A Citizen's Guide to Beating Donald Trump by David Plouffe

Author:David Plouffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

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In any presidential campaign, the battleground states suck up the lion’s share of the dollars—a subject I’ll return to in the following short chapter—but the most important currency in the battle for the battlegrounds is not money or campaign staff or even the candidate’s own time. It’s you and your time. I believe a successful presidential campaign is built on healthy connective tissue that runs from the candidate all the way down to the high schooler stuffing envelopes. It includes a presidential nominee who builds and inspires a talented and motivated staff; a staff in turn who recruits, inspires, and believes in strong local volunteer leaders; staff and volunteer leaders who welcome, train, listen to, and believe in volunteers; and volunteers who motivate, give strength to, and make the impossible possible for the candidate. Another virtuous circle in presidential campaign politics.

Given how close the battleground states have historically been and will definitely be again in 2020, your effort and those of your fellow committed citizens can flat out be determinative. What if in 2016 in Wisconsin the Clinton campaign had done all they could from HQ to win it and that effort was matched by a ferocious, well-supported volunteer effort? Well, I think we know. But that’s hindsight, which is worthless. We made mistakes in the Obama campaign despite our victories and no doubt our nominee in 2020 will as well.

The point is we need close to a perfect campaign to be run by the campaign professionals matched with a large-scale, effective, and intensive volunteer effort in the core battlegrounds. One won’t matter without the other.

Let’s dig into the battleground states. Some of you volunteers will be in residence while others will be pitching in from afar (which might not be very afar, maybe right across the state line).

Let’s start this discussion with those of you who do live in a battleground state (or have long desired to, in which case there’s no time like the present to finally make the move!) The first thing you want to do is let the campaign know that you exist and are interested in volunteering. You can easily do this through the candidate’s website. You raising your hand will be shared—in close to real time, I hope—with the staff and volunteer leaders who are already in place in your area. They’ll contact you. Make clear to them that you intend to be part of a winning effort. If you don’t hear back, and there’s an office address listed, just drop in. If they’re shorthanded, you might quickly get enrolled to start replying to other volunteers’ inquiries.

Be prepared to tell them what you can contribute. Think about this before you check in. What are you great at and like doing? Making posters? Cooking food for the other volunteers? Phone calling? Door knocking? Signing in people at events? Data entry? Can you help feed and house volunteers coming in from out of state? Do you drive and do you have a car? The

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