#2- Know Your Enemy and Copy What Works

#2- Know Your Enemy and Copy What Works-

The Republican party has been training operatives in how to do direct voter contact, target, motivate, and mobilize a pretty small percentage of the population in order to get massive electoral victories since at least the late 70’s. There is no such thing as a ‘local republican race.’ Absolutely every candidate they recruit has access to all of their knowledge, all of their infrastructure, all of their operatives and all of their money. Know that on GOTV weekend, there will be dozens of Capitol Hill staffers flown in from DC who have run the 72 Hour Program so many times that they can run it with directions written on the back of a cocktail napkin. I have seen them pull seven points out of GOTV through the 72 Hour Plan.

In order to compete with that, you have to get real staff. In a top targeted million dollar race, there are endless numbers to crunch and those numbers ultimately determine where you're going to put your resources. This is not a game to be eyeballed. Saying to yourself "15% of the white vote and the same turnout we've always seen from the 2nd district" doesn't do it. There are big numbers involved that by their very nature cannot end in three zeros. There's targeting, micro targeting, consumer preference composite modeling, thirty-one flavors of research, and that barely scratches the surface. Nobody expects a candidate to know all of this and there is even less expectation for them to learn it. But you should know that there are hundreds of people who make their living working on campaigns. The majority of them have 202 phone numbers. Seek them out. Call them, be prepared to pay them a seemingly egregious amount of money, and delegate your entire operation to them. They know these numbers. Yes, this leaves you powerless for a few months while you're campaigning. But you get to govern. That makes up for it. I promise.