So, here's a story. You've heard me talk about my cousin in Arizona before. (A ton of you sewed masks & sent them to her for distribution to the local Navajo community, thank you!) Post-2016, she took a look at her AZ community & decided to get involved in local politics.

She started looking up who to talk to in her precinct, and realized that there was no Democratic precinct captain/committee member for her precinct. In fact, there were a *ton* of precincts where no one had run for the Dem. precinct. Every precinct had a GOP captain though.

For non-USians, every precinct has both a Democratic & Repubican precinct captain or committee person. They campaign on behalf of their party's candidates. Talk to voters, canvass door-to-door, share info about voting. They're critical for GOTV efforts & it's an elected position.

Precincts are tiny compared to things like counties or cities. You really get to know the voters, because they're literally your neighbors. But because it's not a role with power, a lot of precinct roles are vacant where there's a clear (or assumed) one-party advantage.

So my cousin and her husband (who had just retired) got involved. She ran for precinct captain in the next election and won. They recruited more Dems to run for these vacant precinct captain seats. They started going to local party meetings, learning the system, getting informed.