Election Strategy Quotes

A politician thinks of the next election; the statesman thinks of the next generation

We have two parties who are basically hijacking our country for their corporate paymasters. And if we focus on 535 members of Congress, that's not all that many, we're going to see a fast turnaround. So focus all your concerns, all the information, the kind of agenda the Green Party has. Turn it right on your Senators and Representatives.

I won in a primary, so I understand primary fights.

The general election is not an organizational exercise - it's a mass media exercise.

President Trump's coalition clearly involves creating massive turnout in areas where he's popular.

I think the age of the modern media campaign has created a new icon, the celebrity-in-chief. Political elections have become wars fought by candidates with opposing values.

The Democrats have made the low-information voters think they care about 'em. And the worst thing you can do is invest in the Democrat Party, the worst thing, in terms of life potential.

Democrats losing elections. Donald Trump did win this. It's not illegitimate. And when the day comes that they realize and sober up that he's not going to be hounded out of office, that he's not gonna wake up one day and say to Mike Pence, "Here. Take the keys. I've had it." Then what are they gonna do? Because they're shooting every barrel they've got now. And they will probably continue. The think least we can make people hate him.

The difference between a politician and a statesman is: a politician thinks of the next election and a statesman thinks of the next generation.

Law of Diminishing Returns: As the popularity of a candidate approaches zero, the probability that he or she will release a wildly bizarre video approaches 1.

Palin was a political Hail Mary, a long bomb in the closing minutes of a game that John McCain and Co. were certain to lose. They didn't care if she had the policy or political or emotional capacity to serve as vice president, let alone president. They were willing to drive the country off a cliff, if that's what it took to win.

I joked at our National Convention that our party was nominating a candidate for president who was charismatic, larger than life, memorable, so they wanted to balance the ticket.

While Jeb Bush finds himself mired in the muck of an intramural fight in his own party over his remarks about the Iraq War, Hillary Clinton is sticking to the low-key strategy, and it looks like it's working.

Republicans want to use Obamacare in the 2014 elections against Democrats who voted for it. They want to see it fail, even at the expense of people's health.

Imagine Texas as a blue state: how hard it would be to carry the presidency or gain control of the Senate.

Among the reasons Donald Trump is president is that he read the nation and the world better than his rivals.

It's rare when a president wins the campaign without winning independents.

Candidates who went into an election with negatives higher than 30 or 40 points just inevitably lost.... Drive up the opposition's negatives.

The way elections are won in Minnesota is by talking to people and sharing what's on their minds. It sounds so simple, but it really is the thing that works.

I'm not a Trump fan, to put it mildly, but I think there's a power to simplicity. When Trump was running, people knew exactly what he stood for and what he was going to do as President.

The Democrats have concocted this whole phony 'war on women' narrative simply to mask their dreadful record on the economy and jobs.

Michigan will be Democratic in some years and Republican in some years. I don't think we'll ever make the mistake like we did in 2016 and not turn out again.

We want to be the alternative party in Tamil Nadu.

As the prospect of a Tory government gets nearer, many traditional Labour voters - some who switched away in recent times and many who stayed at home - seem more determined to prevent that happening.

Democrats fell in love with the idea that winning elections was a matter of talking to voters about the one issue we think impacts them, instead of our plan to move the country forward as a whole.