I Know a Thing or Two About a Thing or Two

A blueprint

I am not a political consultant. I am not a political insider. I am a progressive grassroots organizer living and working with the very people the Democrats purport to need to win elections nationwide.

So many consultants are ignoring the people who actually know the issues to win in rural America, and candidates are paying for that mistake.

I live in a GOP-dominated state in a very rural area, and I know my neighbors and understand rural spaces. I drive to other rural communities two to four times a month to talk to other rural Democrats who are organizing in their own red communities.

I can answer the question, “Why do they vote against their self-interest?”

Self-interest is subjective. Self-interest can only really be known by the person casting the ballot, and some people believe that suffering economic hardships in order to vote for an anti-abortion candidate is truly in their “self-interest.” And sometimes, more often than not in hyper-local races, rural folks only have Republicans on their ballot. They couldn’t vote in their self-interest if they tried.

I also know that farmers and rural industries still feel the impact of NAFTA, though Democratic folks have stopped talking about it. I know monopolies and corporate agriculture have gutted rural spaces. I know public school defunding and the collapse of rural health systems are hammering the final nail in the coffin of rural areas across the country.

I know and understand rural people and communities as do my friends doing the same work across the country. There are hundreds of us on the ground working every single day to reach our neighbors.

And yet, I rarely get calls from political consultants who would like to better understand the people I speak to on a daily basis. In fact, I have stopped spending much time in rooms with people who say they want to understand how to win back red spaces because I usually leave these rooms feeling like I am treated as a unique oddity and then dismissed because my advice is that the only way out is directly through the middle of Republican country.

I’ll tell you what’s hardest to swallow — the massive amount of money poured into political consulting each year.

Basic consulting for a small campaign can run anywhere from $10K-$50K. Big national campaigns may spend $100K per month on consulting.

I am tired of so many consultants making so much money on so many campaigns across the country while not listening to organizers with decades of experience on the ground. I am tired of their bad advice to candidates and the way they gloss over the need to listen to the people.

And I am not just talking about rural organizers — I am talking about the people on the ground across the country in urban and suburban spaces. Those with the intimate knowledge of their own communities being dismissed by highly-paid consultants who lose race after race for their candidates and go on to run even more unsuccessful races while filling their own pockets with the grassroots donations from hopeful folks who really are hungry for change.

I understand spending money and losing a race, but most losing local races keep campaign dollars in their own communities. The down-ballot Democratic candidates I work with every single day usually don’t have the money to hire consultants, but nearly every dollar they raise and spend goes to a local or statewide vendor.

Supporting a down-ballot candidate for state office is a boon to local printers and event spaces and vendors of all sorts. The money sent into these campaigns stays in the communities involved in the race. Grassroots donors are often giving $10 or $25 hoping to build something in their communities, and local campaigns are really good at recycling money through the community.

Investing in the cheap seats is a wise use of a political donation.

And speaking of money, here is where I will give away some of my local grassroots candidate knowledge…how to raise money for a rural race.

You likely know I ran for the Missouri Statehouse in 2022. You may not know that I raised more for my race than any other State Leg candidate in the entire state. I raised almost $275K for a rural seat in deep red Missouri and the question I have been asked for years is just how I managed that.

Easy. I didn’t really ask for money. I was too embarrassed to ask for donations for my campaign. I never completed one minute of call time and I never reached out to donors through registries or paid lists. I didn’t call up my friends or relatives and ask for donations. I didn’t do any of the things I was supposed to do to raise money for my race.

But I did use social media and a lot of it. I posted daily videos and updates about my area and my platform and how I wasn’t alone in a rural area. The money started coming in, and with every few thousand dollars, I would make a post showing donors what they had purchased for the campaign and how I intended to use it whether it was signs or T-shirts or campaign lit. After each post, several more folks would donate and I repeated the process until I had outraised every single candidate who had ever run in MO House District 1.

I filmed myself knocking doors and making calls and showing up at parades and forums and debates. Through the entire process, I created hope that all isn’t lost in places like mine and in other difficult races across the country.

Raising so much money did not in fact win the race, but it was a game changer for rural Missouri politics — it put my district on the map and let Republicans know that they aren’t invincible. And just by showing up against the odds, I helped others realize they could do it too. And they are doing it. All over the state.

Missouri has almost every state race contested this cycle, and that is the first hurdle to change. But would an out-of-state political consultant understand that? I am not certain.

We can’t continue to ignore local knowledge and local organizers who know their neighbors and the issues important to their neighbors. We can’t use national messaging for state races. We can’t chase the optics that some consultants want to see at the risk of losing the voters’ reality.

The best way for candidates to get their messaging is to talk to organizers on the ground, and of course, the gold standard, talking to voters in meetings and rallies and forums across the particular district.

Show up in local spaces and get to know local organizers.

Use vendors as close to the community as humanly possible to help fund local infrastructure.

Consider paying organizers rather than high-priced consultants…especially in state level races.

~Jess