Welcome back, Saturday Campaign D-I-Y’ers! For those who tune in, welcome to the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. Each week, we discuss issues that help drive successful campaigns. If you’ve missed prior diaries, please visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
While this series has focused on what it takes to build a successful campaign and successful county and state organizations, for the next few weeks I’m going to focus on how you, as a voter, can have an impact beyond the ballot box. We’re also going to look at the specific roles of your county, state, and national party and what those members can do in their positions to help you get your issue heard.
Many of you have read the very well-written Indivisible Guide, a way to resist Trump. This week, I want to talk to you about how to turn those resistance efforts into campaign strength for the future.
So, your representative is a Republican. Here are some additional items you should know.
The indivisible guide is fantastic about the means and methods to resistance. I’d like to add to it with just a few items that apply pretty universally, but especially to Republican sitting elected.
- Keep track of when you sent a letter or contact and the time it took you to receive a response. Not only share your response with others, as indicated in the guide, indicate how long it took you to get a response.
- Republicans often keep a sign in book of people who attend their listening meeting events. You should too. Identify people who attend these meetings and from that list you can build an idea of who might work well for a campaign, support candidates or even be a successful candidate.
- Ask questions that make talking point answers difficult.
While some of these are straightforward, I want to focus on the last item: ask questions that make talking point answers difficult. Many Republicans have pre-cut responses, which, as others note, you can post online and chastise them for being generic. But asking district specific questions that force the answer to be somewhat localized tends to force congresspersons to do more work if they want an answer that even remotely passes the smell test.
One line of attack isn’t enough.
Not mentioned, at all, in the Indivisible guide is the other secret of Tea Party and conservative groups. While it focuses strongly on the attention paid to conservatives, the Tea Party groups also used counter-narratives very successfully. Tea party groups argued with Democratic members in at risk districts in hopes of dividing them away from their own base.
One of the problems that left-leaning groups have had in arguing against Republicans in at risk districts is that they have not advanced a narrative that effectively attacks the Republican for, well, not being actually a Republican. Some have called such measures crass or opportunist. I believe that voters deserve to know who they are voting for in a November or summer election.
For 8 years, Republicans and tea party members have used this argument very successfully. Asking the question as to whether candidates running for office “really” supported the president, they were able to divide their opponent’s base. You may not have even noticed.
Republicans cowered Democratic party members into thinking the safe strategy was to backpedal away from President Obama to appeal to their electorate. The end result: it also demotivated Democratic voters.
Republicans are now saddled with that concern. Questions should be asked at every single forum, event and question: “So, do you support the President’s agenda on XYZ”. Every time your candidate says “NO” which may please some Democratic voters in the room, remember, that same answer will anger and upset Republican party members who want their candidate to fall in line in support of their president.
Hey, they resorted to call-in conferences or only staff events.
Several Republican elected officials around the country already know that they would be poor at in person communication and so they don’t do it. Elected officials in those cases have long organized meetings in their district where the candidate doesn’t attend, only their staff person in district to take questions and offer to get the constituents answers from the representative later. They may also offer a “muted” conference call, where district members can hear the equivalent of a canned speech while sitting on mute to a toll free number. Here is how to respond to those approaches:
- Keep track of how long it has been since your representative has done an in-person event in district. Note it at every meeting and in public. Ask for a travel schedule from his/her office and note how often your elected official comes home to their district. If it is extremely rare, make note of it, frequently. Building the narrative that your elected official has left the district does not benefit them, and may shame them to come home.
- Online teleconferences are public. As a result, you are free to record them in every state I have ever checked with. Keep track of these calls. How long they lasted. What was said, who said them.
- In person meetings organized by staff. Take photos to note that the elected isn't present. Many Republicans treat regional staff offices as the easiest of patronage. They are gifts given to kids of big donors or campaign workers. Don't be afraid to ask the question about how often the staff person actually sees or interacts with the elected official.
- Parades and events. Hey, your Republican candidate will come home for some major community event. At these events, they get to reach out to their voters. They also have to deal with their donors and those who influence the party. Guess what, some of these individuals are significantly less popular than the elected officer. More than one Republican candidate this year felt primary or public backlash thanks to citizen journalists with good memory who placed them in meetings and locations that are no longer popular with members of their base.
During the next four years, there will be plenty of opportunities for many of the items on this list. But I would encourage Democratic members to find every single moment to divide Republicans away from their elected president. Pointing out where they split from their president hurts them with some of their base and it has a unique benefit that is only true with Trump. Elected officials who reject Trump’s agenda may face direct fire from their own sitting president, putting them in a bind.
Remember, all of your interaction and responses have another name for candidates in the future: OPPOSITION RESEARCH.
Next Week Nuts & Bolts goes a bit offline, and we’re going to start discussing the DNC Chair Race and Sub-races. What impact do these offices have on me, really?
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Nuts & Bolts: Building Democratic Campaigns
Contact the Daily Kos group Nuts and Bolts by kosmail (members of Daily Kos only).
Every Saturday this group will chronicle the ins and outs of campaigns, small and large. Issues to be covered: Campaign Staffing, Fundraising, Canvass, Field Work, Data Services, Earned Media, Spending and Budget Practices, How to Keep Your Mental Health, and on the last Saturday of the month: “Don’t Do This!” a diary on how you can learn from the mistakes of campaigns in the past.
You can follow prior installments in this series HERE.