9 Lessons I Learned on Presidential Campaigns

We are now full-swing into the 2020 presidential cycle. Several candidates have put their hat in the ring, and several more still may in the coming weeks and months. The Democratic primary is shaping up to be one of the most diverse and talented in recent memory. I can honestly say I have no idea what is going to happen. And I think that is exciting and good for the party.

I can imagine what candidates and their staffs are going through right now having worked on presidential campaigns the last three cycles.

I got into politics and advocacy because I wanted to make a positive impact for those who feel left out and left behind. But there were many days I would get out of bed and that would not be front-of-mind, because presidential campaigns test you mentally, physically, and emotionally. On top of that, my job was very intertwined with the daily news cycle: responding to crises, staying up to date on every comment, speech, proposal, or Tweet a candidate made. It meant I needed to know every detail about my candidates and their opponents. I worked to prevent or prepare for crises before they happened, as well as made sure that every word or content our campaign released was accurate and factual. And I spent days on end sequestered with President Barack Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton getting them ready for the high-stakes presidential debates. It was intense.

But through those experiences, I had the tremendous fortune of having a seat at the table and watching how elected officials and senior strategists at the highest level dealt with and weathered the ever-changing political landscape, as well as going through it myself. Here are 9 lessons I that may be helpful to the candidates and staff about to embark on this next journey.

Lesson 1: Forget the noise. Remember who you are and who you are fighting for. The first question any candidate or campaign should ask themselves and be ready to answer over and over is the Mudd question. In 1979, Sen. Ted Kennedy was running for president and was widely seen to stumble when CBS News journalist Roger Mudd asked him: why do you want to be president? Such a simple question can be the toughest to answer. It requires candidates think about this moment in America’s history, whose champion they want to be, and where they want to lead all of us. It also requires candidates think about how they connect their personal story and lived experiences to the American story, and communicate how those experiences equip them to be the right person to unite and lead our country at this moment.

As I said before, there are numerous distractions in presidential campaigns that can cause you to forget why you are doing this. President Obama had his way of tuning out the noise. During one debate prep session he said to us I don’t pay attention to the cable news chatter. That’s what I got all of you for. He knew listening to the daily back and forth he would be distracted from focusing on doing his job.

There was no greater test to tune out the noise than October 2016 — the Wikileaks email dumps. It fascinated the Beltway. But, the truth is: we had to tune it out and do our jobs. There were people whose job it was to get into the minutiae of every email and press reaction to it. We trusted them, and focused on what we needed to focus on.

During moments like these, when I might have gotten lost in the distractions, I would talk to my dad and he would tell me: “Remember who you are.” You need to stay grounded, tune out the noise, and remember who you are fighting for.

Lesson 2: People are hungry for big solutions and want you to level with them. Defeating President Trump will not solve all the nation’s problems. They existed long before he became president and will continue after he is out of the White House.

Rather, this is a moment for boldness. Instead of focusing on Trump’s latest temper tantrum, you should run a campaign that rises to meet the challenges this nation faces, not, as President Obama said, one that lowers itself to “the smallness of our politics.” For example, as much as 40 percent of jobs could be lost to robotics or automation over the next decade and a half. The recent government shutdown exposed how too many families are one paycheck away from not being able to put food on the table despite a “full employment” economy. Even the Trump administration admits climate change will cause major economic and humanitarian crises in the U.S. and around the world sooner rather than later. Our government and campaign finance system rewards those with money and connections and leaves everyone else out. The right to vote and other rights are being challenged across the country. Health care is still unaffordable for many. People are hungry for big solutions to these and many other challenges, but they also want you to level with them about the task ahead. That means you should be honest about what the costs and tradeoffs of your proposals will be, not just the benefits.

Lesson 3: It’s about values. I’m sure many of you have gotten into heated discussions with family relatives or friends on Facebook about the state of the country over the past two years. And I’m sure you had a ton of facts and figures that proved your point, only for them to be dismissed as “fake news.” James Carville likes to say people use news like a drunk uses a lamp post: for support, not illumination. People want to believe things that fit into their preconceived notions. In other words, we need to find a deeper way to reach people since, as much as this pains me to say, facts don’t matter (but they still matter!) as much the emotions they engender. Focusing on the values that underlie policy proposals are a better way of reaching people, even those who disagree with you.

Lesson 4: There is a way to deal with President Trump that works. Yes, Donald Trump is the elephant in the room. There is no shortage of failures or outrageous actions he has taken since becoming president: separating kids from their parents and putting them in cages; running huge deficits to give tax breaks to the wealthy; using government for personal profit. The list goes on and on.

Despite all of this, he is a formidable campaigner who cannot be underestimated. He seems to have defied or broken all the norms that would have sunk any other contender. He is not tethered to facts or ideology. He has undermined every public institution. He knows how to taunt and bring the debate down to the mud where he fights best.

However, there is a way to deal with him that works. The best example I have is how Secretary Clinton performed in the general election debates. She confronted him head-on on his lies. She used mockery to get under his skin and in his head. And she did all while staying steady and optimistic. Not surprisingly, Speaker Pelosi is employing a similar playbook now.

Lesson 5: Show up everywhere. How many articles have been written about the “white working class” versus “people of color” and “college-educated voters”? How many times have we heard Democrats can’t win in certain places? I lost count about a year ago. These strawman arguments are stale. 2018 proved yet again that Democrats’ message can resonate everywhere. We won statewide in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Arizona, as well as surging in places like Georgia and Texas. Yes, there are people who will never vote for a Democrat, and whose values are the antithesis of ours, but some people will respond simply by showing up.

Lesson 6: Don’t relitigate the last campaign. Too many times I have seen that because a candidate or campaign lost, everything they did was wrong. That’s not true. While we on the Clinton campaign lost and made mistakes, we did a lot of things right. One of my proudest memories was watching Secretary Clinton call out how Donald Trump was mainstreaming some right-wing hate groups. Her critiques on him look pretty prescient now. Not only that, each campaign is different. Circumstances change. Ideas or tactics that didn’t work before might work now or vice versa. Learn from the past but don’t get stuck relitigating it.

Lesson 7: Roll with the punches. The only certainty on a presidential campaign is the unexpected will happen. These events can cause a campaign to freeze, and in so doing, waste valuable time that could be spent containing or responding to the event. You have to find a way to brush that stuff off, hunker down, and get the job done. Roll with the punches. A foreign adversary attacking a presidential campaign and the DNC as part of its cyber warfare against the United States? Roll with it! A FBI director talking about an investigation 11 days before the election, breaking all sense of norms and traditions? Roll with it!

Lesson 8: Always find new ways to reach people. There is a paradox about presidential campaigns that they are always about the future but they repeatedly use the same tactics and strategy because “that’s the way it’s done.” The truth is every campaign is different. The way media work and how consumers get their information is always changing. President Trump sucks all the oxygen out of, and knows how to manipulate, the mainstream media better than anyone in recent memory. Figuring out how to break through and reach voters who are disengaged and outright hostile to the political process is the code every campaign needs to crack. Relying on hundreds of millions of dollars in 30 second television ads just won’t cut it.

Lesson 9: Have fun, and show it. I’m sure a lot of people have technical analyses about how Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Beto O’Rourke’s use of digital platforms helped them in their races, and that is true. But just as importantly, I think they captured the nation’s and media attention because a) they had a strong message; and b) they were having fun campaigning. They made politics fun. Did I mention working on a presidential campaign can be stressful and hard? Well, it is also a lot of fun. Joy is contagious. It will attract people to the cause. And it makes it so much easier to be at work.