This week in Nuts & Bolts, we get to tackle a subject that has left decent candidates facing a double-edged attack: What happens when party members, former incumbents, turn on Democratic candidates and refuse to support them? More importantly, what happens if these same party members go on to endorse Republicans or denounce Democrats?
Oregon residents are currently facing this with Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader, but the same has held true in places like Nebraska, where Brad Ashford refused to back Kara Eastman after he was defeated in a primary to recapture his seat.
What do you do if you are on a campaign and discover that prior electeds—or even current electeds—in other seats decide that they don’t want to help because they view you as too progressive, too young, or upset that you may have prevailed in a primary? Let’s get down to it!
Brad Ashford, who at one point was a Democratic incumbent in Nebraska, took a bit of a sore-loser stance when it wasn’t his turn to battle back for his House seat, and endorsed Republican Don Bacon over Democratic candidate Kara Eastman. The biggest conflict was that Ashford viewed Eastman as too progressive and went after her ability to be a real representative of the district.
This same story is playing out in Oregon this year. Kurt Schrader managed to get quite a bit of insider Democratic support in his primary. When the time came for Schrader to acknowledge his loss and support his opponent, it simply didn’t happen. Instead, Schrader announced that he thought that this was a big mistake and that Democratic voters had chosen wrong and would turn the district over to Republicans. He went on to add that he wasn’t really likely to support the Democratic candidate for governor.
"You move me into Portland, that's not Kurt Schrader's crowd, per se," Schrader said in the KATU interview. "Neither is Bend. Bend's extremely liberal — a lot of folks there from Seattle and California in the last 10 years — and I think that made a huge difference."
In the race for governor, Schrader said: "There's a significant chance" he wouldn't back Kotek, the Democratic nominee. He would consider backing Johnson.
So, you’ve got a former Democratic elected who wants to back your opponent. They are upset they lost to you in a primary. It can also occur in an open-seat race where a “preferred” candidate isn’t the one who wins the primary. How do you overcome this hurdle?
Address the problem directly
It is unlikely you won the primary 100% to 0%. It is far more likely you won the district by a closer margin. You might have won the district in a blowout. Your race in the primary may have been close. Either way, you need to reach out and get the Democratic voters to come home. By default, the overwhelming majority of the voters will do exactly that, because they favor your campaign over the Republican alternative.
The Democratic candidate or infrastructure that doesn’t like your campaign can still present a significant stumbling block. Bringing those voters back into your base is one of the first tasks you try to take on. Most importantly, address aloud the places where you and your primary opponent supporters agree. Even if you have significant disagreements with your primary opponent, that does not mean those disagreements exist with their voters. Lay out a case of the things you believe in, and why you strongly believe your campaign is the right one to succeed.
Amplifiers matter
So, you are going to face your general election opponent who may have the endorsement of your primary opponent; or a Democratic sore loser who won’t endorse the Republican but speaks ill of your campaign. It is time to kick into high gear how to amplify your voice louder and get attention above the crowd.
Overtopping someone’s voice is often a way to prevent people who need representation from even being heard. In the case where infrastructure or a former candidate is behaving in this way, realize they are working hard to overtop your campaign. They are using their voice, which they feel more powerful, to belittle and put down your campaign before you get going. In an interpersonal conflict, yelling back and forth wouldn’t matter. In a campaign, you don’t need to yell down those saying these things; what you can do is using amplifiers to get your message across.
Put your messaging into many platforms from social media to television, radio, print, whatever means your campaign supports, and allow the community to get to know you so that they can amplify your message. There are people who have voted for someone else in the primary, but the more they learn about you, the more they can amplify the good news they feel your campaign brings. This overtopping allows organic growth among your voters. It also means that the more the sore loser complains, the more they are dismissed.
Be open with your voters and let them be the amplifiers you need.
