Republicans Must Rediscover the Basics About How to Win Elections or Else Lose the Country

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News — It was the fall of 1963.  Morton Blackwell and I were sitting in his car in the parking lot of Alessi’s Drive-In at the corner of Florida Blvd. at North Foster.  Morton was the College Republican national director, and he had just appointed me to be the first Teen Age Republican chairman for Louisiana.  Alessi’s was the best place to get curly Q potatoes and we were eating ours.

I was 17 and a junior at Istrouma High School.

Mr. Charlton Lyons had just run the first major Republican campaign for governor in modern Louisiana history and did a credible job.  Barry Goldwater was about to make his famous run for President.  I was to meet him in January 1964.

Morton had three books for me to read.  The first was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The second was The Law by Frederick Bastiat, and the third was How to Win an Election by the AFL-CIO COPE. 

On Atlas Shrugged, he said, “This will help you understand what is going on in the world.  You can learn a lot from Ayn Rand but don’t get carried away with her. She’s not a Christian and this is not the Bible. Nevertheless, she does an excellent job of putting political events in perspective.”

On The Law, he said, “Bastiat was a member of the French General Assembly in 1848 when the Communists were on the verge of taking over France.  However, his speeches against Communism on the floor of the Assembly were very powerful.  They were printed and distributed across France. His arguments against tyranny resonated and France was saved from the Communists.  You may serve in the legislature someday.  Let Bastiat’s reason guide you!”

On How to Win an Election, he said, “This is the playbook of how the unions in America win elections, but this is not about unions, it’s about political technology.  The lessons in this book apply equally to everyone from Democrats and Republicans to unions and business.  It is technology anyone can use.  You must learn it and use it if you are to be successful in politics. Always remember that politics is about identifying your voters and physically getting them to the polls on election day.”

Years later, Morton Blackwell went on to found The Leadership Institute.  So far, it has trained more than 150,000 young conservatives to be candidates, campaign managers, or found conservative newspapers on college campuses.  More than 70 sitting members of Congress attended Leadership Institute training programs when they were young people.

I was Morton’s first student, and I remember his lessons well.

“Always remember that politics is about identifying your voters and physically getting them to the polls on election day.”

Today, Republicans are losing because they have forgotten that simple statement.  In fact, most people in politics don’t really understand that statement.

Notice some of the things Morton Blackwell didn’t say:

•He didn’t say politics is about money.

•He didn’t say politics is about polls.

•He didn’t say politics is about messaging.

•He didn’t say politics is about reaching out to 4’s and 5’s or mailing out oversized postcards or TV spots or appealing to special interest groups or ward bosses or the media.

Because it’s not mainly about any of those things.

Politics is mainly about finding — by name — the specific people who already agree with you and physically getting them to polls on election day.

It’s about having vote goals in your precinct, ward, parish, and state and working to identify the specific voters who will be part of reaching that vote goal.  Then the last two weeks, it’s about working to get them to the polls.  On election day, it’s about having a poll watcher checking off the names of each of your identified voters and making sure they vote.  On the afternoon of election day, it’s about calling and visiting those of your identified voters who haven’t yet voted and getting them to the polls.

In the 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980’s, that’s how Republican campaigns were run in Louisiana but not since.  In Louisiana, you never hear the words anymore, “Vote ID,” “vote goals,” or “turning out your voters.”  That is also true in most of the nation.

Think of it, in Louisiana, only 45 percent of eligible voters cast a vote in the mid-term elections. Nearly 55 percent did not.

Politics is not mainly about changing anyone’s mind.  That happens occasionally but it’s a tough job.  Mostly, politics is about finding the people among the 55 percent who agree with you and getting them to vote.  It’s not a hard job, but it does require work.  Mainly, you have to knock on their doors and ask them!

The main reason Republicans are not winning the races they should win is that they are listening to political consultants who are viewed as experts but really aren’t. Typically, the consultants want you to spend money on things that will earn them a commission — not on the ground game that will win the election.

Republicans have all the votes they need to win strong majorities in the House and Senate and to win the Presidency and most governorships.  But the voters who can make those victories happen are sitting at home and not voting.  

I’m not talking about Independents.  I’m talking about conservatives and Republicans who are sitting at home and not voting.  Mostly, they are simply busy living life.  The way to get their vote is to identify who they are — by name — and keep on them to vote.  Overwhelmingly, if asked, they will vote!

In Matthew 7:7, the Word says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

How strongly these words written 2,000 years ago apply to politics! If you want to save America, make sure you ask, seek, and knock!  If you do, “the door will be opened to you,” and America will be saved!