The Best Ground Game for Campaigns
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As I have mentioned before, 2020 is going to be one of the wildest political and social rides of all time. COVID-19, economic issues, social unrest, wildfires, natural disasters, and explosive “gotcha” books will help shape the political landscape. Technological advances like geo-targeting and social media will provide new means of communicating candidates’ messages in local and national elections. The old cliché that “all politics is local” continues to ring true, but how do local candidates stand out in the noise of presidential election year rhetoric?
Let’s explore the ground game for local campaigns and discuss the best game plan for reaching out to voters before they cast their ballots.
Election Day’s “Gauntlet” at the Polls
Have you ever gone to vote in Early Voting or on Election Day and been greeted with candidates’ volunteers or paid staff? I call this the Election Day Gauntlet. You feel almost threatened by the number of people who want to hand you a card and tell you to vote for their candidate. Having participated in these many times as a candidate, I found myself simply just trying to say hello to people as they shuffled quickly past me and the other candidates. What a waste of time.
When it comes down to a choice between greeting voters on the lawn of a voting location or greeting them by phone, personal phone calls are both more efficient and effective. We already know that roughly 75% of voters will vote in a presidential election. In 2016’s Presidential election in NC, only 33% voted on Election Day. Sixty-one percent of voters exercised their votes during early voting.
Would you rather spend your campaign’s resources on persuading voters who show up on Election Day or call most likely-to-vote-for-you voters who haven’t voted yet? Yes, that’s possible and it’s a better use of time and money.
Door Knocking in the Covid-19 era
The least efficient, but most effective and proactive method of campaigning is door-knocking. No robocall, mailpiece, digital advertising or campaign sign can replace a real face-to-face chat about core issues. It will be interesting to see how much this is affected by the virus this year, but it is still a tried and true tradition.
In years past, you could count the number of candidates or committees going door to door on one hand. And given Covid-19’s impact on social distancing, I suspect even fewer are going to knock on doors in 2020. That is even more reason why local campaigns should go door to door.
Wake up every day feeling like you’re in last place and work your face off to gain every vote you can. So by the time your head hits the pillow, you can sleep with a good conscience.
Final Thoughts
As someone who’s worked on six political campaigns, I realize the challenges and benefits that come from having a good ground game and getting out to talk to real citizens in their communities and businesses. It will be interesting to see how mail-in ballots, COVID 19, and other issues affect local campaigns this year, with things heating up in every race from the local school board all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Making the best use of your limited resources is crucial and could be the difference in victory and defeat. The best-funded campaigns aren’t the ones who always win. Winning requires determination, the best-communicated message, the right political climate and funding. Those signs cost money...and so do votes.
Earning my vote requires more than a party label. And when you reflect on what you did today, would you have earned your vote as well?