The AAPC recently spoke with two campaign consultants who worked on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's campaign about the importance of maintaining relationships with constituents throughout the campaign cycle, and the off-season as well. Read below to hear from Rania Batrice, Media Strategist & Partner, The Win Company and Matt McLaughlin, Executive Creative Director & Partner, The Win Company.
Stay tuned for our next eNewsletter, where we will get the perspective from a Republican campaign on this topic!
Maintaining ongoing relationships with campaign supporters and constituents when not running an active campaign can be challenging, but is important to keep momentum up. Can you speak to your involvement in this initiative?
Rania: We specifically worked on her media, but part of doing that was really scheduling around all her community involvement. Part of the ad we created for her campaign includes her doing things like delivering groceries to the community and helping get resources to folks in her district and elsewhere. It’s very inspiring and important that she sets that example of being a key part of the community. 2020 was pretty awful and it would have been really easy to blame COVID and fade into the background. Instead, she didn't fade into the background and say “We can’t do anything because of COVID.” Instead, she and her campaign said “What can we do for our districts and communities, who are suffering?” It was really important that she was doing that as a human being and as a representative of the district.
Matt: For AOC, it was less about how to continue to engage with constituents for future votes, but more so "How can I be a resource and provide support to my community?" Our campaign team based a lot of the campaign messaging around this idea.
What strategies have the AOC campaign, or other clients, found that work well?
Rania: I think most of our clients have a servant's heart, so it doesn't take much convincing on our end. Most of our clients want to serve in office because they have often had their own experience with struggles that they've had to navigate. For us, those are the people we want to work with. 2020 was a good example of an unprecedented, very difficult time. There's no playbook for a global pandemic in an election year. We had many discussions with our clients and campaigns about how to get into the community and help them through a pandemic safely.
Matt: Often, I'm the creative in the group, so most of my work is involved in the messaging and the ads. I always say that part of great work in movies and ads is casting. If we are good at anything as a firm, it is trying to work with and help out folks who embody the servant's spirit. That way, we don't have to have a discussion around "How do we make it look like you are more engaged with the community?" This job is really difficult and it takes a lot of emotion and hardship. It really doesn't feel worth it unless you are truly in love with the person you are working for.
What are the benefits of continuing communication with supporters during the off-season? Are there any downsides to doing this?
Matt: It reminds me of working with Lauren Underwood in Illinois. On that campaign we often talked about the importance of the women in her district who came together and started organizing where there wasn't an infrastructure to do so before. Their campaign would make it clear that they wanted to help other Democrats rise and have a voice as well as an infrastructure to engage with each other and other down-ballot candidates. It is bigger than just the individual campaign. If you look across the country, it’s all these smaller networks that build out to be a bigger coalition that have helped other folks win over the past few cycles. If you really stand for what you say you do, it’s about the community you live in and represent.
Rania: This past March marked 21 years in advocacy and politics for me. Sometimes I feel like an alien outside of my team because our happiness with our work is based on the clients we choose to work with. We are very much relationship people and I have to be in love in order to do the work. I will literally feel sick if I don't believe in the work I'm doing. If you are getting into it because you really want to serve as an office holder, part of that is building relationships and getting to know your community and their experiences. You have to emphasize that you really see them and know that each person is not just a number or a vote. Your community will vote for you because they know you will show up for them.
What best practices would you recommend to other campaigns who are looking to maintain those relationships that were built during the active campaign?
Matt: Don't count out the people who don't fit the mold. As someone who focuses a lot on messaging, messaging and new ideas don't always come from the status quo. It is important to be as much talent scouts as we are facilitators of the message. The culture of our firm is to be there and help those who might have been overlooked and don't fit the traditional mold.