On a sunny Saturday morning last weekend, Annissa Essaibi George stepped out of her SUV and made her way toward her Grove Hall office.The Blue Hill Avenue space, a dollar store in a previous life, now had tables with campaign literature. Kevin Peterson, the founder of the New Democracy Coalition, unlocked the door and guided her to a table stacked with packets for canvassing voters as volunteers trickled in behind them. That day, the volunteers planned to focus on Roxbury’s Ward 12 and the areas of Ward 14 in Dorchester before shifting down to Mattapan.

Early voting was already underway, and both Essaibi George, a councillor at-large from Dorchester, and her opponent, City Councillor At-Large Michelle Wu of Roslindale, are focusing on communities of color.

“It’s a lot of work to get through the next nine days, but I’m confident we’ll do it,” Essaibi George told the volunteers.

The 47-year-old Essaibi George is a happy warrior on the trail these days despite public polls showing her down by a wide margin and her opponent racking up endorsements on a near-daily basis. Just that morning, the Boston Globe, whose editorial board had backed City Councillor Andrea Campbell in the September preliminary, ran an editorial endorsing Wu for mayor. Then, just before an afternoon mayoral forum at Morning Star Baptist Church, Wu’s camp released a list of clergy throwing their support behind her campaign.

Annissa Essaibi George greeted supporters gathered outside Le Foyer, a popular Haitian American bakery in Mattapan Square on Sat., Oct. 23. Gintautas Dumcius photo

For Essaibi George and Wu, the Saturday was packed with forums in Roxbury and Mattapan, adding to a grueling schedule as they launched themselves across the city searching for votes. The day ended for both with a debate on Black men and youth issues at the Museum of African American History on Beacon Hill.

Hours earlier and 18 miles away in Grove Hall, Essaibi George took questions from the crowd of volunteers as staffers laid out a spread of Dunkin’ coffee and doughnuts behind her. She ticked through her biography: Former East Boston High School teacher. Owner of the Stitch House yarn shop in Dorchester. City councillor since 2016.

She then turned to her $100 million plan “to dismantle racism,” with some of the money going toward down payment assistance for families. “We know racism exists in all of our systems,” she said.

She took several more questions from supporters, talked to a TV cameraman looking for a soundbite, and then headed back to the SUV and off to the African and Muslim community forum in Roxbury.

About two dozen people had filtered into the Residence Inn conference room as Said Abdikarim, a former City Council candidate who organized the forum, fiddled with a TV screen next to the moderators, a Globe reporter and editor. Essaibi George took her seat next to the screen, which featured a photo of Wu before switching to a livestream of Wu in the passenger seat of her campaign car on her way to a kick-off of the first day of early voting in Copley Square with US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, her former Harvard law teacher. Wu apologized for the scheduling conflict, then answered several questions before taking her virtual leave.

Essaibi George stayed. She pitched bringing back “little City Halls,” a feature of Kevin White’s time as mayor of Boston as part of an effort to provide easier access to government services. “You shouldn’t have to go downtown,” she said.

While taking audience questions, she was asked whether parking spaces could be reserved around mosques to make it easier for Muslims to attend prayer gatherings. “We’ve got to figure that out,” she said, suggesting the transportation department as the city agency that could help.

“I’m not sure why city government gets in the way of these easy fixes,” she added.

Cambridge schools close for a Muslim holiday, another person in the crowd said. Would Essaibi George consider doing the same for Boston Public Schools students? “Yes,” she said.

Another questioner said some women would feel more comfortable if city-owned pools set women-only times. The candidate nodded in agreement with that as well.

What about giving non-US citizens the right to vote? Noting that she is a daughter of immigrants — a Tunisian father and a Polish mother who was born in a German work camp — Essaibi George answered no. “We need to speed up the pathways and streamline the immigration process,” she said.

As the forum wrapped up and candidates for the CIty Council’s at-large slots waited in the hallway, Essaibi George warned the crowd against politicians promising too much.

”It’s harder sometimes to say no,” she said, before making her way through the crowd and providing a card with her cell phone number on it.

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On the way to Le Foyer Bakery in Mattapan, the Essaibi George SUV went by the planters lining Blue Hill Avenue that had Essaibi George signs placed in them, displaying their signature hot pink above the mums. By early afternoon, the Wu signs were there, too, in a demonstration of how little goes unanswered amid the steady volley between campaigns.

Outside the Mattapan Community Health Center, the two camps had dueling standouts. Essaibi George sign-holders migrated over to Le Foyer’s parking lot as the SUV pulled in, and she danced and posed for photos with them. Their shirts said “Akiki” — a nod to the auto repair and towing company in Hyde Park.

The man behind the business, Elias “Leo” Akiki, was with them. He first met Essaibi George at a community meeting when she was already a city councillor and quickly became a supporter. After she jumped into the mayor’s race, he sent thousands of dollars to one of the two outside groups backing her campaign, “Bostonians for Real Progress.” (Wu has her own super PACs, which are being funded by attorneys and environmental groups.)

“I wish I could do more,” Akiki said to the Reporter as Essaibi George and the sign-holders milled around outside the bakery. “We’ve got to fix the roads; we’ve got to put kids in good schools.”

Noted that one of his properties had been vandalized the previous week, Akiki said, “I can’t imagine a situation with less police.”

He added, “I don’t want this city to be an experiment. I just want to fix the potholes,” his remarks a reference to Wu, who has suggested converting school buses from diesel to electric.

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Essaibi George has been thinking about a run for mayor since she was about 15 years old. She grew up on the same street as Marty Walsh, who left the mayor’s office for the Biden administration in March.

She remembers she was on a Zoom call at her Dorchester home when she received a text message from a friend on Jan. 7 of this year. “Told ya, he’s going.” Twenty days later, she launched her campaign for mayor.

Essaibi George first ran for City Council in 2013 and came in fifth place, before running again in 2015 and knocking out veteran councillor Stephen Murphy.

Sitting in the front passenger seat of her campaign SUV six years later, about to head into Morning Star Baptist Church for another forum, she was asked what she learned between 2013 and 2015. Boston’s a big city, she said, and it takes time to cover that much ground and build relationships.

She paused briefly, lost in the memories of the early days of her first campaigns for City Hall. “You’ve got to meet voters very directly,” she said. With that, she stepped out and made her way toward Morning Star.