Local elections are decided by dozens of votes. Meet the canvasser who's been proving it every weekend in Maine, and learn how easy it is to do the same.
Hey Everyone!
Digital Ground Game is excited to announce that the latest winner of the monthly DGG Political Action Award is: UltraFridge!
The DGG Political Action Award is a community-led award intended to highlight members who have done significant real-life political work. Winners receive a Discord shoutout, a pinned Reddit post, an article in the Pragmatic Papers, and a special role on the Digital Ground Game Discord server!
If you’d like to nominate yourself or others for this award, fill out the form here: Nomination Form
The award committee selected UltraFridge for his tireless weekend canvassing work in Maine, his direct contributions to multiple razor-thin local election victories, and his commitment to making canvassing more approachable and accessible for younger members of the community.
Who Is UltraFridge?
There's a certain kind of person who, when things get bad enough, stops doom-scrolling and starts doing. UltraFridge is that kind of person.
A longtime member of the DGG community, going back to the JonTron era, UltraFridge spent years like a lot of us: politically aware, increasingly alarmed, but unsure what "getting involved" actually looked like in practice.
His political awakening, as he calls it, came on January 6th. What he watched unfold that day, and the months of reckoning that followed, left him with a slow-burning conviction that he needed to be one of the people who actually showed up. Not metaphorically. Physically.
By January 2026, that conviction had him enrolled in political science courses. Then everything happened at once. ICE raided Minnesota's Somali communities and simultaneously hit Lewiston and Portland, Maine — both cities he calls home. Alex Pretti and René Goode were shot. U.S. forces invaded Venezuela. It was, in his words, "whiplash."
Sitting in an accelerated poli sci course while all of that was happening outside felt like a waste. He joined the Digital Ground Game server, and almost immediately found himself being asked by Cody: Do you live in Maine?
He's been canvassing every weekend since.
We recognized UltraFridge with the DGG Political Action Award — though he almost didn't accept it. "I'm a behind-the-scenes kind of guy," he told us.
He saw it as an opportunity to make canvassing feel more approachable for others who might be on the fence. We sat down with him to talk about what the work actually looks like, what it's accomplished, and what he'd say to someone who wants to do something but hasn't yet.
A Conversation With UltraFridge
Sixpaths: Early 2026 was a lot — the ICE raids, the murders of René Goode and Alex Pretti, the invasion of Venezuela. You mentioned these events hit close to home for you. Can you walk us through what that felt like and why it pushed you to act?
UltraFridge: "Lewiston has a pretty heavy Somali population, and Portland does too. They invaded both at the same time — both cities that are basically my home.
And I'm sitting there with my nose buried in a textbook, just kind of pretending it wasn't happening. It was really, really distracting. I felt like I have the talent, I have the skills to pitch in and do something, and I was just kind of letting them go to waste."
Sixpaths: Maine isn't the first state that comes to mind when people think about competitive politics. What's it actually like on the ground there?
UltraFridge: "Maine is really not as blue as people tend to think. Most of Maine is very, very red — all of the blue areas are Portland and a few other towns. What isn't red is very purple.
By design, a lot of the canvassing I've done has been pretty friendly. When you go canvassing, unless you're doing persuasion doors, you're going to pull up, you're going to have an established route of doors — people that are at worst undecided, but mostly pretty consistent Dem voters.
That said, even then, the guy I've been canvassing for most recently is in a very, very red district. The blue people that I do talk to are probably feeling very alone where they are, and they'll just have so much to get off their chest, because someone's finally listening to them."
Sixpaths: You mentioned that people in red districts sometimes just want to vent to a friendly Democrat voice. What kinds of things are coming up when you're actually at someone's door — what's on people's minds?
UltraFridge: "It kind of depends. You can tell the people that are pretty engaged with local politics versus the people that are tunnel-visioned on federal politics — which was me for a very, very long time.
A lot of people have a lot to vent about Donald Trump, the war in Iran, the price of gas, the ICE raids. There was a bill that passed in the state Congress to severely hamper our law enforcement's coordination and cooperation with ICE. It was on Janet Mills' desk, and she just didn't sign it.
By her not signing it, it went into effect at a later date — after ICE had already come and gone. Whereas if she'd signed it, it would have gone into effect before they'd gotten here.
People bitch about that quite a lot, rightfully. And I'm not even joking — I don't think I've met more than a couple people that like her. It's crazy."
Sixpaths: You mentioned you got into this because Cody happened to reach out in the Discord. For someone who isn't already in that server, how do they find their way to canvassing?
UltraFridge: "I would recommend reaching out to the HDCC for your state — the House Democratic Campaign Committee, or the Senate campaign committee. These are the people running the campaigns.
You could be working directly with a campaign manager, and they'll point you at a local race and say, 'Hey, we're falling behind in this area, it would be awesome if you could go knock on doors.' They'll meet you there, probably go knocking with you. You download an app, plug in a route, and you just follow it — 30 doors in two, three hours.
And if you go canvassing one time, you're already like one of the best in their eyes. If you go a second time, you are a superstar. The bar is that low, unfortunately. So they will bend over backwards to keep you and make it as easy as possible.
If you're in the server, I would strongly recommend going to your regional channel and just saying, 'Hey, who's in my state, who's nearby, who wants to go canvassing with me?' Having someone your age and similarly-minded alongside you makes an astronomical difference. It turns it from a boring thing to slog through on your weekend to something you actually look forward to."
Sixpaths: You've described yourself as a behind-the-scenes person. How does someone like that end up good at knocking on strangers' doors every weekend?
UltraFridge: "I think it's more just something that I have a knack for, mostly due to my professional and volunteer experience. I've worked in intake for subsidized housing — all the worst calls you could imagine. I've worked in training, community service, a lot of client-facing roles where I preferred to be more behind the scenes, but by nature of that experience I've just gotten good at talking to random people.
I could never picture myself running for office — I'm not wired for that kind of thing. But canvassing is just the easiest step. I want to get involved, I want to help out, we need people knocking on doors.
One of the guys I canvassed for, Scott Harriman — he's a political nerd, not a put-on-a-face-for-the-cameras guy. And I was next to him when they announced he won, and I shook his hand and was like, 'You ready to do this again in a few months?' And it looked like the blood just drained from his face. I felt that.
I wouldn’t do it myself, ever. But what I do — I enjoy doing something impactful, I enjoy being involved and feeling like I'm doing something that is actually meaningfully important."
Sixpaths: You mentioned before that one of the races you canvassed for was won by around 50 votes, which is an incredibly thin margin. When you see numbers like that, how do you think about the direct impact that you and the other canvassers had on the outcome?
UltraFridge: "So I've mainly been canvassing for two people. The guy who flipped a red district in 2024 won by about 50 votes. The special election in February — Scott Harriman — was somewhere between 40 and 90 votes, a razor thin margin. In the previous election for that same district the person won by like 16 points, and this one won by five. So it was a heavy swing red.
When you see how thin the margins are for local state representative elections, it is very, very easy to do the math in your head. I can knock on 30 doors and maybe reach 50 people in three hours — most of my routes have been on average 30 doors, about two and a half hours. Do that a few weekends in a row, and you have had an actual serious impact on that election.
And given the minuscule number of people that are even canvassing at all, it is huge just to do anything. Most of the time, the only people canvassing are going to be the candidate and the campaign manager. For the Lewiston special election, Ken Martin — the DNC chair — came down personally, and he drew a lot of people. On a day like that, when you have ten or twelve people knocking on doors and you win by 50 or 60 votes — yeah, it is critically important."
Sixpaths: What's the biggest misconception people have about what canvassing actually requires?
UltraFridge: "I would guess people generally have the impression that you're going to need to argue with people, or be super persuasive. That is a different type of canvassing — persuasion doors — where you're going to independent doors, households that kind of vote Democrat one year and Republican the next.
But generally speaking, when you're canvassing, you are just knocking on friendly doors. People will sometimes be unfriendly because they don't want to be bothered or they just don't like politicians. But by and large, the overwhelming majority of people you'll speak to will be friendly.
And more than trying to convince them of something, you're more so just putting something on their radar — usually something that will already be important to them, and they will appreciate you notifying them of it. It is much, much less combative than people would think. It's a pretty good time."
Sixpaths: What does a good script look like for someone just starting out?
UltraFridge: "Part of it will just come from observing. At the start, I would hope you get put with a buddy who you can go knocking on doors with as a pair — someone with much more experience. You can just observe, smile, be a pretty face for a bit, but pay attention.
Listen to what they're doing, get a feel for the types of questions people ask, what comes off as rigid versus not. It is very, very easy for us — people consuming political media and talking about politics all day — to use poli sci language when you really just want to come across as a normal person knocking on doors for your buddy. Very casual, very down to earth.
You’ll always be rigid for a while, the first day or two, the first few doors. But it’s definitely the kind of thing that just comes with time.
For me, I'll say something like: 'I'm knocking on doors for my buddy — he's the current sitting representative in this district. Are you familiar with him?' If they say no, I rattle off two or three things I think are important. The guy I've been canvassing for most recently is a union leader for electricians — his whole thing is electricity bills and trades. Very easy for people to connect with immediately.
Then I lean into whatever the purpose is that day: get out the vote, raise awareness, or sometimes I'm getting qualified contributions for the Clean Election Fund, where if you give five bucks, it becomes $110 from the state. It depends on the person, the candidate, the area. The more you do it, the more you move away from literally what's written on the pamphlet you're holding."
Sixpaths: What would you say to someone reading this who wants to do something but hasn't yet?
UltraFridge: "Just give it a shot. Go into the server, join if you haven't, and just say, 'Hey, I'm from this state, I would like to get knocking on doors. Is there anybody nearby that can help me out, or that wants to maybe do this with me?' Do it once. Hopefully do it twice. You'll see how easy it is, how meaningful it is, how actually impactful it is.
Because coming off of 2025 and a lot of 2026, it’s very, very easy to spiral. That was me for most of 2025, and to a degree that is still me. The only way I'm not is by just simply not paying as much attention to federal politics — because holy fuck, you want to drink bleach sometimes.
But it’s so easy to just disconnect, go outside, touch grass, talk to people, and look at the numbers. A handful of hours on your Saturday. Actual real impact. I strongly encourage you guys to just give it a shot."
If you want to get involved in canvassing, join the DGG political action server and head to your regional channel. You can also reach out directly to your state's House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC) or Senate Democratic Campaign Committee.
You don't need experience. You don't need to know everything. You just need to show up.