Next door neighbors on both sides of the presidential race have decided to put in a little time and creativity to support their candidates this campaign season. The result are juxtaposed displays that boldly showcase the choice available to neighbors who have remained friendly despite their competing views.

It started with a single Trump 2024 sign at Tonya and Brian Boudreau’s home. Next door, while mowing the lawn in September, Sara Whitehair thought about campaign lawn signs and whether she might want to display one herself before the election.

Given where she lives in her neighborhood, Whitehair’s yard is in a good location for signs, and her family has placed various roadside signs over the years. However, in the past, Whitehair said they have struggled with disappearing signs. “We’re on a busy corner, there’s a lot of traffic,” she explained, “and a number of signs have been stolen.”

Those near Boudreau said they’ve also taken pains to keep past turf signs from being stolen or ditched.

And campaign seasons tend to be particularly popular times for lawn signs to disappear. News outlets across the country have reported in recent weeks on increases in sign theft and vandalism related to election signs. Just type “stolen campaign lawn signs” into your favorite search engine to see the nationwide shenanigans and their consequences.

Unwilling to risk losing signs, but eager to add her political message to the neighborhood, Whitehair decided to “give it big.”

Big – as in her whole house.

Just two words

Whitehair said she and her husband were already in the middle of renovations, and painting the house a shade of blue was part of the plan. On a Friday in late September, when her husband was away camping for the weekend and her daughters were going about their regular school day, she applied the first coat of blue paint to the wide side of the house. The next day, while painting the second coat, he thought about her message.

“The whole time I’ve been struggling with… do I really want to stir things up and potentially have a backlash?” she remembered.

The Boudreau family already had a banner supporting former President Donald Trump’s campaign. And that was just as Hurricane Helene, which hit the southeastern United States, was making headlines. Whitehair said the news made him fear what might happen to climate action under the Trump administration and that it “really pushes me over the edge.”

Finally, he decided to add something simple but direct in the white paint: “Vote Kamala.”

To execute the message, Whitehair’s daughter Maya, a senior at Harwood Union High School, got involved and hired some friends to help design and arrange the letters using a projector. Soon, the two-word message was scrawled on the side of the River Road house in white letters about two feet high against a royal blue background.

Both mother and daughter were proud of the effort and the result. “I really feel really strong,” Whitehair said.

During a recent visit, Whitehair stepped back to admire his work, saying it reminded him of the strategies of the Take Back Vermont campaign more than two decades ago. In the summer of 2000, the message protesting the state’s new civil union law appeared painted on barns, garages, porches and signs.

“They can say what they want, I can say what I want,” she declared.

Although Maya worried the bold step might not go down well with her father, he later posted on social media: “Can’t say I’m not proud.”

Whitehair admitted, “He was very emotional.”