A Full Room, German Food, and the Home Stretch

Get to Know Carina

Sep 28

What. A. Night.

Nearly 60 friends, neighbors, supporters and volunteers packed the room for our Oktoberfest fundraiser. There was a lot of German food. There was a very good playlist. And there was the particular kind of noise a room makes when people actually want to be there, which is a sound I will be thinking about for a while.

I have to say something about the Oktoberfest part. My parents came here from Germany, and I grew up in a tight-knit German community right here in the northwest suburbs. German food and a loud, happy room full of people is not a theme for me. It is a Saturday at my parents' house. Getting to bring that into this campaign, in this district, with these people, meant more than I expected it to.

Thank you to everyone who came, everyone who donated, everyone who brought a friend, and everyone who has been quietly showing up for months now. Knocking doors. Making calls. Writing postcards at kitchen tables. Wearing the shirt to the grocery store.

Here's what I keep coming back to:
A campaign is not one person.

It gets talked about that way, because a name goes on a sign and a face goes on a mailer. But what actually happens is that a few hundred people decide something is worth their Wednesday night. They give an hour they did not really have. They tell one more neighbor.

That is what filled that room. Not me. Them.

We are in the home stretch now. Every week from here matters more than the last, and the work in front of us is the work that actually decides elections: conversations at doors, a friend reminding a friend, a plan to vote that people actually follow through on.

If you were in that room, thank you. If you were not, there is still plenty of room for you in what comes next.

Here's what helps most right now:

Give us an hour at a door or on the phone
Chip in (at any amount) because it all goes straight into reaching voters
Make your own plan to vote, and then tell one person what it is.

Early voting is open now, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3rd.

Thank you to everyone who continues to show up, speak up, and invest in the work of shaping our shared future. I’m deeply grateful to be on this journey with you.

Let’s finish strong.