October: Where your job is not to be surprised

How campaign staffers will approach the final 4 weeks of the campaign

We are exactly four weeks out from the election. Can we even be surprised anymore?  

This has been the strangest, longest, and most twist-filled campaign in modern history. 

Consider: President Trump never really stopped running for office after some of his supporters stormed the Capitol demanding he had won. We’ve seen multiple serious assassination attempts thwarted. 

President Biden struggled to speak in a debate, then dropped out of the race less than a month before the Democratic National Convention.  Vice President Kamala Harris had to secure her party’s nomination, select a Vice President and outline her platform with a few months to go. She herself is the first Black woman to win her party’s nomination.

Meanwhile, There’s a hurricane hitting Florida. The US economy has so far thrived by market data, but lagged in sentiment, and with some pretty wide disparities. The Middle East is on the precipice of a larger war. China is lurking, playing war games. And that’s to say nothing of North Korea. There’s ongoing active wars, potential genocides, and unrest in Ukraine, Venezuela, Sudan and … now we are just four weeks away from electing a new US President. 

While the national press spends their time speculating on what the next October surprise could be (and I’m sure there will be more than a few), good campaign staffers, whatever their party, tune all of that out and focus on getting their people to the polls. 

This week I thought I would reflect on what that is like — and how hard it can be — in the midst of a historic campaign.

*** 

When you spend nearly two years working on a Presidential election, and you get to the end, it seems unreal. Each day is one day closer to when you think you’ll be able to sleep.  

You’ve missed family gatherings, you’ve lived out of a suitcase; if you are blessed with supporter housing, you might be sleeping on someone else’s couch. You’ve been working so hard that even when your head hits the pillow, your thoughts don’t turn off.

I remember it well.  In 2008 after our Iowa caucus victory, I left my husband and cats in Des Moines, Iowa to hit the road.  

South Carolina, Utah, Idaho, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Texas, Tennessee, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, Michigan, Colorado, so many states, you stop counting.  (Or you start inventing states, like when a bleary-eyed President Obama declared he has been to “56, 57 states.”) 

Each flight between cities was a welcome nap.  I can only imagine what the people around me thought as I managed to sleep on a plane in a way I’ve never been able to sleep before or since.  

Once wheels touched down on the ground, it was back to work.  Prepping and plotting.  Ensuring that everything you can control goes according to plan and that states — teams  — have exactly what they need for success.  

In these times, there are always surprises. Your job is to not be surprised. You have to respond clinically, quickly to a news story, address a situation, change campaign plans because of unforeseen events.  

But the one thing you know — regardless of any of that —  is that at the end, there is only one victor.  And this month will determine who that will be. 

*** 

Prognosticators love to say they know who will win, or what will make the difference.  It’s one state, or one precinct, or one group of people.  That’s the key, they will tell you.

The actual key is real people in real America showing up. 

It’s people showing up to volunteer, to phone-bank, to talk to their family and friends, to get people registered to vote and finally, of course, to vote. That is something I always tried to remember as I marched through long days as a staffer. At the end, this is a process of each American thinking about their hopes and aspirations, and which candidate they want to trust with them. 

Each campaign is trying to outpace the other. They are counting numbers of likely voters, asking them to have a plan to vote, helping them remember to vote. 

Apathy is their enemy. 

They need people to care because on November 6, it will be too late. 

President Obama made a character of our apathetic voters — he would always say we need to get Cousin Pookie off the couch.  Good organizers are trying to find Cousin Pookie, someone who might be inclined to vote their way, get them off the couch, in the game, understanding, and caring enough to vote.

In the final weeks of a campaign, through extreme fatigue, this is where every good campaign staffer is focused. Finding voters, turning out voters.

*** 

In 2008 when I was dreaming of sleep post campaign, I didn’t even think about what would come after election day.  

I didn’t know that after we would win, I would have to put off that sleep a little longer to put together the first post-election Press Conference for the then President-Elect.  

I didn’t think about the upcoming Inauguration, or about working in the White House.  All I cared about was the person I trusted — I wanted them to have a chance to win.  

With about a month left, regardless of party — this is the journey many campaign staffers are on. They have put their lives on hold and, if they’re doing it right, they’re doing it with singular focus on what they think will make the country better.

That’s the spirit of America.  We aren’t helpless.  We can show up. We can get involved and try to make a difference.  And this is the month. 

It takes a leap of faith to block it all out and believe that your candidate can make a difference.  And for what it’s worth, they can.  I’ve seen it up close and whoever wins this month will change our future.