It’s another Sunday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a diary discussing the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. If you’ve missed out, you can catch up at any time: just visit our group or follow the Nuts & Bolts Guide. For years I’ve built this guide around questions that get submitted, hoping to help small-race candidates field questions. I’ve been grateful to so many campaign managers, field directors, communication directors, and volunteers for sharing their experience, which has continued to be a big part of the story presented every week in this series.
This last week, I attended the fall meeting of the Democratic National Committee. Held virtually, the meeting provided updates to membership on voter protection plans, efforts by state organizations, and a rundown of accomplishments. These events are good to keep the people who are often working hard at jobs that pay nothing motivated to stay involved. Still, there is one element I hear repeatedly: “Don’t buy into the polls, this is going to be really close, we have to do everything.” Every time I hear it, it makes me grit my teeth. Democratic campaigns and leadership need to stop with the pessimistic doom and start embracing just a little bit of joy. If Kamala Harris can sit onstage with Mike Pence, smile and throw some side-eye shade, isn’t it about time that Democratic efforts look a bit more joyous?
Humor and joy uplifts your audience and diffuses opponents
I cannot express this enough. The more you scream that things are close, that there is a doom scenario, the more you provide your opponent reason to believe they can win. This is the logic of the comment: “campaign like you are ten points down.” This is a horrific argument. If you tell someone to campaign like that in October you are telling them the odds of them winning are low. If in October, while voting is ongoing, I hear that a campaign trails by 10, I don’t necessarily write it off, but I start to devote far more work into campaigns that can, and more likely will, win.
Emails I receive, asking to raise funds, often fall prey to this problem. “We. Are. Going. To. Lose.” read one email I received this week. Okay, well, I guess if that is your header and you’ve decided, I’m going to spend my time with someone who has decided that they are going to win. I love it when candidates in even very difficult races send me a note that says; “Others don’t believe it, but damn it, I’m going to win here.” Hell, I am going to be more supportive of that candidate than someone telling me that they are doomed.
Humor and joy are uplifting. It resonates from a candidate through the staff and into the voters. Confidence, joy and humor translate. They make it harder for your opponent to show his audience that you are a “bad person,” they make you more relatable, and frankly, they put a lot of people at ease. We are an absolute disaster in the United States under President Trump. Don’t you think, for just a second, Americans would like you to smile and say: “you know what, we can be part of the solution together. We’re going to win and do this together.” Talk more about winning. Less about losing.
“But they raise money”
I have been through the A/B testing of messaging and what it brings in, and, I can tell you that messaging about dire straits and trouble can be successful in raising some money. What does it also generate? Angry email. In a year like 2020 where candidates are raising so much money that I’m interested in the Brewster’s Millions problem, the truth is Democratic campaigns can always be overwhelmed with huge Republican billionaire donors if they wanted. I can be grateful this year that I’m not seeing any of the ridiculous National Rifle Association mail and ads, but I know that the Koch brothers alone could write a check for a billion and there is the money game.
Money is a major component of a campaign. You can’t run one without it. You also can’t run a campaign without a good candidate, a motivated staff, and voters who are ready to turn out. This year, Democratic campaigns hit it all: we have candidates people want to support. We have staff all over the country who are motivated, who want to change the world. We have voters who are excited to support those candidates.
What is wrong with letting voters have that joy? Just a taste of joy, of hope, of faith in the future. President Obama knew it. During one of the most difficult times in our nation, he offered America not a pessimistic, dark view, but a view of the possibilities of the future. I don’t remember their campaign yelling about the danger, they said: “Join Us. Be part of something great.” America responded.
Every day, more voters go to the ballot boxes. They are prepared to walk across broken glass for Joe Biden and the Democratic slate, turning out in record numbers. They are doing it in part to oppose the president, but in part out of joy. Because they see hope in their future.
We are in the closing stretch of the election now. We aren’t popping champagne bottles, but we will never campaign like we are 10 points down and give Donald J. Trump any talking points he can have about us doubting the landslide we are about to deliver. By the end of next week, as many as 40 million Americans will have voted. They may do it for many reasons, but the reason they vote Democratic isn’t just about opposition or doom. It is about something far greater.
Joy is on our side. Hope is on our side. Turnout is on our side. History is on our side. Let doom and gloom be on their side.