You Can Change America by Running For Office
/If you, or someone you know, is interested in running for political office in the coming years, please take a moment to read this.
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash
Cate and I came to Europe to make the pilgrim’s journey to Santiago de Compostela and share a few weeks of life together while I still have the strength, health and will to do it.
Walking the seemingly endless miles toward Santiago gave me the opportunity to reflect on my life and what I’m planning on doing with the rest it.
Let me tell you, walking the Camino messes with your brain.
And so did the news that two central New York House elections have been lost in the mid-terms. Once again, we nominated candidates who were rich, tall, white men with no political experience who decided to play the sport of kings.
And we lost.
In the New York Times on a few days after the election, a leading national Democratic strategist said it best when he was quoted as saying, “It was a terrible night in New York. It’s infuriating that a night as good as it was for Democrats overall is undone by arrogance and incompetence”.
He’s right. So, I’ve made an important, life changing decision that people have suggested to me for a long time and that I hope will be of some worth to people.
I’m going to use my remaining spare time to start writing down what I’ve learned about political campaigns in the 50 years I’ve been doing this and share them in a newsletter which I will send out free to anyone who is interested in running for office. I hope to cover everything from making the decision to run, to raising money, writing a campaign plan to digital campaigning and GOTV.
My reason is simple. Among the thoughts running through my head are reflections on why it is that Republicans are beating the snot of Democrats in New York despite the fact that voters are acting against their own self-interest.
The answer is simple: we keep doing the same thing over and over. And, as a reminder the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
People don’t know how to run campaigns. People don’t know how to run for office. Young people are ignored. Women are shunned. It’s time to make a difference.
We need to build a bench. Candidates who run in local elections, gain both political and governmental experience, and set the stage to run for higher office. And to do this, we need YOU to run for office. I would do it myself, but I’m too damn old, but you’re not.
If you are interested in running for office or know someone who is and who would like to learn some of the basics of winning, please take a moment and sign up. It’s free.
Maybe together we change America.
