Donald Trump is now the recipient of much deserved congratulations.  He ran a hard fought campaign.  That effort started just over 18 months ago.  In that oh, so brief time period, he started as a real estate mogul and celebrity TV titan, barreled through a phase many pundits called "comic relief" in a crowded Republican field, became the Republican standard bearer, all the way to Friday January 20, at 12:01, where he was sworn in as president of these United States.

During that often chaotic journey, candidate Trump upended all the norms of his party, at one point refusing to blindly support the party's nominee when ambushed with that question during the first Republican primary debate.  He did the hard work, not writing off any segments of America.  He went into areas long "owned" by the Democratic Party – and it worked.  Donald Trump, titular head of the Republican Party, beat Hillary Clinton in enough of her own (now formerly) blue precincts, to win 304 electoral votes.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum – the folks in the trenches who do all the drudge work of a national campaign, to get their candidate elected to the highest office in the land.  One of those dedicated folks is my friend Lyn.  Lyn lives in Georgia, the state next door to mine.  Lyn got seriously involved in politics for the first time during this election. 

From the time Mr. Trump rode his escalator down and announced his candidacy, Lyn was on the Trump train.  I, however, was a slow learner, initially hitching my wagon first to Rick Perry and, after he departed, to Ted Cruz before finally succumbing to the inevitable.  Lyn and I exchanged regular and friendly barbs back and forth during the primaries.  But while I limited my participation in the process to voting in my primary and the general election and penning the occasional political article, Lyn dove in head-first into her local party organization, readily volunteering for the hard work involved.

In addition to working her full-time job at the Home Depot, Lyn, like all the other volunteers (you know that allegedly absent "ground game?"), willingly gave up her personal time to man phones, walk neighborhoods, put up signs, address envelopes, lick stamps, and all the other thankless tasks that go into a successful campaign.  The pundits spent a lot of ink, both real and digital, on high-level political topics like "analytics" and "ground game" and "micro targeting" and "turnout models," but ultimately, it was folks like Lyn who saw something in a candidate that excited a passion – a passion to do more than just (if not too inconvenient) walk into a voting booth and flip a lever on Election Day.

In closing, I would encourage every one of you who today is grateful that we dodged the bullet and that Donald Trump is now president to take the time to find one of your friends or associates who worked on the local or state campaign for Mr. Trump and go shake his hand and say, "Thank you."  And by the way, Miss Lyn...thank you.

Mike Ford is a sometime contributor to American Thinker who is frequently edited by his lovely bride, a retired high school principal.  Mike is profoundly grateful to all those who volunteer their time to make this great Republic of ours a better place.