CASE STUDIES .

Background

Scott Walker seemed unbeatable. He’d won three governors’ races in 7 years. Although from Milwaukee himself, Walker, prefigured Trump, playing on animosity between Madison and Milwaukee on the one hand, and small towns/rural areas on the other—animosity later documented in an award winning book.

With Trump’s victory, a surging economy, record-low unemployment, a manufacturing plant bringing tens of thousands of jobs, and a multi-million dollar war chest, Walker appeared stronger than ever.

The Research-Based Strategy

We emerged from a multi-candidate, late-August primary having spent everything we had to secure the nomination. Walker immediately pounced, blanketing the airwaves with an ad attacking Evers for refusing to fire a teacher caught watching pornography at school and making sexual comments about students.

Expecting a fight right out of the primary, we had developed a clear response which diffused the tough negative. Winning required intense message discipline. We knew Walker would hit us hard right after the very competitive late-August primary, when we were broke.  We knew our weaknesses and were ready to respond: we tested a successful response to the “teacher porn” attack.  We knew Walker and his allies would go after us on taxes and were ready with a simple middle class tax cut of our own.

We also punched back. No matter how hard Walker tried to change the subject by screaming about failing to fire teachers accused of watching pornography, we wouldn’t let him deflect the voters’ attention from his record and character: he’d cut funding for schools, sued to take away prescription drugs and healthcare coverage from kids with cancer, and he used the state plane to go 60 miles and get a haircut.

We made clear that Walker puts his political career ahead of Wisconsin. Whether it was rejecting hundreds of millions of federal healthcare dollars, cutting education, allowing insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions or using the state plane to travel 60 miles and get a haircut, we attacked Walkers’ policies and his character.

Results

Despite being outspent 3:1, we succeeded where three other campaigns had failed, finally dislodging Walker. No wonder The Washington Post singled this out as “potentially the greatest victory in the midterms.” Campaigns and Elections Magazine gave us the award for “Best Bare Knuckled Street Fight Victory.”