SEIU Healthcare Michigan Helps Lift Obama in Ohio

SEIU Healthcare Michigan also sent member activists to Ohio to reinforce the Obama campaign.

Vernette Mahone is a Detroit homecare worker who first became active with the local in 2004 during a first-contract campaign.  After working in the SCHIP campaign in 2007 as well as a statewide universal-healthcare initiative on the Michigan ballot this year, she was an experienced political organizer by the time she got to Cleveland in February.

"Working for Obama in Cleveland was an amazing experience. The weather was brutal--very cold, lots of snow--and I'm from Michigan. But this is about making change, so you can't let things like weather bother you. We knocked on doors from 9 am to 8:30 at night.

"I really like Sen. Obama. I think his healthcare plan is real. And I believe he is really sincere about making change. But he knows he can't do it by himself. He used to be a community organizer so he knows he needs the help of people like us.  I'm passionate about being part of making it happen. This is for my kids and grandkids."

Vernette was partnered up in Ohio with Karen Kirkland, an LPN, also from Detroit. But unlike Mahone, this was Kirkland's first political campaign. "I had no idea what to expect when I went to Cleveland. I had no experience at this but it was very profound.

"I really believe in Senator Obama and his health plan and I think it really comes from his heart," she says. "I'll do anything or go anywhere for this campaign until we put him in the White House. This is an historic election. It really is time for a change and we're going to make it happen."