OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Since June of last year, Tim Royers has been busy.
The 2015 Nebraska Teacher of the Year, who’s trying to take term-limited Sen. Rick Kolowski’s spot on the legislature, says he’s knocked over 7,000 doors.
“After school I’d bring a change of clothes with me and I’d throw my campaign swag on and go knock down doors for an hour or two after teaching and go back home and grade. So yeah, it was a lot of time but worth the effort,” says Royers.
Now things have changed. Instead he’s delivering as many of these postcards personally.
He's also making tons of phone calls.
“I have my headset, I call using Google Voice and just try and call as many numbers as I can. Honestly, we have a platform to try and get elected, but I also feel I have a responsibility to use that platform to just check in with people and see how they’re doing,” says Royers.
It’s been tougher for candidates like Melanie Williams. She just got into the race in March and never got the chance to formally campaign.
“Now I’m having to figure out how to get creative, use the internet, social networking, and ways like that to get my messages across,” says Royers.
Others like Alexander Martin are taking a more laid back approach - with few phone calls and no mailers.
“Just been mostly responding to special interest questionnaires, that kind of thing, just being online,” says Martin.
In fact the lack of door to door campaigning, which most candidates running for legislature or any race try to do, doesn’t concern him.
“I don’t look forward to canvassing, it’s interrupting people in their homes, their personal time, I think it’s great to respect people’s social distance and it’s great to always have that mindset,” says Martin.
For others like Royers, he already misses it.
“It’s been frustrating to me because politics is personal and I think it’s important to get in front of people and talk to them directly and let them know what you’re trying to do and also to let them know that they’re heard,” says Royers.
