Grassroots Campaigning to Save the Best of America

By: Elizabeth Powell

In the wake of the social justice protests this summer, 34 year-old Walter Kerr ‘20 , a graduate from SIPA’s Executive Masters in Public Administration program, began volunteering at the grassroots level of the Biden-Harris campaign. A few months later, he quit his job to support the campaign full time, without pay. What began as a part-time commitment evolved into an all-consuming mission: get Joe Biden into the White House.  

Until then, Mr. Kerr worked at Zenysis Technologies, an international development startup that helps governments aggregate health data to inform government decisions. Previously, he served for seven years as a Foreign Service Officer.

Mr. Kerr went from having daily conversations with foreign health ministers as Zenysis’s global director for emergency response to organizing local U.S. fundraisers, voter registration drives, and phone banks as simply a passionate citizen spearheading the grassroot campaign effort.  

In the comfort of my apartment in the Upper East Side, I ‘met’ Mr. Kerr via Zoom in Soho at the local WeWork, his de facto office as the Biden campaign has no formal headquarters for volunteers. In his words, he is working ‘rogue.’ We discussed why he feels that this election will be the ultimate test of American institutions and how organizing at the grassroots level is empowering the Biden-Harris campaign in creative ways. 

Below is the edited and condensed version of my ninety minute conversation with Mr. Kerr. 

Walter Kerr,

What were you doing before volunteering for the Biden-Harris campaign? 

At Zenysis, we realized, before the Trump administration, that Covid was going to become a major problem, beyond China. Our CEO asked if I would be the Global Director for Emergency Response. Which was basically asking, how do we get a company to refocus its efforts to doing everything possible to support countries' responses to Covid. The global health community was scrambling to combat a new disease area.

In the beginning, it was a lot of outreach, calling up countries and saying that we could help them with real time analytics. Then, I was the person negotiating those agreements and putting them together. 

Our network with other organizations, like The Global Fund, the Gates Foundation, Gavi Alliance, etc., also recommended our services. In something like a week period, we had roughly thirty countries contacting us for help with their data problems--how to request resources and how much to request. That was an intense experience. 

Why did you begin volunteering?

I was in New York City during the George Floyd protests, and I could see from my apartment window the people marching and the police response. I walked in a couple of protests too, and I think there was an awakening. I was reminded of how much is at stake and embarrassed that I was on the sidelines. 

After working in the Foreign Service for seven-plus years, I adopted an instinct to not be overtly political. I almost never posted my political views on social media. As long as I was a government employee, I had been committed to this idea that civil servants should be nonpartisan actors. 

The Black Lives Matter movement showed me how much more work we have to do on civil rights issues. It also showed how much people are committed to change, and reminded me of how little I was doing. It was a wake up call that I had to get more engaged. It was as much about civil rights as it was about every other issue that I feel is going in the wrong direction. 

What concerns you most about what is at stake in the upcoming election? 

To borrow from Joe Biden, the soul of the nation is at stake. What concerns me the most about Donald Trump is his disregard for the rule of law and our institutions--what makes our whole system work. The Supreme Court doesn’t have an army or a police force to enforce its policies. We all just believe in the system.  

There have been past presidents that I have disagreed with and wanted to see the other party reverse the policy. But Donald Trump repeatedly attacks our trust in the media and free press; the trust that our judiciary is impartial; the trust that the FBI and the police community is not politicized. Once you lose that trust it takes a generation to get it back. It is not something you can just pass a law and change. 

When did you decide to focus on volunteering full-time?

I took a week off after this crazy Covid time at Zenysis. I was already volunteering part-time for the campaign, but when I came back, I couldn’t focus on my day job. There was immediacy of the need. It wasn’t something you could put off. I also really enjoyed the work. 

Were you afraid to quit your job at Zenysis? 

It’s always a hard decision to give up a livelihood for something that is uncertain. I’m fortunate in that I have a very supportive girlfriend and had put away some savings. But the financial piece aside, there’s always the anxiety of giving up something you enjoyed doing. 

In general, when people are evaluating risks, I think we tend to overstate the downsides, and we don’t appreciate enough of the potential positives. As a result of leaving my job and what I’m doing now, I’ve met hundreds of people, and I’ve been able to do different kinds of work. God forbid things go south in November, I just know things will work out.

But it’s hard for me to say that without reflecting on enormous privilege too, because some people have justifiable trepidations. I know that this idea that everything will just work out is not always true, but I do think that as long as you spend your time helping others, it eventually comes around. 

Do you think there are similarities between your sense of service to join the State Department and volunteer for the campaign?

I really believe that there are problems that only governments can solve. There’s a reason why we have social safety nets, and why we need to know that if you lose your job, you’re not going to be homeless. If you get sick, you’ll receive good healthcare. When you retire, you can have a high quality of life. That you’re not fending for yourself. 

What Trump is creating is a kleptocracy. He is dismantling programs that are helping the most vulnerable in the country. And we have an increasingly unequal country, which means we need these services more than ever in recent history. 

Yes, I think it is still service to elect someone who will fight to protect all of us. Do we think America should be a country where everyone fends for themselves? And the rich are better equipped to do it, and if you’re poor, you’re screwed? Or should we have a country where people can take chances to get ahead, because they know that if they fail they will still be ok. I do think it is an act of service to make sure that we elect Joe Biden.

What does it mean to volunteer at the grassroots level of the campaign, especially during a pandemic? 

I think the campaign is doing a really good job at getting creative and adapting. They talk a lot about “distributed organizing.” You know, talking to a friend, and then getting that friend to organize on their own. 

One of the things I did was organize a fundraiser with Representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut.  The campaign didn’t need to be involved or sign off on it. They gave us a contribution link, and we used Zoom. We sent emails. We are captured RSVPs via Google forms. Technology has allowed people to be super scrappy. 

What does a typical day for you look like? 

Now I am helping to organize a voter registration drive. We have arranged for a six-piece brass band to perform at this supermarket in Philly. I spent an hour or more on the phone with the other two people who are organizing this, going down the checklist of what we need. 

It’s a pretty diverse neighborhood with a Latino community and a Middle Eastern community. So we are trying to track down literature in both Arabic and Spanish on where to register to vote. One guy is taking care of the band. I am in charge of finding other volunteers who speak Spanish and finding people to donate their tablets. Pennsylvania is cool because you can register to vote online. We have someone bringing a Wifi hotspot. 

The vast majority of the work I’m doing is pretty grunt. It’s a ton of logistics. Volunteering is not glamorous. It’s just this constant stream of tasks that need to get done.

By the end of the day, you don’t know what you did, but you were certainly busy. Not until a week or two later, you realize that you got fifty new people to give fifty bucks, or recruited one hundred people to make phone calls. So you can reflect and think, we did something to make a difference.

How is fundraising going? 

I’ve been able to raise money, but it’s been through little contributions. I read up on the campaign finance laws, and then the campaign basically said, “Here are some tools. Go forth.” 

I’ve raised a little more than 200,000 so far. 

People are fired up. My younger brother texted me the other day wanting to give, and he’s a college student. That feeling is palpable, where people feel like they have to do whatever they can to help. 

Do you ever find that asking people for money is awkward?  

No, because I really believe in the cause, and for the most part, I’m calling people who I suspect feel the same way. If they can’t help financially, they can do a phone bank. Everybody wants to help. They just want to be asked. It’s really a matter of picking up the phone, calling people, telling them why you are involved, and asking them to get involved too.  

Beyond your concerns about another Trump presidency, do you think Joe Biden would be a good president?

One of the reasons why I think Biden is a good candidate is because he has an ability to bring people together. Given how polarized we are, I think that’s so important. I also think Kamala Harris is really exciting, and about as strong a leader as you could have.

But I think they’ve gone beyond showing how bad this administration has been and moved to the next step to articulate an exciting potential future.

November 3 is looming. How do you feel about the campaign’s momentum? 

I feel pretty good. The question for me is about disinformation. I worry Trump will generate real anxieties in this country and create a real test for the system. I worry he will sow so  much doubt and skepticism among his followers that a significant amount of the country is unwilling to accept the results.

So the thing I worry most about is not actually Joe Biden winning. It’s the same distrust of the system we have seen build over the last four years. 

I feel like Trump has taken a nail to this glass, and he has just been chiseling at it. We have these fractures across the glass, and I worry that if he has four more years he is going to smash through and our institutions will go with it. And it will become very hard to resurrect them. 

It’s why we need a new president. But I feel like we have enough momentum now. It’s sufficiently different from 2016. We will win. 

Elizabeth Powell is a second year EMPA student studying Management and Innovation. She currently works at the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former U.S. Naval officer.