Join us as we step into the shoes of former Houston Mayor Annise Parker and pick her brain on what it’s like to run for office. In this episode, Joe and Martín discuss the trials and tribulations of candidacy from asking friends and family for money to maintaining a healthy work-life balance on the campaign trail.
Mayor Parker has run in 11 races and won nine in a row, so she knows a thing or two about what it’s like to win and lose. She has served as an elected legislator, an administrator, and as an executive, and now she works to help elect other LGBTQ+ candidates across the country. Martín was super excited to interview Mayor Parker this week and we hope you are super excited to take a listen! Joe and Martín also discuss some of the most challenging aspects of running for office and what you can do to not only survive, but thrive on the campaign trail.
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If you have campaign questions or want to learn more, reach out to us using the contact information below.
Twitter: @cmpwrkshp
Instagram: @TheCampaignWorkshop
Email: marketing@thecampaignworkshop.com
Joe Fuld
Twitter: @joefuld
Instagram: @joefuld
Martín Diego Garcia
Twitter: @gmartindiego
Instagram: @gmartindiego
Presented by The Campaign Workshop
(Intro Music)
Martín Diego Garcia (00:06):
Hey friends, you're listening to how to win a campaign where you'll get an insider's perspective that teaches you not only how to run but how to win. This is Martín Diego Garcia
Joe Fuld (00:14):
And I'm Joe Fuld. You can find us @CMPWRKSHP on Twitter or @thecampaignworkshop on Instagram. Martín and I both work at The Campaign Workshop, a political consulting firm that specializes in political campaigns and advocacy campaigns as well as training and strategic planning. And we're excited to talk to you and have you listened to episode two of how to win a campaign. In our first episode we discussed the process of actually deciding to run for office: things you need to consider before throwing your hat in the ring and being a candidate. And we really had a great guest Anthony Robinson from the National Democratic Training Committee. So if you haven't listened to that episode, give it a shot.
Martín Diego Garcia (01:01):
So today we're really excited because we're talking about what happens after you pick the right race. It is the right opportunity for you, you've done your personal assessment, you've done your financial assessment and now it's actually time to run your campaign. We have a great guest later on the episode that I get to interview Mayor Annise Parker who is now the current CEO and president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund.
Joe Fuld (01:23):
Deciding the right district, deciding the office you're running for, making sure you have the resources, making sure you have buy in with your friends and family, as we discussed in episode one, that's key, but then when you start running, the real work begins and there's a ton of offices in the U.S. Can you believe there is 500,000 over 500,000 elected officials in the United States?
Martín Diego Garcia (01:46):
So many!
Joe Fuld (01:47):
Running for everything you name it, right? So when people think of running for office, they might just think of president United States U.S. Senate, Congress, but you know County commission, there are judges races that are elected all across the country. There are different like water reclamation boards, you name it. There are positions to run for.
Martín Diego Garcia (02:10):
Yeah, I mean my favorite Joe is the mosquito control board in Florida. It's an actual position that is elected.
Joe Fuld (02:16):
Mine is railroad commission. Right. And there's a bunch of those that are super important positions and have a lot of political power and make a huge difference on people's lives. And I would say some of these local offices really affect people's day to day lives even more than federal ones and people don't even know about it.
Martín Diego Garcia (02:35):
Yeah. And so you really want to think about what is the right office for you and once you've done that, what has been amazing to see at least in the, in the years that I have been doing this work is that this idea of a, what a traditional or like a stereotypical candidate looks like or what people think like a politician looks like has really been changing and really continuing to change, which is great. And there are also a number of organizations and groups out there that have been working to really diversify the pool and, and make it much easier for folks to run for office by giving them support and training and recruitment encouragement. So that really everyday folks who want to change their communities and doing it for the right reason to have the resources they need to do that.
Joe Fuld (03:15):
When people think of of the person running for office, they often think of like Bob blow dry, you know he is a white guy, has a big crop of hair and the whole idea is to like actually break that mold. And so groups like Emily's List, their state affiliates, the LGBTQ victory fund, Latino Victory Fund, Black PAC, Super Majority, New American Leaders, Emerge. The list goes on and on. We actually have a list of them on our blog at www.thecampaignworkshop.Com again, like there's a ton out there and there's a lot of groups. Again, Emily's list for me is like a big organization that is focused on pro choice women candidates running for office. But these other groups like Latino victory or LGBTQ Victory Fund have very specific niches of trying to get people to engage and run. And that is super important.
Martín Diego Garcia (04:12):
It's amazing that they're doing the work and we're definitely not where we need to be in terms of running for office. And we ask Mayor Parker about this in our interview later on around sort of the advice that she has for candidates who don't maybe not see themselves as what a traditional political candidate or or, or elected official should be. I remember when I worked at the Victory Fund there was about maybe 500 elected officials who identified as openly LGBTQ in the entire country. Of those 500,000 public offices. And I think right now it's gone up. I think we're around 700 but that's still point, maybe 14 of offices in the entire country where our population, depending on the research you look at, right as LGBTQ folks is somewhere between like four and 5% self identify within the community. And so we have a lot of work to do. And I know that was the same for Latino victory in the sense that the Latinx community is much, much larger. I think we estimate that there's about 52 million, which is about 16% of the population and we still only hold about maybe 6,000 offices nationwide. So we really need folks who are parts of the community. You can identify with the folks that they live in and around and understand that perspective too to step in and run for office because it's, it's definitely possible.
Joe Fuld (05:26):
I am a big believer in like a citizen legislature and citizen politicians and I think, you know, my favorite candidates have been ones that are on their third or fourth career, right. Have done things in their community, are looking to really broaden out and give back to the community. And so I've seen some amazing folks from all walks of life, all economic backgrounds and racial and gender backgrounds run for office and do amazing things because really embody their community and their story is something that people can believe and understand and they have a vision for what their, what elected office should be like to help their community and the greater community.
Martín Diego Garcia (06:11):
Totally agreed. We really get to the fun part right now is sort of after you've decided to run, right, you get to jump in and really start running your campaign. And as you start to build your campaign, a couple of things you should be thinking about is engaging your inner circle. And what that means is, is whether you're running this year or you plan on running five years from now, you really want to start building up and strengthening the relationships you have in your life. Relationships are key to winning and winning public office. It's where you're going to get your supporters, your volunteers, people who are going to give you money and most likely where you're going to get your votes from to actually win. So first and foremost, I would say start your list and that can be anybody. That can be your book club, your old college buddies, your work colleagues. If you were paying attention to the presidential race, the Democratic Senator, Amy Klobuchar, she famously said that she raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends in her first Senate race, which I think is hilarious, but you really want to create a list of folks that you can call upon.
Joe Fuld (07:13):
And that's the strategic assessment that we really talk about in episode one. But it is so critical to do that and really, really important and to me really understanding how much you're going to need to raise for race and really doing that homework of saying, can I get there? Can I put down a third of the people that I need of the dollar amount that I need to raise on paper before I actually decide to run is really important to give you a sense, you know, some of these races are super expensive. You know, you're talking about for state rep races and some places running for state legislature might cost $100,000 in some places it might cost $1 million. So you really have to have an understanding of what it's going to cost and can you really do it.
Martín Diego Garcia (07:58):
Yeah I mean, even thinking about school board, one of the shockers about living in LA, right is that a school board race in Los Angeles, school board district can cost more than a congressional race in other states. So really understanding sort of how much it's gonna cost us, really important. But Joe, I mean what are some common mistakes you see candidates fall into after they've decided to run for office that are really easily avoidable?
Joe Fuld (08:21):
Listen, I think to run for office you have to have a thick skin. You have to understand that you are going to be undergoing a job interview for three months, six months, a year, however long you're really running for office. And you have to get used to being open and honest about who you are and people asking you questions that you might not want to answer, but you have to figure out what are the questions you need to answer. And then what is your message in the campaign and how do you pivot back to that message. And I think the idea of really understanding why you're running and having that relate to the people in your district is so important. And again, as we've said before, sometimes people can't answer that question. They can't answer the question, why am I running? And that's just such a fundamental thing. So I think practicing that and knowing that. And then the other thing I like to say is have people around you that can call bullshit on you.
Martín Diego Garcia (09:16):
Absolutely!
Joe Fuld (09:17):
Have friends and family and people that can call you out and say, dude, you're reading your own press releases. You need to stop and like--
Martín Diego Garcia (09:25):
Stop reading the comments!
Joe Fuld (09:26):
Right! Go knock on doors, go raise money. Stop staying up to midnight and editing your website. That's not what you should be spending time doing.
Martín Diego Garcia (09:35):
And the way that you really sort of lay out the way that you could be spending your time much more effectively is by actually making a plan, right? So you really want to think backwards from election day and really plan out what is it actually going to take for you to knock on 5,000 doors, raise $100,000 right? Get that 25 volunteers that you need. If you start setting actual benchmarks for yourself, dating back from election day, you won't have time to sit up late at night and edit your website or read your comments or read your own news, right? You really want to set out a plan and and really start by writing out what is your winning statement. We often tell folks in our training spaces that you want to start by writing your winning press release. If we could fast forward to the day after election day, the morning after election day, and there was a press release that came out about you winning your campaign, what would it say? It would say Martín Diego Garcia was able to win this city council seat because he talked to 10,000 voters, raised $150,000 and was turning out volunteers every weekend to knock on doors. So write out what your statement is. What is your winning statement and use that as your sort of North Star to guide you on what you should be spending your time and energy doing as a candidate?
Joe Fuld (10:51):
Well I think the great thing is that you have had an amazing interview with Annise Parker who really has that example in that story of first running for office, not winning, learning from those mistakes, then running and winning and what it really takes to run and win, which is the whole reason for this podcast to begin with. So I'm super excited to hear this interview. I hear it went great and can't wait to listen to it with ya, and then we'll come back on the other end.
(Music)
Martín Diego Garcia (11:27):
And we're back. So as we've mentioned before, running for office is definitely not for the faint of heart. So now try thinking about doing that 11 times while our guest today, Mayor Annise Parker did just that. So she knows a thing or two about being a candidate and as a person from the LGBT community. Your journey from going from an activist within the community to mayor of the fourth largest city in the U.S., Houston, Texas is truly inspiring to me and I'm sure to others and I would imagine was not very easy. So thank you so much mayor Parker for joining us today.
Mayor Annise Parker (12:00):
Happy to be with you and really excited to talk about the process of, of running for office and what it's like being in office
Martín Diego Garcia (12:07):
And now you went from city council to controller which was citywide and then again obviously mayor being citywide.
Mayor Annise Parker (12:14):
Oh my council races were, my council race that I won was city-wide.
Martín Diego Garcia (12:17):
Oh then, so all of your races were citywide.
Mayor Annise Parker (12:19):
Correct.
Martín Diego Garcia (12:20):
Which is much different than running in a district race.
Mayor Annise Parker (12:23):
The first race I ran was a district race. It was a head to head campaign with a friendly incumbent. And it's very hard to be in an incumbent, particularly an incumbent whose politics aren't that different from yours. And one who hasn't had a particular scandal or mistake. My advice, don't do it. Unless you have some wedge issue that you can use to displace that incumbent. I did not. I was actually recruited by the LGBT community to run as the first viable, not the first LGBT candidate in Houston, but hopefully the first viable one didn't turn out that way. But it was part of a broader initiative to, to try to create a, an LGBT friendly district. But it wasn't good enough to the voters to say the LGBT community needs a position on the ballot or an, or a, a possible seat. The federal government still doesn't define us as a protected class in that sense. And so in running against an incumbent, I had to have a compelling issue for voters to decide not to vote for him. And that's what I mean by a wedge issue. There wasn't one, he was an okay guy. He was gay friendly. He just wasn't from our community. And that wasn't enough of a, of an issue.
Martín Diego Garcia (14:00):
And so now ran twice, unsuccessfully then ran again and won nine times in a row. What on earth made you run for office 11 times?
Mayor Annise Parker (14:10):
I wanted the jobs and that was three different positions and I was termed out each time, which caused me to pause and decide do I want to look for some other place to serve or do I want to go back into the private sector? And each time I paused, I said, no, I want to continue to serve. And kept, kept going. But I, but I wanted the job and I have this conversation with potential candidates all the time. And they come to me and they say, well, I want to be in office. And on my, depending on my mood, I might say, who the hell cares, because it's not, the office is not the destination. The office is a tool. I wanted the job and I wanted the job because I wanted to work on city issues. I didn't run for Congress. I didn't run for school board. I ran for city council, city controller as an administrative post in the city. And then I ran for mayor because I wanted to work on city issues. I wanted to pick up the tool, which was the office and use it to do things that I was passionate about.
Martín Diego Garcia (15:22):
Did you find the 11th time easier than the first time?
Mayor Annise Parker (15:25):
Some things got easier. I got to be a better public speaker. I got became more comfortable. I knew the ins, the issues inside and out, but with each step up, the three different positions I was running in with positions with more scrutiny and that required more money. So the, the fundraising went up. They were all the same constituents though. So in one sense it got easier because by the time I ran for mayor, they had already voted for me six times. And by the 11th race, that last winning race, they had already voted for me eight times and knew me as, as mayor. So some, some aspects got much easier. But anyone who takes any race for granted has a likelihood of losing. Experienced elected officials, and by that I mean they've been in office for a while, they're in the groove and they, they think they're doing such a great job, but there's no way their constituents might not send them back, start dialing it in. That's when you're in trouble. You have to, you have to run scared, unopposed or scared.
Martín Diego Garcia (16:41):
Agreed. And you touched on this a little bit and we sort of speak on it too, in our first episode we talk a good bit about sort of the motivation behind running. Can you talk a little bit about what your initial motivation was for sort of jumping in those first two races and did it change over time as the elections got bigger?
Mayor Annise Parker (17:00):
I was a dedicated community volunteer for 20 years before I ever first was elected to office. I was active in a range of city issues and I was very passionate about those issues and I helped other people run for office who I thought would advance those issues. Primarily quality of life issues for the city. The first time I ran myself, it was partly because I had been recruited by the LGBT community, but it wasn't as if my only motivation was I want to be called council member. I was already working on, on issues connected to the city. I think it's really, really important to match what you are passionate about and the race you run for. A lot of people admittedly run for office because they want the title or they run for one office because they think they can be elected to it, but they really want another office. I've actually served with several men who would publicly acknowledge that they ran for city council, but they really wanted to be in Congress. They were terrible council members. Local government is about potholes and garbage pickup and barking dogs and I was a civic club president. I was intimately involved in all those things before I ever came to city council. But I had guys on either side of me who were bored out of their minds, but they could get elected to council. They couldn't get elected to Congress and they hoped it would help them move up.
Martín Diego Garcia (18:39):
For candidates who are running and maybe thinking about running and potentially not being successful the first time. What made you sort of get up and run again and then obviously finally be successful. But in those first two races.
Mayor Annise Parker (18:52):
I was passionate about the issues. I was president of one of the largest civic associations in Houston. I was the president of a community development corporation working on affordable housing. I was a United Way volunteer working on senior issues and I was an LGBT activist. So those were four areas of, of really intense work. And I was spending 40 hours a week of work and 20 hours a week as a, as a volunteer on all these other things. And they all had to do with the city. So it wasn't a big step to say I can work on the things I'm passionate about from the inside and maybe have more impact than working on them from the outside. It comes down to the passion.
Martín Diego Garcia (19:42):
So switching gears a little bit to talk about what it actually feels like to be a candidate and living that campaign life. Can you talk a little bit about either some of the parts you really enjoyed about being a candidate and being in campaign life and some of maybe the more challenging parts about being a candidate?
Mayor Annise Parker (19:57):
I loved the policy side. I'm a policy wonk. I was already an active community volunteer when I entered politics, the two losing races and then the ones that I won and I never, even after I lost races, I never stopped working on the issues that I was passionate about and to be able to go and talk about issues that I thought were vital to the citizens of of Houston. I love that. And the parts of campaigning that I like put us in a candidate forum, stand us up in front of the room and ask us policy questions. I will win that all day long. I don't like cocktail party chit-chat. I don't like retail politics because I'm very shy and very reserved and it's hard to get over that. And I absolutely detest dialing for dollars. I don't actually know a candidate who really enjoys that aspect of it. Some people get energized by working a crowd. I don't but being able to compete in the arena of ideas I absolutely loved, but it's also, it's different if you're a woman, you get treated differently on the campaign trail. It's different if you are LGBT. It's different if you're a candidate of color, there's certain things you may be asked, different questions. You may be viewed differently and you have to figure out how to navigate that in addition to navigating all the things that any other candidate has to do.
Martín Diego Garcia (21:35):
Yeah, absolutely. Any challenging parts about it, particularly as you think about your personal life and mixing that with your job and balancing family and balancing all the other pieces of your life while you're being a candidate.
Mayor Annise Parker (21:46):
I am blessed that the person who's now my wife, we've been together 29 years. For long time we couldn't get married. We've been married six years now was always 110% supportive. Even before I was in office as a community volunteer, but especially in office when my schedule was always crazy. She never wants said, please don't go to that meeting. Why don't you spend more time at home? Not once and when I couldn't do some of the things I should be doing at home or with the kids, she would pick up the Slack in. In a way I was in the perfect position because as city controller I was in an eight to five management job. A council member or mayor, every civic association wants you at their civic association meeting and there's it, there's no boundaries. As controller, I actually had a had an eight to five Monday through Friday job, so I that aspect was a lot easier, so there are differences between an administrative post and a an executive or, or legislative position. Mayor is a, is a unique position because you are the public face and voice of your city. Mayor, governor, president. Those are at different levels, comparable positions in that they are. You are uniquely identified with the role and you have a public aspect to it that makes you point all the time. I cannot be anonymous in Houston. It doesn't matter. It's not that everybody recognizes me, but I can't go to a restaurant. I can't go to the grocery store. I can't go to any public place without people knowing that I'm there and knowing who I am. And that took some getting used to, not that people were ugly or mean. It's just that sometimes you just want to chill and not have to talk about an issue or not to, not to be on the clock. A mayor is always on the clock and I know that used to my wife was again, always excellent about it, but the kids not so much, you know, and, and that means that they couldn't get away with anything either because there was someone always going to tell on them because they were visible. They were visible too.
Martín Diego Garcia (24:16):
Yeah, definitely. Now we know that the campaign part is really only the interview and the job actually starts after election day. What were some of the most memorable pieces for you about being in public office and sort of now that you're former mayor? Was it worth it?
Mayor Annise Parker (24:34):
Absolutely it was worth it. I, I loved all the jobs, mayor clearly the best. There's no better political job because it's operational. You have to make things happen and you actually have some ability to make things happen. And all of our races have been nonpartisan. So I was able to draw support from across the city. I had a good career in industry, but every day in public life I would save in the worst day in public life, and there were horrible days in public life, uh it was more fulfilling than the 20 years that every, any day in the private sector. The ability to shape the lives of the people around you, the ability to impact the built environment of your city, the ability to pass laws that change the opportunities people have or the you know, to mitigate problems, change, transform people's lives for the better is an amazing, you know, it is a, it is a drug in a, in a way it is, it is is so powerful.
Martín Diego Garcia (25:45):
I can only imagine. And so now you've taken all of that knowledge and the skills that you've gained and are helping other people to step up, to run for office by serving as the president and CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund and Institute. For those who don't know, the organization is a national organization that helps to train, recruit, and support open the LGBTQ people to run for public office all across the country and all levels of office. Fun fact, it's also where I got my start in electoral politics. So it's very near and dear to my heart. And so as you thought about your initial run, or when people ask you or come up to you and tell you that they're planning on running for office, is there one thing that you tell them that you wish someone would have told you before you ran for office?
Mayor Annise Parker (26:26):
Yeah, it's a, it's a good question and there, there's no way to really convey what running for office is like you, you have to do it. But for me, and this is I think true for a lot of women candidates, is that you don't have to be perfect. You have to be honest. You have to be honest with yourself and you have to be honest with the voters. But you don't have to be perfect. I wanted to, I wanted to have an answer to everything. I actually had to learn how to, how to say, you know, I've not thought about that. Let me research it and get back to you because I wanted the answer and I wanted it to be, I wanted to be the best student. And I worked hard at that and it actually being a policy walk is something I enjoy and it, and it served me well. But that you don't have to be perfect. And I think that it also discourages some people because, well, maybe I did something stupid here or there's maybe something in my past I'm not proud of. You don't have to be perfect in that sense either. You have to, you have to figure out what your own narrative is. Maybe the stupid mistake you made is something that you can weave into the story of why you're a good representative, what you learn from it, how it strengthened you. So being honest with yourself, what your, what your assets and your weaknesses are, and then figuring out a way to connect to the voters. Because again, it's not who you are and what you offer. It's what they need and whether you fit the needs of the voters. A good candidate is the hardest working person in the campaign. A good candidate understands that the people in the campaign are an extension of the values and that that candidate has. And you want to treat the people who work for you with respect and you want the people who work for you and volunteer for you to well represent you in the campaign. And then finally a good candidate prepares before the campaign ever starts. And that is either working on particular skills that will be on display during the campaign or researching the issues or putting the team together that will be the winning element in the, in the field on the, on that campaign, whatever it is, preparation matters and the candidate sets the tone good and bad for what happens in that campaign.
Martín Diego Garcia (29:08):
Definitely, definitely. And I mean as you are now sort of seeing a number of LGBTQ folks running for office, I know we've had some record years in the last cycle or two, are there common sort of traps or mistakes that you see candidates falling into that you could advise our listeners who are thinking about running to avoid?
Mayor Annise Parker (29:28):
Well, the first mistake is to, to think that they can't win because they're LGBT or they're a woman or they're an immigrant or they're a person of color. Any one of us can win. Now, helpful to be a good candidate, to have the right race, to have the training and the tools. But the fact of your demographics is not a reason not to run. You can't win if you don't play. Isn't that what they say in Vegas? You can't win. You can't win if you don't run. And so the biggest problem we have is that so many people think, Oh, someone else needs to do it. I, I won't. Or I can't. So don't, don't take yourself out of the game. You may not be a good candidate. You may not be the right candidate for that race, but don't take yourself out of the game without even trying. And while we at Victory pride ourselves on evaluating, can't, we only work with LGBTQ candidates, we don't work with allies and we work at every level of the ballot. And we pride ourselves at having a pretty good sense of what a, who a viable candidate is. But we don't consider that we have losing candidates. Our candidates aren't losers. They may not have won a race. They may not have been successful. But if they advanced issues that no one else was talking about, if they engage new people in the political process who had thought that the politics wasn't for them or no one in government cared how they felt, they have won, they have contributed something positive and the candidate may decide, well I didn't win this race, but are there things that I can do to better prepare myself and win the next one and we're happy to help them do that as an organization. That's the part I like the best. Convincing people that yes, you can run and win. Now sometimes what I'm doing is telling somebody, Hey, you are in the wrong race. You've never run for office before. You've never, you've never raised any money and you're going to run for United States Senate. Probably not. But you know, you also don't have to listen to me. Don't take yourself out of the game if you think you have a chance.
Martín Diego Garcia (31:50):
So as we wrap up here, any sort of tips or tricks around candidates keeping themselves sane during, what is the insanity of campaign life?
Mayor Annise Parker (32:00):
When I hit my house, it might be nine o'clock at night, it might be 10 o'clock at night, but I turned off the phone. I didn't respond to emails. I put in really long hours. But when I was at home, I was at home and I, you know, if I was gonna read a stack of documents, I do it at city hall. I wouldn't bring them home with me. I had to like build a, basically build a moat around my house so that, that was my happy place.
Martín Diego Garcia (32:28):
Well, thank you so much mayor Parker for your insights in helping sort of lift the veil for our listeners around what it actually takes to be a candidate, run for office, and live that campaign life and, and post-campaign live that public official elected official life. Well, thank you so much.
Mayor Annise Parker (32:44):
Thank you.
Martín Diego Garcia (32:45):
If you want to learn more about the LGBTQ Victory Fund and Institute, check out the links that are going to be in the episode description as well as some other resources that we're offering a you all as listeners around what it actually takes to run for public office.
(Music)
Martín Diego Garcia (33:05):
And welcome back. Hopefully you found that interview as interesting as I did um with former Mayor of Houston Annise,t Parker. Mayor Parker was such an inspiration as you heard. She's an inspiration to me. She has a ton of experience for running for campaigns for the city of Houston. I think there were some key takeaways there that she mentioned. I think the largest one being right, like there is no cookie cutter sort of perfect candidate. Right? But what I think there are are those who are willing really to like put in the work and those who aren't willing to put in the work. And I would imagine you, if you've dealt in politics, which Joe, I would imagine you've seen these, the folks who are like, yes I want to run for office and I'm willing to put in the time in the work and the ones that are just not there for it or think it's going to be much easier than it actually is.
Joe Fuld (33:48):
Yeah, I mean you just have to know yourself before you run and really make sure is this going to be a fit. We talked about this in previous episodes about training and really going to a training to understand that, but I think the more honest you can be with yourself as a candidate, the better candidate you're going to be. Whether that's to figure out, to make sure you have people around you who can help you do these things or to say running for office is not for me.
Martín Diego Garcia (34:14):
And I think also what Mayor Parker mentioned, right, was like learning from your mistakes and really being open to that feedback that you're getting from the folks around you that, that are helping you build that campaign and building your political career. I mean, Mayor Parker lost two races before she then went on to win nine and become the mayor of the fourth largest city in this country. And so there's no sort of one size fits all strategy for winning a campaign. But think about two critical things, right? Choosing the right race at the right time and really putting in the work. Timing is going to be critical. Are you running in a presidential year? Are you running in an odd off year? Right? Are you running for an open seat versus running to challenge an incumbent? Challenging an incumbent is really, really difficult unless you really have sort of the public behind you to unseat that incumbent and are really willing to what the second thing was, right? Is really putting in that work, taking the intentionality and taking the time to write a campaign plan, keeping yourself focused, as Joe mentioned, right? Go to a training to learn the ropes, understand what needs to go into that plan, and then really starting to build and engage with your community because those relationships are going to be key when it comes to volunteers, when it comes to donors and especially when it comes to votes.
Joe Fuld (35:24):
Relationships matter so much. Building those personal relationships will make a huge difference between winning and losing a campaign. We talked about earlier in the series, the idea of doing a personal assessment, writing down all of your contacts, putting that in one place. You really want to do that and figure out what your relationships are and build from that. You want to start early, engage community groups, be available, build a base of dedicated volunteers. Leverage those relationships from your personal assessment and your inner circle. Understand the priorities and values of your community and as Annise said, really core to this is it's not about you, it's about the voter. You want to make sure you're running for the right reasons, which is to help people and really connect with them and understand their needs. You don't have to have the answer to every voter's question. You just have to be willing to find out what the answer is. It's okay for you to say, I don't know, let me get back to you, but make sure you get back to them.
Martín Diego Garcia (36:23):
Yeah, really do a learn and listen. Right? Like I feel like a lot of candidates have this hesitancy or this automatic reaction to when they're speaking to a community that they may not know, understand, have been involved with in the past. They either write them off completely, which don't. Right? I think you going in wanting to learn from that community, wanting to hear what their top of mind concerns are, wanting to hear what those questions are and not going in and saying, here's what I think you need. I think there's a great point to start. Even if you don't have those relationships with those types of communities, whether it's students or a community of color or right, the business community, whoever it may be going in with that sort of listen and learn aspect I think can be a huge asset for folks.
Joe Fuld (37:03):
Absolutely.
Martín Diego Garcia (37:04):
So just a reminder, right? That running for office is hard. It takes a ton of work. It's also super rewarding as you heard from Mayor Parker and we're here to break down all of the moving parts that you should be considering, as you dig into it. In future episodes, we'll talk about building a team that fits your needs, knowing the rules especially so you don't break them. Pinning down a campaign theme and a message as well as doing those really fun fundraising asks to raise the money that you need.
Joe Fuld (37:30):
Absolutely. Remember reason, amount, and time. Well, that's a wrap for this episode. Thanks for listening. If you have specific questions or comments, don't hesitate to reach out to us using the email and social media handles. In the episode description. On our next episode, we'll be talking with Margie Omero, an amazing pollster and host of The Pollsters podcast, who will talk about breaking through the noise by crafting a compelling message. She'll walk us through how to use polling to build that great message for your campaign. So goodbye. Until next time, this is Joe fold,
Martín Diego Garcia (38:09):
And this is Martín Diego Garcia breaking down how to win a campaign. How to win a campaign is Joe fold methane, Martín Garcia, Hope Rohrbach, Daniel Lam, Heidi Job, and Elena Veatch. Music by Mike Pinto. Sound editing by Junto media. Special thanks to the team at the campaign workshop. Please review, like, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
(Outro Music)