The New-Old Organizing Tool Perfect for Hillary Supporters
By: Julie E. Stauch
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Iowa Caucus

The New-Old Organizing Tool Perfect for Hillary Supporters

In recent campaigns, whether it’s a congressional campaign or presidential campaign, the fundamentals of voter contact are phoning and canvassing. It’s how I began as a volunteer (running a volunteer phone bank) and it’s what we measure in our contacts with voters leading up to elections. Voter contact is important. And, yet, every campaign is different and requires adaptation to meet the unique nature of each campaign. This year, as a supporter of Hillary Clinton, in addition to phoning for voter contact, I’ve been experimenting with hosting house parties — purposeful house parties — for Hillary, which leads me to say,

“If you support Hillary Clinton for President, then start hosting house parties.”

Last June I had the opportunity to hear a presentation by Stephanie Schriock of EMILY’s List, where she shared polling data on voter knowledge of Hillary. Most voters know who Hillary Clinton is and so she has very high name id. Surprisingly very few voters know what she’s done. We’re talking people who only think of her as the former First Lady, who don’t know about her full career as an attorney, child advocate, Children’s Defense Fund employee, US Senator from New York, and even as the Secretary of State in President Obama’s Cabinet.

I might have been skeptical of this statement had I not encountered this very phenomena at the 2008 caucuses. At my precinct caucus in 2008 a woman who was supporting then Senator Obama told me that, “being First Lady doesn’t qualify you to be President.” I recall my brain flashing to counter arguments like she’s been a senator longer than Barack Obama has been, and then flashed to the reality that this woman is not going to change her mind and I shouldn’t waste the short time we have to negotiate with someone who is already decided. That memory validated in a very personal way what Stephanie was telling us statistically. People need to know more about Hillary’s life experiences and that type of engagement takes more time than a phone call or talking with someone at their front door.

That was when I decided to host a house party for others who are supporting or interested in supporting Hillary Clinton. At the first house party in July my goal was to help educate people on Hillary’s bio, just the facts of who she is and what she has done. Ironically, to do so, I ended up expanding my knowledge of Hillary Clinton as well. (And here I thought I knew all about her.)

A former campaign colleague on another presidential caucus campaign created an episode of Jeopardy! where the topic was our candidate and facts about his career. It was fun and effective. As a campaign manager for congressional candidates, I used this and other games to help the campaign staff learn the information we needed to know.

Playing a fun game is a much better way to remember the information than reading a flat bio or listening to someone else read it.

For the July Hillary house party, I worked with another supporter to create the questions for the Jeopardy! board with the topic, Hillary Clinton. I was nervous about it because it’s one thing to tell people you’re working with that they “get” to play this game, and another thing to tell invited guests. Fortunately, they were all open to it. We formed two teams and offered old campaign pins as prizes. Everyone was engaged and brought their competitive spirit to the rounds. One person commented on leaving, “This is the first time I’ve actually learned something at a campaign house party.”

Since then, I’ve held a house party every month, with different people attending. September was another round of Jeopardy! with different categories, including adding information about the many different plans Hillary had rolled out during the summer months. Based upon questions from the participants, October was loosely styled like a trivia game, where the questions required higher level thinking skills and were focused on her policy plans.

November was the first of a series on caucus strategies, with a nod to the tradition from rural caucuses of a chili potluck. Unlike other caucus trainings, this one focused on reading the room, what to think about and how to use the information in front of you to inform the conversations with others in ways that will most help Hillary.

More importantly, when I’m calling Democrats in my precinct, I always tell them about some of the things going on in our own neighborhood and invite them to come to the next house party. It’s a great way to engage people in a conversation and to let them know that it’s happening here in their neighborhood. (And, yes, I do leave messages with my phone number and information about the next house party if no one answers the phone.)

If someone had told me a year ago that doing this would be helpful to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, I would have laughed and scoffed and probably said something like, “House parties are for fundraising, not for organizing.” Well, things change and hosting a house party for Hillary supporters is a good thing to do.

As Hillary supporters, we’re not just working to win the Iowa Caucuses or to secure the nomination, we want to see Hillary Clinton as our next president. Voters make their decisions on whom to support based on a variety of factors, including what influential friends know about a candidate. You, dear reader, can be that influential friend by hosting a house party. You’ll have fun and you’ll help Hillary.

As public and vocal supporters, we need to be well informed about our candidate and we need to help inform others. And we need to be open to doing what it takes to help others share our understanding of Hillary.

“If you support Hillary Clinton for President, then start hosting house parties.”