Shaun King Quotes

You can't be the candidate and the campaign manager.

It is a simple reality that even as he [President Barack Obama] is a candidate for reelection, he continues to be President of the United States, and the demands of the job restrict his capacity in some instances to focus entirely on the campaign. He simply cannot do that. So he and we carefully allocate his time working with the campaign.

It sounds good to say you're going to campaign everywhere, but ultimately you have to make choices.

We get so many requests like, 'We want behind-the-scenes access,' or 'We're going to show people what it's really like to be on the campaign with Donald Trump.' But there is just no way that a camera or an episode or a documentary could capture what has gone on.

I made it clear that I can run a positive campaign and do it better.

Any time you get into a presidential campaign and the stakes are so high, all candidates - they want to be in complete control whenever they can. And you can't blame them for that.

I'll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most.

A lot of our Democratic consultants have fallen into the self-defeating prescription that the candidate that runs the most negative ads wins. I have a new theory: Positive is the new negative.

Herr Schroder has conducted two electoral campaigns, and he is doing it again now, by not telling people what is really necessary. He keeps avoiding the difficult and uncomfortable issues, those that imply changes and therefore provoke discussions.

Here's what I know about political campaigns: no matter what you map out at the beginning, it's always different at the end.

Most politicians, when they meet with a guy like me, or a guy like Carville, tell you about how they can win.

What is the primary purpose of a political leader? To build a majority. If voters care about parking lots, then talk about parking lots.

Every great political campaign rewrites the rules; devising a new way to win is what gives campaigns a comparative advantage against their foes.

Campaigns are not for educating. They're for linking up with the public mood.

You don't let the other side define the campaign.

If you can’t run against a political candidate, run against his campaign manager.

You're not trying to win 100 percent of the vote. You're after 50 percent plus one. It doesn't matter if you tick off the other 49 percent.

When you run a campaign the idea is not to appeal to pundits but to appeal to people.

In the art of governing you have to almost make love to your opponents and say “No” to some of your fiercest supporters. In campaigning it’s the exact opposite.

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

The losing side is comforted, I think, by this idea of magical gurus [masterminding the opponent’s campaign], because it’s less disconcerting than the fact that people just didn’t like them very much.

You have to have candidates who can actually win. The winners make policy; the losers go home.

How a candidate runs shapes how a president governs.

Psychology is the only necessary skill for running for president. Trump knows psychology.

I've worked on enough campaigns to know that the most aggrieved candidate rarely emerges victorious.