Finnish Dems are now knocking on doors for Kamala Harris – One thing made Americans’ “lips turn round” –

The Finnish social democrats are campaigning in the last few meters in the United States Horrible Harris on behalf of. This is done by knocking on voters’ doors and making phone calls.

SDP’s organizational secretary responsible for municipal and regional affairs Kimi Uosukainen says that the purpose of the trip is for Democrats to learn from Harris’s campaign team about doing election work and meeting voters.

There are 40 SDP members on the trip, including the party secretary Mikkel Näkkäläjärvithe party’s vice-chairman and member of parliament Niina Malm and regional election officers. They were in New Hampshire for the weekend and moved back to Boston for the beginning of the week.

– We are looking for learning experiences here, which we will start refining towards next spring’s regional and municipal elections and the 2027 parliamentary elections, says Uosukainen.

More personal

According to Uosukainen, when the Finnish Dem has been revealed to American voters from behind the door, the reception has been 95 percent positive.

– Then there is the group that says no thanks and have a good day, and very individual cases where things don’t necessarily go so well, Uosukainen says. By this he refers to harsh tones or argumentative conversations.

– In this case, we have thanked for the time and continued the journey.

According to Niina Malmi, the biggest difference in campaigning in the US compared to Finland is that voters are met even more personally instead of “storming the market”.

This means handwritten letters, door knocking and phone calls. Malm says that he plans to use the creation of a “personality stamp” more in election campaigning in Finland in the future.

According to Malmi, it has also been useful to take the example of the Americans in how hard they are to “talk” with the voters.

Calling experience

Malmi has experience in visiting citizens’ doors and especially in calling campaigns in Finland as well. She conducted the last parliamentary elections largely by telephone, because she could not get to the election tents due to her breast cancer treatments.

However, the difference from the Americans’ calling tactics was that the people whom Malm called had first visited his election tent and left their contact information so that Malm could contact them.

While campaigning for Harris, Malm has called Americans who have not been able to wait for his call.

Malm says that he expected in advance that there would probably be something to talk about in foreign policy and NATO membership. It was the other way around.

“Those who watched with a round lip”

Malm says that he was surprised by how the same and everyday themes are repeated in the concerns of American and Finnish voters.

– I was surprised how strongly health care emerges from so many directions.

– When I’ve talked to people here about health care and told them that I myself have had breast cancer and what it cost me in Finnish public health care, they’ve really looked at me in awe.

According to Malmi, many locals have been worried about whether they will receive treatment despite the insurance and how big the final bill will be. According to Malmi, the Americans who spoke with him had a clear message for the Finns:

– Don’t let it slide here, Malm describes.

Also the chairman of SDP’s party council, the deputy mayor of Turku Maid Elon according to the locals have been interested in hearing how things are in Finland.

– It came up quite strongly that you in Finland should be more careful not to get into such a situation, and stick to your Finnish democracy, education and health care, says Elo.

“Pretty harsh wording”

According to Elo, the Finnish Democrats’ campaigning has been mostly well received. He guesses that the reason is that calls in the United States can be better profiled than in Finland, so that the calls are likely to be directed to those who supported the Democrats in the past.

– Of course there have been those who are very disappointed. Inflation has been really hard here and it has driven people away from voting for Democrats. There have been some pretty harsh words on the phone about it, Elo says.

Elo says that he is surprised that the Americans have not seemed concerned about climate change or wanted to discuss it at all.

The chairman of Demarinuorten Emilia Kangaskolkan also by going through the doors, it is possible to select the kind of people who are the most potential democrats in the United States. Kangaskolkka thinks that this has contributed to the fact that the reception at the doors has generally been good.

– We’re not really trying to convert anyone, but we’re making sure that ours get going.

Kangaskolkka states that a similar division of voters in Finland would not be successful for data protection reasons.

“Shouting and joking”

On Saturday, Elo and Kangaskolkka were waving Harris signs at a busy roundabout at a “rally” campaign event.

– The cars would work if they paid, and some people shouted back, Elo says.

According to Kangaskolka, there were also Trump supporters around them.

– There was yelling and joking in that context, but not otherwise, he says.

They have not come across aggressive behavior while campaigning, although the deep division between Trump and Harris supporters has been noticeable according to both.

Have a long day

SDP started visiting citizens’ doors for the 2015 parliamentary elections, and now, according to Uosukainen, the party wanted to see in practice how campaigning from the United States works. In the past, SDP has gone on similar study tours in Sweden and Great Britain.

According to Uosukainen, in the last few meters Harris’s campaign is trying not only to convince especially the supporters of the Libra states to go to the ballot box, but also to map out whether Harris still has latent supporters who have not been reached before.

Because of this, according to Uosukainen, even the Finnish democrats spend a long time campaigning for Harris. They plan to knock on people’s doors even on election day, i.e. tomorrow, Tuesday.

The Democrats can’t copy everything from the United States to Finland. For example, offering car rides to polling stations is not possible in Finland, because campaigning is prohibited on election day in Finland.

– In the post-analysis, of course, we look to see if there is something that does not fit the multi-party system or the proportional election method, says Uosukainen.