After the election, post-mortems about who won and who lost are all over the place. But how many “what won” and “what lost” do you see? As someone who engaged in exit polling all day in a Battleground State before spending the night watching the results, there are some clear lessons for what worked for candidates and what didn’t.
Hopefully operatives will look at these lessons closely instead of dismissing them so blithely, as some politicos did on Election Night.
Tele-Rallies Fizzled. In place of many in-person appearances, “tele-rallies” became the new thing. I was invited to the Georgia one. In the 20-minute version, President Trump meandered for 15 minutes about why he got into the race in 2015, how good looking his GOP candidates were, and how not-good-looking Senator Ossoff was. Gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson had about two minutes to speak. Senate candidate Mike Collins sounded like he had 10 minutes of stuff to say, and chose to cram it into two minutes, so I couldn’t follow any of it. A better version was Rep. Brian Jack’s (R-GA) call-in Q&A, where voters asked questions.
Promising Voters Money. I lost count of how many times we were offered money, like tariff rebates, DOGE checks, or just $5,000 for the heck of it, but only if Republicans won. After the first one fell through, you pretty much knew that the Nigerian Prince money was a better bet.
Picking Candidates For The Republicans. From selecting Darline Graham (Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister) to backing Ken Paxton against Senator John Cornyn, President Trump only proved he can’t pick candidates well. Ditto Michael Whatley (NC) and Michael Rogers (MI). Letting the voters decide seems like a better option, unless Graham Platner is your nominee.
Saturating The Market With Mailers And Ads. Every day in our mailbox, we got a different mailer from Rick Jackson. Every time we turned on the television, we were treated to another series of ads saying that Rick Jackson didn’t grow up with much money (We know! We got it since the first round of the GOP Primary) and how bad he and others claim Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was (We heard you the first time). A reporter stacked up the mailers to show how many came out. We became pretty numb to them. There were missed opportunities to explain what he would do if he won, other than cut property taxes and income taxes, without much in explaining what they would be offset by. Even Republicans are happy the ads are over.
Last Minute Policies: Some in politics are captivated by the myth of “October Surprises” and allegedly how these episodes can be game changers. We were treated to several in the waning days, even hours of the campaign. From cutting aid to Israel to promising to make (only new) data centers pay their own way for utilities and services, to naming geographic locations, to demanding A.I. be renamed “Super Intelligence” to an Election Day bombing of Iran. In the end, each last second idea fizzled the way introducing a wild new character, on a sitcom with falling ratings, fizzles.
As I learned from exit polling, the vast majority of voters made up their minds long ago about who they would support at the ballot box. Lots of voters were angry. And no ballroom, arch, “Trump-Kennedy Center,” Greenland, or DC golf course is going to appease them.
Will Democrats learn?
Future Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pointed out that just because voters vented their frustration with Trump, it doesn’t mean they voted for Democrats. Recognizing they still must win over the voters may be the smartest thing the Democratic Party does in 2027.
John A. Tures is Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Political Science Program at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia. His first book, “Branded”, is available on Amazon. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu.