Legislative campaigns adapt to coronavirus

Campaigning for the primary election, coming up in May, looks a lot different this year.

Campaigning for the primary election, coming up in May, looks a lot different this year.

Brenda Bickford recently announced she is running for Legislature in District 27, in West Lincoln. She and her team were quick to come up with a neighborhood drive-by.

“We knew we had to get creative and we wanted to come up with something that would make people happy and smile at the same time and that’s important but in these times I think it’s even more important right now,” said Bickford.

Bickford is running against Senator Anna Wishart. The incumbent says she has used social media a lot more and like many of us are doing, communicating virtually.

“We stopped door knocking and turned everything to phone banking so I’ve made thousands of personal calls myself,” said Wishart. “I call every day, I call about 20 hours a week.”

In just month, Wishart and her team have made 30,000 individual calls to connect with her District 27 neighbors. Both Wishart and Bickford agree that they really miss the face to face conversations.

Bickford and her team have now done drive-by’s four different times. The response they hear back from people is very positive.

“We’ve had people comment on my Facebook page, asking us to come do it again in there area and ask them when we will come so the kids could be out and just all ages are smiling, laughing and dancing,” said Bickford.

Aside from phone calls, Wishart is looking to have Zoom calls available for Nebraskans and Lincolnites so they can schedule meetings with her about issues that are important to them.

“I don’t have anything to really complain about, I think in this really challenging time there are still opportunities to individually connect with people,” said Wishart.

The primary election is on May 12th and voters are encouraged to vote by mail.