Common Power Executive Director Charles Douglas called in from the streets of Nebraska today, phone in hand, walking between doors for independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn.
Nebraska is the 25th state he’s knocked doors in for Common Power since 2018. The cell signal fought us the whole hour. We dropped, reconnected, and went hunting for a pocket of reception, which is what a Live from the actual turf looks like.
Charles met Osborn at his office the day before and came away convinced he’s the real deal. He described a regular guy who talks plainly about getting money and corruption out of politics, and about farmers hurt by tariffs and the war on Iran. Charles was candid that they won’t line up on everything, immigration and taxes included. His point was that these midterms are about getting back to a government where both sides argue real positions honestly. I said that’s what building a majority takes. You won’t get a pure progressive on every ballot line, so you knock doors for independents too.
Charles said corruption has been the top issue at the doors. Voters are tying their rising costs to people in power enriching themselves. In 2024, voters debated him with Fox News talking points. This year, he says, people have made up their own minds and are seeing through the fog. I argued the con is collapsing.
In Trump’s first term, the corruption felt distant to a lot of people. Now it’s in their grocery bills; it’s in their gas prices, all while Trump brags about policies that directly hurt Americans’ bottom line. Charles made a sharp point: Democrats turned the right’s old attack on USAID and money going overseas into an argument against foreign wars. That left me asking who the America First party really is now.
Then Charles told the story of the hour. At breakfast, an older white man in his 80s sat quietly with his coffee and newspaper while the team spread out Osborn literature. As Charles got up to leave, the man thanked him for wearing his values in public. Then, eyes watering, he said quietly that there’s a lot of work this country needs to do. Charles reflected that this man lived through Jim Crow. Watching a multiracial, multigenerational team knock doors in Nebraska meant something to him that went well beyond one election. The chat was in tears.
This was my first week as Chief Media & Technology Officer at Common Power, and it’s felt like joining the Starship Enterprise. Next Friday, Charles and I make our post-election predictions. Then comes a final-weekend community event on Sunday, November 1, and an election night stream as we analyze the results. As Charles put it, the day after the election is the beginning, not the end. Ballot curing could run through the end of the year. So stay engaged.
If you want to get involved, head to commonpower.org.
