Audrey Butler

Mike Henry: What Does a Campaign Manager Do? A Lot!

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 19:01:33 +0000

Mike Henry: What Does a Campaign Manager Do? A Lot! Andrew J Schappert Mon, 02/15/2021 - 14:01

Originally published on September 17, 2020

“Politics is a young person’s opportunity. It’s a great profession [where you can] work for committed people who try to move the country or your locality forward.” —Professional Campaign Manager Mike Henry

That was one of the insights shared on September 15 by longtime campaign manager Mike Henry during his (virtual) appearance as the guest of the second installment of First Tuesday, a series of conversations with political insiders hosted by Robinson Professor of Public Policy Steven Pearlstein and sponsored by the Honors College and the Schar School of Policy and Government.

View the full recording.

Mike Henry began his political career in the district office of Virginia Senator Chuck Robb (D), a former Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Schar School, and later worked for Virginia State House Democrats. In addition to being a campaign manager for two Virginia senate candidates and three congressional candidates, Henry was also the deputy campaign manager for Hilary Clinton (D) in 2008 and then worked with Virginia’s Tim Kaine (D) through his races for governor, senator, and vice president.

“I remember as a young kid watching a black and white television the day Richard Nixon resigned…I realized something big was happening,” Henry said of his initial inspiration. “That was the first time I remember being interested in politics.”

A campaign manager oversees a broad range of aspects of a candidate’s run, he said, from managing people, money, and press, to developing and executing strategies to give their candidate the exposure they need.

“When I’m managing a race, I try to take as many decisions off a candidate’s plate as possible,” Henry said. “[The candidate has] a lot of different pressures that I don’t have to worry about.”

Looking forward to the 2020 election, Henry noted “the dynamic is completely different” in this race compared with President Trump’s last run for president. “Whenever someone runs for re-election as president, normally [the campaign is] a referendum on their past four years,” he said. This time, not so much.

The First Tuesday series continues Tuesday, September 22 at 9 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. with Rebecca Pearcey, political director for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign. The events, which are coordinated in conjunction with Pearlstein’s Honors 131 course, are open to all members of the Mason community.

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Veteran Political Pollster Peter Hart Inaugurates First Tuesday Speaker Series

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 03:06:00 +0000

Veteran Political Pollster Peter Hart Inaugurates First Tuesday Speaker Series Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 01/10/2021 - 22:06

In This Story

Steven Pearlstein

Peter Hart, Dean of American Political Pollsters, speaks to students during the last year's First Tuesday speaker series. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Strategic Communications

Originally published on September 14, 2020

“The role of the pollster has changed from just delivering numbers, to now being the person who will shape [a campaign],” said Peter Hart, dean of American political pollsters on September 8 at the kick-off of a new series of video webinars called First Tuesday.

View the full recording.

��ӽ紫ý Robinson Professor of Public Policy Steven Pearlstein hosts the weekly conversations that bring high-profile guest speakers to discuss the latest developments in national and local election campaigns. The series is part of his Honors College course; Schar School students and the broader Mason community are invited to attend and deepen their insight into what promises to be one of the most contentious campaign seasons in recent history.

As a pollster, Hart reviews a candidate’s influence throughout an election, helping decide where to allocate money to reach demographics who may have been overlooked.

Hart also has been involved with polling since 1965 and has aided NBC-Wall Street Journal’s political polling. He has worked with over 50 senators, 40 governors, and multiple presidential candidates, and founded Hart Research in 1971. In addition to his experience in politics, he has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University.

A pollster’s insight has become critical to a candidate’s campaign, and the presidential elections are no different. Characterizing this role, Pearlstein noted that “campaigns are generally not about the issues, but the issues are used as a window into character." Polling gives an indirect indicator how the public is perceiving a candidate's character.

“Every campaign is a reflection of the candidate,” said Hart. “Trump may be talking issues, but what he is really stressing is a way of governing. When he said, ‘make America great again’, he wasn’t talking about making America great again…It was a code language to say, ‘We’re going to go back to the America you felt safe in’—a message [targeting] people who were 35 to 45 and above.”

The upcoming 2020 election will be unlike any we have seen before, as voters and candidates navigate a world in the middle of a pandemic. Hart predicts more uncertainty than ever with estimates regarding the results, as votes done by mail or absentee are counted after those done in person, and not before election night.

The First Tuesday series is sponsored by the Honors College and the Schar School of Policy and Government. Events will continue to every Tuesday, 9 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. EDT during campaign season, except November 3. They are open to the whole Mason community by registration. Next up, Pearlstein speaks with Mike Henry, former Campaign Manager for Democratic Senators Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, now a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Schar School.

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Former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis on the Election, ‘Branding’ Political Parties, and What’s Next

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 03:34:34 +0000

Former U.S. Rep. Tom Davis on the Election, ‘Branding’ Political Parties, and What’s Next Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 01/02/2021 - 22:34

In This Story

Steven Pearlstein

Screenshot by Audrey Butler/Honors College

Originally published on November 12, 2020

Amidst the record voter turnout for one of the most highly anticipated presidential elections, the motivations behind voters and candidates alike pose questions about where our nation now stands—and how to heal. According to former seven-term U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), we’ve got some ways to go.

“It’s a divided country. We are divided,” said Davis at the outset of his appearance on November 10’s First Tuesday program. It was the ninth and final episode of the political campaign webinar series hosted by ��ӽ紫ý Robinson Professor of Public Policy Steven Pearlstein. The series was sponsored by the Honors College and the Schar School of Policy and Government.

Davis, who recently stepped down as Mason’s rector, brought his political insights to a breakdown of one of the most controversial elections in our nation’s history. He knows a bit about divisiveness in politics: After declining to run for an eighth term he co-wrote the book The Partisan Divide: Congress in Crisis with former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas). Davis came to the conversation ready to analyze what happened in this year’s election.

Early on, the 2020 presidential election rose from the aftermath of a contentious presidential term, naming Donald Trump as the first president in history to be impeached, to lose the popular vote, and to hold only one term.

“Trump lost this [election] because of his personality,” Davis said, reflecting on Trump’s blunt mannerisms that have come to characterize the “brand” of his most loyal supporters. “It’s a bad brand for Republicans because the party, philosophically, has more to offer people…We’re not a party of entitlements, we’re a party of economic opportunity.”

Further building into this election, issues of social movements and pandemic response were fresh and influential in the minds of many voters, and Davis observed Trump’s radical attitude as the cause for gaining more opposition. In response to the handling of events surrounding George Floyd’s death, Davis pointed out, “For Trump, [this] was an opportunity to unify the country—and he didn’t know how to play on that other than polarize it, at a time the country was looking for some unity.”

The unity that was achieved, however, was the unity against the Republican president, as Davis emphasized, “Democrats were an anti-Trump party, not a progressive party.”

Yet despite the evident divide in our nation that seems larger than ever, Davis voiced a sense of optimism in the future, describing the election results as the outcome some may not have wanted, yet perhaps still “the government we needed.”

“[Now may be] time to slow down after some great tumultuous, divisive years,” Davis said. “Start talking to each other again instead of yelling at each other.”

Of course, the uncertain, post-election reality waits ahead, with new hurdles in store for both Republicans and Democrats, where Davis forecasts wrestling with major questions inside the dominant political parties.

“[Democrats] are going to have these fights now within the caucus of what they want that party to be,” he pointed out, describing whether they follow the progressive agenda of many young supporters or a more traditional agenda that many of the older generation of supporters favor.

Meanwhile, conservatives must answer with which values they best identify with. “Republicans are going to have to decide, ‘Do we want to keep Trump over the next four years, or do we want to shed him and put somebody else in?’” Davis asked.

Finally, perhaps beseeching his college audience, Davis said, “We need a new generation of leaders.”

Schar School fact: In a challenging job market, 87 percent of Schar master’s degree graduates from Winter ’19 and Spring ’20 hold full-time jobs.

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Schar News November 2020