Jim Messina Quotes

I was very proud to support Obama's presidential campaign, from the primaries all the way to his historic victory.

Black Fergusonians have shown that they will vote when they have something to vote for and know that their vote will count. Seventy-six percent of them turned out in November 2012, when Missouri was a key swing state for Barack Obama's reelection.

With super PACs, we've seen voter turnout go up; interest in elections rise; and the number of competitive races increase. The campaigns of 2010 and 2012 have been more issue-oriented than their predecessors, not less.

I voted for Obama and I was delighted that he's been elected.

By all accounts, the senate race I ran in was a quality race in the wrong year.

This election is not about Obama. It’s about your Mama.

The tactics and strategy of every Presidential election campaign is most influenced by the previous Presidential election.

The only reason we won this election is that money does not vote. You do!

Nobody ever wins the first time they run for office. Nobody's ever supposed to win their first bid for office. Nobody's ever supposed to win without taking lobbyists' money. No one's ever supposed to defeat an incumbent. No one's ever supposed to run a grassroots campaign without running any ads on television. We did all of those things.

I campaigned for Obama, and that was such a big component of getting the vote out, was social media.

I ran my first campaign when I was 11. My slogan was 'Vote McVey, vote the right way.' I've never surpassed it!

You need to remind people that you vote, you matter, and that they can’t succeed without your help.

Whenever we do voter registration, we ask, 'Why haven't you voted before?' The response is often, 'No one's asked us.' It's not about telling people what to do - it's about sharing what they can do.

In America, one of our challenges, historically, is that we have very low voting rates, even during presidential elections.

I don't normally vote. I'm lazy and I never bought into the 'Every vote counts.'

I am constitutionally competent to contest the elections.

So few people vote these days, and I think it's partly because they don't feel like the institution really means anything to them. If you want them to vote, give them opportunities to do something else other than vote, to help.

No candidate dares to look for a new campaign model that could really enhance the democratic process. Instead we are left with the current one which makes our candidates look like hucksters.

For our white members, voting is something they have done for hundreds of years. But for us, it is not such a traumatic thing, because we have never participated in an election.

Our share of the vote overall rose by less than 1 per cent - yes, that's right: less than 1 per cent.

If Ralph Nader runs, President Bush is going to be re-elected, and if Ralph Nader doesn't run, President Bush is going to be re-elected. We're going to run on the president's strong and principled leadership and his positive agenda for a second term.

I loved campaigning for Obama.

In 2004, I ran for Congress and lost. In 2006, I ran again and won - defeating Richard Pombo, a seven-term Republican incumbent.

In a democracy there are only two types of power: there's organized people and organized money, and organized money only wins when people aren't organized.

I thought I could make a difference, so I ran for office.