronavirus outbreak.
Now, in the midst of a pandemic, Harper has turned her campaign into a conduit of public health information. Rather than urging constituents to get to the polls, the campaign is talking to those who are concerned about contracting COVID-19 and relaying advice to them.
As the outbreak forced campaigns across the country to shift from door-knocking to digital and other forms of distance communication—such as phone-banking, text-messaging and social media—Harper’s team found itself fielding questions and concerns about coronavirus from the people it contacted. By the end of last week, they were adding information from state officials and the CDC to their scripts.
“It absolutely changed our operations,” said Iyla Shornstein, the field director for Harper’s campaign.
And while many communities will feel the brunt of this pandemic, for areas like the Third District —particularly in Columbus—the disparate impact could be overwhelming. The district is predominantly Black, a result of gerrymandering by the state’s GOP. The area is plagued with high poverty rates, low wages and a number of health disparities, including being home to the state’s lowest life expectancy and asthma rates that are worse than the national average. All of these factors heighten the chance of adverse outcomes for constituents.
“Right now, it’s about prioritizing everybody’s health,” said Harper.
The campaign had always begun its voter contact, whether calling or door-knocking, by asking the person what issue mattered to them. Shornstein said that before last week, the people would typically bring up health care, gentrification, or housing. But even during the state’s early voting period, Harper said she’d heard residents express concern about the upcoming election because they have an illness that puts them at greater risk should they contract COVID-19.
Canvassers stopped knocking on doors on Saturday and fully transitioned to phone banking, social media and text messaging alerts. The primary goal was to communicate directives put forward by state officials to the constituents, said Shornstein, as well as present a full array of options on how to cast ballots, including early and absentee voting.
Soon, Harper’s campaign was hearing a substantial amount of confusion from constituents on the phone. All libraries in the city of Columbus were closed on Friday and by Sunday DeWine had issued an order barring all bars and restaurants from opening to the public. Residents were beginning to ask if this election was even going to happen.
“As the virus accelerated so did people’s first concern out of the gate,” said Shornstein. “What we were hearing at the door shifted overnight.”
Anyone who registered to vote by February 18 will be eligible to vote by mail, obtain an absentee ballot by May 26 or vote in-person on June 2, according to information released by the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.
“There’s certainly been a lot of new parts of this experience as a first time candidate and as a grassroots campaign. But the whole way through we’ve been nimble,” said Harper. “We adjust and the priority … in this moment is making sure everybody in our community gets to lead a stable life—including in the midst of a global health pandemic.”
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