Nuts & Bolts—Inside a Democratic campaign: It's okay to be human
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Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. I’ve written about rest in campaigns and why I think it is important. Today I want to talk about rest and ease, and what both can offer potential voters when candidates embraceNuts & Bolts—Inside a Democratic campaign: It's okay to be human
Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. I’ve written about rest in campaigns and why I think it is important. Today I want to talk about rest and ease, and what both can offer potential voters when candidates embrace them. Tranquility isn’t quite resting, but it is a way to humanize yourself with the voters in your district. People see candidates as untouchable figures who are somehow different than they are, who lead lives that are different, who have different experiences. Every cycle, people try new campaign ads to make a candidate seem like someone a community can relate to, or at least admire. There is another message you can send that isn’t all about being relatable or a hero figure. It is about being human. Stacey Abrams understood debt, and when people in her community struggled, she pointed out she had struggled with debt, as well. Republicans of course wanted to shame her for the debt in her life, but the reality was that many Georgians could relate—they also struggled with their own debt, and knowing that they weren’t alone with that struggle made Abrams a human and a candidate they could relate to. After her run for Governor, Abrams made good on that relatability when she put together funds to help her fellow Georgians get out of the crippling medical debt that pushed so many families to make difficult choices. Being human is an important part of connecting with voters. Read more
