March 17, 2012 was one of a couple times I, Publius Jr, marched in the St Paul MN St Patrick's Day Parade for a Candidate's Campaign. I remember most of the people in this photo but most of all I remember the Candidate, Tony Hernandez. He has a green lei around his neck and standing to the right of the Tony Hernandez sign. That was a fun campaign.
This parade was about 2 1/2 months before I became the admin for the saintpaulrepublican.us website.
Tony Hernandez had a great story to tell about himself, not just his background which was Hispanic and Irish, but he had a story of an economic turnaround and a near death accident which drastically changed his life around.
Tony's Story
His story was unbelievable. Just looking at him you wouldn't believe it but he was almost killed on the way to work one morning on the freeway. He had a job in the financial world and he was on his way to work one day and little did he know some delinquent kids thought it would be funny to push over the side of an overpass a cinder block. Yeah, I winced when I heard that too when he told it.
Thankfully for the body's ability to put oneself into shock when an extreme wound happens to the body. Tony said he didn't remember anything about what had happened. He said he was driving his car and the next moment he remembers is that he woke up in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a hospital. The cinder block had fallen and his car had smashed into it going at highway speeds and it landed in his mid-section and his car crashed after that.
Well his insurance was chewed up and he lost a lot of his savings but he had the one precious thing in the world and that was he was alive. He spent a long time in the hospital. He had a dutiful nurse named Leona to care for him. Eventually upon his release he clawed his way back into a comfortable financial place before he ran for office. Though right after the Cinco de Mayo parade a few months later he went on his Honeymoon with his beautiful bride Leona.
Now I wouldn't recommend getting married during a political campaign but it seemed to work for Tony & Leona. 2012 was a redistricting year and Minnesota Congressional District 4 had expanded east to Stillwater MN but we lost some areas south of the Mississippi River south of St Paul.
Lessons Learned From Tony's Campaign
This year brought in new volunteers from the East Metro who sadly found out that they were in an area that hasn't beat the Democratic Farmer & Labor (DFL) Party since 1948. These new volunteers actually had been voting for CD6 Rep Michelle Bachmann who lived in the Stillwater area and her neighborhood was redistricted into CD4. She still ran in CD6 and would win, then she decided to run for President and she vacated that seat, then Tom Emmer got elected there. So those East Metro Republican Volunteers went from being able to vote for someone who had a better than even chance of winning to hopeless.
First lesson: Share Yard Sign & Donor Lists with Future Candidates
The staff of the Tony Hernandez for Congress campaign found a number of wonky practices. After every race for the US House the lists for yard signs and donors seems to get shelved and never shared from year to year. They had to beg the CD4 Republicans and the local party units (bpous) in St Paul and in the East Metro Area. You'd think you would just grab the lists from the previous cycle and see if anyone has moved away, passed away, or switched parties. Nope. It doesn't happen. So each campaign cycle the candidate has to recreate the wheel and the time it takes to do this wastes the time you could have been doing something else.
Second Lesson: Parades Don't Win Elections
I see notices for candidates who are going to be marching in parades and they need people to march with them, hand out candy, stickers, etc. Setting up the logistics to sustain a candidate and his group of volunteers for a mile or two is a bit daunting. Water for them is a must, as well as a first aid kit big enough for many people having an injury. Mostly there aren't bumps, bruises, or cuts. Most tend to be dehydration but a first aid kit is a must. Have enough candy for the entire route. It's more than you think because there are two sides to the parade route.
Though with all that logistical preparation it won't win votes. It says to the average voter, "Oh look there's a candidate for office who I haven't seen before." That is it. There isn't anything that is lasting in the minds of voters. Unless there was a parade the week before an election, whether you show up to a parade or not it's not going to be something that is a good expenditure in a campaign.
Third Lesson: Don't Open up a Can of Worms with Certain Issues
I felt flattered when Tony sent me an email asking what he should put into a Newspaper style Literature piece for voters to read about. No one had ever asked me before what my opinions were. Tony was the first candidate to do that and I still feel great that he asked.
That year, there were 2 Ballot questions about Amendments to the Minnesota State Constitution. The first one was about making marriage between 1 man and 1 woman. The second ballot question was to require making Photo ID a requirement to vote. The Marriage amendment was to codify the US Congressional Law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Tony asked what he should put into this Literature piece to put on the doors of voters. I suggested a number of things and then I said to stay away from these State Constitutional Amendments because they have nothing to do with a Congressional Race. So the first time he heeded my suggestion.
Then right before the General Election he put out another one and I reiterated this warning to stay out of these Constitutional Amendments and he didn't listen to me. He listened to the Libertarians like Mitch Berg, and his wife Leona said. He said one should be able to marry who they want. This I believe cost him a lot of votes from Christians who support the definition of marriage by God.
Fourth Lesson: Start Your Campaign a few Years Ahead
There are 2 Big Advantages of running for Office a year or two before an election. The first is in donations and second is in getting your name out there.
Tony had originally decided to run for US Senate against 1 term incumbent Senator Amy Klobuchar. Then when guys like Pete Hegseth, Kurt Bills, and a few others were lining up, someone thought Tony should run in CD4 instead. So Tony had to switch gears and run for something more suitable. He was from HD 64B which is one of the Wealthiest Neighborhoods of St Paul, Highland Park.
So Tony ran and won the endorsement on the first ballot. He beat a guy who had entered the race 2 weeks prior to the CD4 Convention.
Problem with Tony's candidacy was he got clobbered by the DFLer in 2010 for HD 64B. And in a redistricting year he had very little name recognition beyond Highland Park.
So starting earlier like a year before may have changed the election results. Though there was one key element missing: community engagement, or as I call it, "The Work."
The Work, I will cover in more detail in another post, but it is community engagement to build a bankable reputation.
Another indirect aspect of The Work, is letting the public know of your beliefs. This can be done by letters to the Editor, Town Hall Forums, Giving Comments at the Public Comment period at the School Board and City Council Meetings. If you are making your beliefs known to the public you need to be friendly with the local press. The Republican Party of just about every state seems to be at odds with the local press and they view them as being hostile. I, myself, have a number of press contacts, mostly with print media rather than TV media. I actually respect them more because when I do articles I do the same sort of research they do but I don't get paid for it. They have to present the story and while they can insert a photo, their story really relies upon what they write. TV reporters tend to comment on the video and that really doesn't require a lot expertise. The camera person does require some skills though.
Fifth Lesson: Telling Stories People Can Relate to Can Cut Through the Rhetoric
The last lesson I think is very important if you want to run a successful campaign is to be able to give examples of what has happened when certain policies your opponent supports were implemented.
In the book by Malcolm Gladwell, "David and Goliath," talks about a number of topics in the book. One of them is how people perceive information. He cites studies done but there is a different kind of response to a speaker when they give statistics, figures and values in numbers versus a story about someone who had to pay more than they used to for a product. Let's talk about Eggs costing more today than 4 yrs ago when Trump was in office. If I were to show a chart and talk in a fashion that cites money and the amount of inflation your eyes would cloud over after a minute or so. Though if I were relate to you about how hard it was to survive on a fixed income how much less food a senior citizen could purchase at the grocery store, you would remember the story and result of inflation rather than the statistics.
Republicans like to cite statistics and figures and they wonder why the public is turned off when their reason for talking about this is serious but the coldness seems to come off as indifference. See the video by Simon Sinek, "Start with Why," who uses the advertisement philosophy of Apple to relate that people will be attracted to your Why rather than your What or How.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4
Tony Should Run Again with the Lessons Learned
I think Tony moved to the suburbs or somewhere else outside of St Paul. I think he should run for some office again, using the Lessons Learned.
He was a likeable person. He could relate to much of the unexpected financial misfortunes voters often go through. If he does decide to run again and utilize some of the Lessons I listed above I think he could be successful at the Ballot Box.
The Video above is from the TED Talks YouTube Channel. It was posted originally on May 4, 2010. According to the statistics, 19 million views have happened. I read the book "David and Goliath: Underdog, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants," by Malcolm Gladwell in January 2021, and e-book from the Ramsey County Public Library. I bought the book, "Start With Why," and recommend everyone running for office to read it and lead with their "Why." ~~ Publius Jr