Want To Save Democracy? January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 Read Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines. by former Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper. But first read How The Democratic Party’s Campaign Strategy Is Failing America . . . . . . Compared to changing a voter’s party, a candidate choice is almost insignificant. If 90 percent of voters are choosing parties rather than candidates, why are we spending all of our advertising dollars to distinguish candidates? Convincing a voter to cast a ballot for a candidate is a one-time decision affecting one election contest in one year. Getting a voter to move party allegiance might be a hundred times more valuable. . . . If elections have become contests between parties far more than candidates, it is imperative that Democrats press the advantage. But the Democratic Party continues to follow the formula of the last 70 years: Raise money. Ignore dramatic and vote changing events, and save all the money for candidate ads in the fall of the election year. So — the first change has to be to shift our focus from candidates to parties. But given the ineffectiveness of most campaign ads, how do we change how we conduct our advertising campaigns? The first thing we have to do is to become more opportunistic. In other words, run our ads in the news cycle and use them to amplify and enhance news stories currently before the voters. Let me offer some examples. A majority of American voters believe that the 2020 election was fairly decided. Yet a majority of House Republicans voted to overturn the election. How many Americans know this? Ads run in the aftermath of Jan. 6 could have had a profound impact on many voters. Eighty-five percent of American households received a $1,400 stimulus check. Yet every single Republican senator voted against these checks. How many voters know? Is not an ad – at the time the checks are arriving – much more powerful than waiting until October of 2022, when the checks have been spent or mostly forgotten? Seventy-one percent of American voters want the Republicans to work with the Democrats for the good of the country. Yet Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has stated, on video, that he is “100 percent focused on stopping this new administration.” Why are Democrats not sharing this video with voters? . . . . . . and craft your giving strategy accordingly.* Thank you! *Obviously, if everyone stopped giving to candidates, it would be a disaster. But there’s no risk of that. By way of example: The entire DNC budget in 2018 was not much different from what Democratic candidates spent that year in just one state — in just one race — fighting each other — to see who would get to run against Ron DeSantis for governor.