Hillary Clinton volunteer supports a role model

Number of Offices/Paid Staff: N/A

Notable Endorsements: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed; U.S. Reps. John Lewis, David Scott and Hank Johnson; Atlanta City Councilmembers Cesar Mitchell and Kwanza Hall; Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin; Former state Sen. Jason Carter; Numerous state legislators and county officials.

Recent Visits: Clinton is set to visit Atlanta Friday for a rally to encourage early voters to get to polling places.

*Source: Federal Election Commission Reports through Dec. 31, 2015

Heading into the March 1 primary, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiled a Georgia volunteer for each of the major presidential campaigns to get a better sense of the candidates and their appeal. Today, we look at the Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. On Friday we will feature volunteers for the three top Republican campaigns.

Heading into the March 1 primary, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution profiled a Georgia volunteer for each of the major presidential campaigns to get a better sense of the candidates and their appeal. Today, we look at the Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. On Friday we will feature volunteers for the three top Republican campaigns.

She has an hour before putting dinner on the stove. Her two girls are at soccer practice, so Rebecca Baggett is heading for the phone and a list of voters to call.

This is Baggett’s first time volunteering for a political campaign, so phoning and convincing strangers to support Hillary Clinton is new to her. In her regular life, she is a program manager for the Emory Global Health Institute, which is not linked to the Clinton Global Initiative.

For the next hour, though, she’ll just be the voice on the other end of the phone, cold-calling to get you to vote for Hillary.

“Hello, I’m a volunteer for the Hillary for America campaign…”

It feels unnatural to the 47-year-old mother and wife, who lives in Virginia Highland. She worries she’s bothering people. But this is what she can do, and she wants to do what she can in between working full-time, being a wife and taking care of the girls “with all their activities.”

That feeling came over her when Clinton announced her candidacy last April. Baggett thought about what Clinton means to her - a “wicked smart” woman who’s tough, resilient and gracious, a role model she’s admired for years for breaking through stereotypes and glass ceilings.

“I’m grateful to women like her, for opening doors,” she said. She added, “I wanted to do everything to help her become elected.”

She also thought about what a Clinton presidency could mean for the country, believing it the best chance to continue Barack Obama’s legacy on health care and economic growth. On a personal note, Clinton is the only candidate Baggett has seen with a platform to address Alzheimer’s disease. That meant a lot to her, as her own mother had the early onset form of the disease.

So in April of last year, Rebecca Baggett hovered her computer mouse over the link to volunteer for the former secretary of state, and clicked. Then came the hourlong training to become a “virtual phone banker.”

Over time, she’s learned how sophisticated these campaigns have become. Each week she receives a detailed list of people to call. Sometimes it’s registered voters likely to support Hillary, other times potential volunteers. Each time, the list comes with scripted talking points geared precisely to those people.

Some people are quite willing to talk, such as one woman she reached the other day. Baggett started strong by noticing the woman had the same first name as her sister, Belinda. The woman mentioned that she and her family had already voted early for Clinton in Georgia’s March 1 primary.

More than that, the woman was planning to move to Florida, and while she could not also vote in that primary, she wanted to volunteer there. Baggett took her email address and shot it to the Georgia campaign field office, where it could be passed to volunteer coordinators in Florida.

The whole exchange took 4 minutes.

These positive calls provide her with encouragement to get through the hang-ups and the disconnected lines. She has yet to encounter someone who blasts Clinton, probably because she’s just calling Democrats. That could occur down the line, though, should Clinton win the nomination and Baggett’s phone list expands.

She’s met Clinton, just once, at a campaign event in Atlanta about a year ago. She asked her to sign a copy of Clinton’s book “Hard Choices.”

“I asked her to address the message to my two girls,” Baggett recalled.

“Oh,” Clinton said, “that’s a neat idea.”

Sometimes Baggett makes her calls while the girls are around the house. The fourth- and sixth-grader occasionally offer critiques, noticing, for instance, that their mother’s Southern accent grows stronger during the calls.

Sometimes the critiques hit harder, such as the time her eldest praised her for taking the time to elect a woman president, then added, “But it’s taking time away from me.”

This is a good day on the phone, working from the dark green couch in the family room. Baggett makes 40 calls and speaks to five people. All say they’ll vote for Clinton. Most of the other calls end with busy signals or her leaving a message. Only a handful say they’re supporting someone else.

When time’s up, Rebecca Baggett returns to her regularly scheduled life. Tonight that means broiled lemon sole with sauteed spinach and mushrooms. And pasta.