slouch posted:

hey yall sorry for being so mia lately. i promise i am still alive and everything. losing was insanely embarrassing and was quickly followed by my (now ex) girlfriend deciding that she would rather pursue sex work than our relationship. it's been an emotionally difficult month and a half. unfortunately a lot of the other political races in my area did not end up going to my preferred candidates. i was hoping that if i lost i would be able to work for another "life raft" campaign but there hasn't been much available. that said, continuing to stay active has been keeping me somewhat sane recently. i've been doing graphic design type poo poo for the local party and some other candidates. i got added to the county's coordinated campaign comittee and have somehow been given the ability and authority to mass text every single person who voted in the primaries, which has been amusing so far. there was also the local town candidates forum i was the moderator for, which gave me the opportunity to bring up issues like affordable housing. since it was mostly republican candidates they all said that It Was All Up To The Free Market but this got a pretty negative reaction from the audience. i would also really like to get involved more heavily in a DSA organization, either Denton's or the general north texas group. anyway all of this is to say that i'm trying to keep myself busy.

anyway here are some takeaways from my Campaign Experience

1: i did a poor job of reaching out to un-engaged voters
something that we saw across the county was a lot more voter participation from people who weren't involved in the party or any campaign events than we expected. a lot of this was driven by suburban area moms who are probably not too happy with the donald. this led to a lot of voting by name, and female candidates ended up taking every contested primary they were involved in. some people have been grumpy about gender based voting but tbh i think it's pretty dope for women who are running for office. ultimately it falls on me for not getting my name and platform out there to those voters. i'm not exactly sure what i could have done to accomplish this goal but that's kinda my job as a candidate. fwiw pretty much everyone who was actually involved in the party supported and voted for me in the end.

2: you probably don't need a ton of money to run a primary campaign
yall donated way too much money to me lol. i ended up donating about 1.8k of my leftover campaign funds to North Texas Dream Team, an organization that does a bunch to support DACA recipients. (i probably should have just kept the money for myself but it seemed inappropriate) my biggest campaign cost was the billboard thing, and it was probably an unnecessary expense. doing in person events and online advertising can both be done for pretty cheap. i have no idea what amount of cash i would need to run an effective general election campaign but if you are considering running yourself you really don't need to worry about having enough money in the early stages. fundraising will come more easily post-primary when you really need to start spending. this is especially true if you can manage to leverage traditional media to advertise yourself for free.

3: running is fun
it's pretty exciting. if you aren't afraid of speaking in public definitely give it a shot. you will meet a bunch of nice people and maybe even make some new friends. even my idiot autism brain was able to handle it. there will probably be a bunch of stupid drama happening but it's pretty easy to ignore. just be a decent person and things will be fine. most people want to like you and will be friendly.

4: people definitely are ready for left wing politics
my biggest worry going into this was that the local democratic party would not be comfortable with my political ideology. this ended up not being a problem at all. people really want to hear bold policy goals and will respond positively if you present your ideas in a way that makes sense. my only hope is that the national party learns this one before the upcoming presidential election. the old paradigm of "safe" politics has been pretty much shattered among voters which is an exciting prospect for anyone who wants to push a less traditional political platform. the sooner we acknowledge and begin working under this new political landscape the better.

5: working "within the system" can affect change
this is something that is kinda contentious within left wing circles but i strongly believe it to be true. political power requires organization and the easiest way to get it is to take advantage of the political organizations already in place. i don't mean to say that everyone should just support bad dems or whatever, though. accomplishing anything worthwhile will end up taking a bunch of work. but it only takes a few well organized people and a decent speaker to make an impact. i would really like to see orgs like the DSA pushing hard in 2019 to get candidates on the ballot across the country. having lost the election might take away a bit from this one but i've personally seen my local democrat party go from mostly just being anti-trump to actively supporting affordable housing initiatives, minimum wage increases, supporting the abolish-ICE movement, medicare for all, etc. getting these ideas out there and seeding people who are willing to make poo poo happen throughout the establishment would be extremely effective in achieving change. the left really needs to begin developing a network of people in establishment positions of power. protesting on the streets would be much more effective if there were also supportive people in the rooms where decisions get made. this is especially true right now, as politicians and bureaucrats currently have no incentive to actually listen to critical voices. this is not meant to take away from the importance and value of grassroots activism - both realms of political activity work best when they can support each other & work together/

6: give people stuff to do
this is more of a general organizing principal that i've learned. the best way to engage a group is to make sure that everyone has a chance to feel like they are doing something productive. create opportunities for people to do small things, make it as easy as possible for people to get involved in taking on bigger jobs, and definitely schedule social events so that people stay connected with each other. it's easy to feel useless and feeling useless just leads to burnout. having too much stuff to do is a much better problem to have than under-scheduling and letting people forget that they are valuable parts of something important.


anyway that's all i've got for right now. thanks to everybody itt for being supportive and kind to me. obviously i wish i had won, but i don't feel like the time spent has been wasted at all. it would have been really funny to put on a good show in the general election though. and when i run again in 2020 seriously don't throw your money away until after the primary is over, okay?

slouch posted:

hey yall sorry for being so mia lately. i promise i am still alive and everything. losing was insanely embarrassing and was quickly followed by my (now ex) girlfriend deciding that she would rather pursue sex work than our relationship. it's been an emotionally difficult month and a half. unfortunately a lot of the other political races in my area did not end up going to my preferred candidates. i was hoping that if i lost i would be able to work for another "life raft" campaign but there hasn't been much available. that said, continuing to stay active has been keeping me somewhat sane recently. i've been doing graphic design type poo poo for the local party and some other candidates. i got added to the county's coordinated campaign comittee and have somehow been given the ability and authority to mass text every single person who voted in the primaries, which has been amusing so far. there was also the local town candidates forum i was the moderator for, which gave me the opportunity to bring up issues like affordable housing. since it was mostly republican candidates they all said that It Was All Up To The Free Market but this got a pretty negative reaction from the audience. i would also really like to get involved more heavily in a DSA organization, either Denton's or the general north texas group. anyway all of this is to say that i'm trying to keep myself busy.

anyway here are some takeaways from my Campaign Experience

1: i did a poor job of reaching out to un-engaged voters
something that we saw across the county was a lot more voter participation from people who weren't involved in the party or any campaign events than we expected. a lot of this was driven by suburban area moms who are probably not too happy with the donald. this led to a lot of voting by name, and female candidates ended up taking every contested primary they were involved in. some people have been grumpy about gender based voting but tbh i think it's pretty dope for women who are running for office. ultimately it falls on me for not getting my name and platform out there to those voters. i'm not exactly sure what i could have done to accomplish this goal but that's kinda my job as a candidate. fwiw pretty much everyone who was actually involved in the party supported and voted for me in the end.

2: you probably don't need a ton of money to run a primary campaign
yall donated way too much money to me lol. i ended up donating about 1.8k of my leftover campaign funds to North Texas Dream Team, an organization that does a bunch to support DACA recipients. (i probably should have just kept the money for myself but it seemed inappropriate) my biggest campaign cost was the billboard thing, and it was probably an unnecessary expense. doing in person events and online advertising can both be done for pretty cheap. i have no idea what amount of cash i would need to run an effective general election campaign but if you are considering running yourself you really don't need to worry about having enough money in the early stages. fundraising will come more easily post-primary when you really need to start spending. this is especially true if you can manage to leverage traditional media to advertise yourself for free.

3: running is fun
it's pretty exciting. if you aren't afraid of speaking in public definitely give it a shot. you will meet a bunch of nice people and maybe even make some new friends. even my idiot autism brain was able to handle it. there will probably be a bunch of stupid drama happening but it's pretty easy to ignore. just be a decent person and things will be fine. most people want to like you and will be friendly.

4: people definitely are ready for left wing politics
my biggest worry going into this was that the local democratic party would not be comfortable with my political ideology. this ended up not being a problem at all. people really want to hear bold policy goals and will respond positively if you present your ideas in a way that makes sense. my only hope is that the national party learns this one before the upcoming presidential election. the old paradigm of "safe" politics has been pretty much shattered among voters which is an exciting prospect for anyone who wants to push a less traditional political platform. the sooner we acknowledge and begin working under this new political landscape the better.

5: working "within the system" can affect change
this is something that is kinda contentious within left wing circles but i strongly believe it to be true. political power requires organization and the easiest way to get it is to take advantage of the political organizations already in place. i don't mean to say that everyone should just support bad dems or whatever, though. accomplishing anything worthwhile will end up taking a bunch of work. but it only takes a few well organized people and a decent speaker to make an impact. i would really like to see orgs like the DSA pushing hard in 2019 to get candidates on the ballot across the country. having lost the election might take away a bit from this one but i've personally seen my local democrat party go from mostly just being anti-trump to actively supporting affordable housing initiatives, minimum wage increases, supporting the abolish-ICE movement, medicare for all, etc. getting these ideas out there and seeding people who are willing to make poo poo happen throughout the establishment would be extremely effective in achieving change. the left really needs to begin developing a network of people in establishment positions of power. protesting on the streets would be much more effective if there were also supportive people in the rooms where decisions get made. this is especially true right now, as politicians and bureaucrats currently have no incentive to actually listen to critical voices. this is not meant to take away from the importance and value of grassroots activism - both realms of political activity work best when they can support each other & work together/

6: give people stuff to do
this is more of a general organizing principal that i've learned. the best way to engage a group is to make sure that everyone has a chance to feel like they are doing something productive. create opportunities for people to do small things, make it as easy as possible for people to get involved in taking on bigger jobs, and definitely schedule social events so that people stay connected with each other. it's easy to feel useless and feeling useless just leads to burnout. having too much stuff to do is a much better problem to have than under-scheduling and letting people forget that they are valuable parts of something important.


anyway that's all i've got for right now. thanks to everybody itt for being supportive and kind to me. obviously i wish i had won, but i don't feel like the time spent has been wasted at all. it would have been really funny to put on a good show in the general election though. and when i run again in 2020 seriously don't throw your money away until after the primary is over, okay?

Trumps Baby Hands posted:

I don’t think this even counts as a failure or a loss. It’s just the first sentence in the “Political Career” section of your future Wikipedia page. “At the age of 23, Richard Wolf ran unsuccessfully in the democratic primary for Texas House District 63”, followed by a few other paragraphs about your subsequent successful campaigns, followed by a massive ten page section about your sex scandals and cover ups

Lutha Mahtin posted:

this is pretty cool OP it sounds like you have discovered a vocation!

Billzasilver posted:

Friend posted:

Have we ruled out the possibility that the ex was a political operative sent by Tan? "Pursue sex work" sounds an awful lot like "move on to my next intel gathering target"

slouch posted:

6: give people stuff to do
this is more of a general organizing principal that i've learned. the best way to engage a group is to make sure that everyone has a chance to feel like they are doing something productive. create opportunities for people to do small things, make it as easy as possible for people to get involved in taking on bigger jobs, and definitely schedule social events so that people stay connected with each other. it's easy to feel useless and feeling useless just leads to burnout. having too much stuff to do is a much better problem to have than under-scheduling and letting people forget that they are valuable parts of something important.

Shear Modulus posted:

did laura haines ever stake out a position on issues other than star wars, harry potter, and three-paragraph weasily answers on guns

Best Giraffe posted:

what i'm hearing here is that dick wolf's message failed to penetrate the all important suburban mom demographic

slouch posted:

6: give people stuff to do
this is more of a general organizing principal that i've learned. the best way to engage a group is to make sure that everyone has a chance to feel like they are doing something productive. create opportunities for people to do small things, make it as easy as possible for people to get involved in taking on bigger jobs, and definitely schedule social events so that people stay connected with each other. it's easy to feel useless and feeling useless just leads to burnout. having too much stuff to do is a much better problem to have than under-scheduling and letting people forget that they are valuable parts of something important.

Sojenus posted:

this seems easily accomplished by ensuring everyone on a campaign is up to date on the latest in posting techniques and technologies

Ruzihm posted:

haha sickos yes

The Aardvark posted:

This is it Dick Wolf, this is your 2020 platform.