Riding Hills for Hillary

On Sep. 6, four cyclists embarked on a 3,000 mile journey across the country in order to get involved and spread enthusiasm about Hillary Clinton’s campaign.Riding Hills for Hillary, a group created by James Daudon, Meredith Bird, Ben Feldman and Mike Bienkowski, supported Hillary Clinton but knew that her presidency was not guaranteed. They made it their mission to travel to a number of swing states including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada. They became involved with townspeople, local news stations, campaign offices and even created their own bike parades. According to Ben Feldman and Mike Bienkowski, they wanted to demonstrate political excitement while helping Clinton’s campaign and engaging in meaningful conversation.“We really wanted to do something that was taking action as opposed to just using words,” Bienkowski said.Prior to the trip, the members of the cyclist group had interest in participating in both political and recreational activities. But once they brought the ideas together, they began a form of campaigning that hadn’t really been done before.   “A lot of us were interested in supporting the campaign,” Feldman said. “And doing a big bike trip is something that we have thought of independently before. Meredith Bird had the geniusness to combine the idea of doing a bike trip while campaigning for Hillary. We thought that this would be a great way to see a lot of the country and support her campaign and her platform in a way that could add a little more youthful energy.”The group of millennials departed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire with a loose concept of where they wanted to go, but an intention to visit as many swing states as possible. They initially planned on completing their trip in San Francisco, but due to undesirable weather conditions, they finished in Santa Monica on Nov. 14. The group was welcomed into the home of Samo student Eleanor Winterer (‘20) whose family is friends cyclist Meredith Bird.“Getting to Santa Monica was really amazing,” Bienkowski said. “The last few days in California we went through some really dramatic terrain—we went over the San Bernadino and San Gabriel mountains. Getting up to the tops of those mountains and being able to coast downhill knowing that we had made it was really an incredible feeling.” Before the election results were announced and Donald Trump became our President-elect, the cyclists were campaigning in Las Vegas. The news was difficult for them to receive.“We were in Las Vegas on Tuesday night and we were expecting to have a big victory party and it was a pretty shocking night,” Bienkowski said. “The day after it was really hard to start biking again. It was one of those days where no one really talked. Everyone was just kind of lost in their own thoughts.”Feldman noticed that, although the results of the election were disheartening, the group was determined to finish what they started.“We left on Nov. 9, and biked through the Mojave,” Feldman said. “I think all of us were feeling a little discouraged after the election. But we set out to do a coast to coast bike trip and we had every intention of finishing it.”Despite the outcome of the election, the trip still remained a rewarding experience for all the cyclists.“Definitely the most rewarding part of the trip has been being in so much of the country and having the opportunity to talk to folks whose political attitudes are very different than my own,” Feldman said. “Our country is extremely polarized and people tend to live and grow an ideological bubble. So it was cool to get out of the liberal bubble that I grew up in.”Bienkowski also found it to be very beneficial to talk to people whose political opinions differed from his own.“We did really hear criticisms of the liberal platform which were valid and which made us think really hard,” Bienkowski said. “It was an eye-opening part of the trip.”The cyclists believe one benefit is that many millennials have gotten more involved in politics and the voting process. “A lot of millennials are kind of apathetic about politics.” Bienkowski said, “We wanted to change that.”