Political organizing — Ben Wikler, who chaired the Wisconsin Democratic Party through four years of hair's-breadth elections, on how campaigns are actually won: relationships, small teams, low-profile races and organizing between elections.
Low cost invites everyone in, and saturation kills the effect.
"Whenever a new way to reach someone unsolicitedly and cheaply pops into existence—mail, texts, Facebook messages—it has a brief twinkling moment of effectiveness as a form of direct voter contact. And then it gets so totally overused that voters largely tune it out."
Why it matters
Low cost invites everyone in, and saturation kills the effect. Wikler ranks channels: face-to-face beats calls, calls beat postcards, and texts to strangers mostly annoy. Human connection is the one channel that doesn't fade.
Use when: Your team is excited about a new cheap outreach channel because early numbers look great.
Polling Place Vote Tripling, tested by the group Vote Rev, catches people at peak pride, just after voting.
"When you see someone, flash them your winningest smile, and ask them if they can text three of their friends, right then, and remind them to vote early."
Why it matters
Polling Place Vote Tripling, tested by the group Vote Rev, catches people at peak pride, just after voting. It turns strangers into relational organizers whose texts friends will actually read, and it reaches far more people per hour than knocking on doors.
Use when: You have a stream of people who just did the thing you want and could ask their friends to do it too.
Swing voters in presidential years are buried in ads, mail and door hangers, so one more contact barely registers.
"The lower-profile the election, the bigger the impact of your work. If potential voters aren’t tuned in, volunteering makes a bigger difference."
Why it matters
Swing voters in presidential years are buried in ads, mail and door hangers, so one more contact barely registers. In a city council race on a random Tuesday, one knock can decide a voter. Wikler calls this being an "elections hipster."
Use when: You're choosing where to spend limited effort and the high-profile contest is already saturated.
A De Pere city council candidate ran against an opponent tied to a national scandal.
"That helped inspire my own mantra in the 2022 election cycle: If you care about democracy, talk about roads."
Why it matters
A De Pere city council candidate ran against an opponent tied to a national scandal. She campaigned on eviction help and a highway connector project, and won. Voters trust candidates who talk about their lives, and the abstract stakes come through by contrast.
Use when: You care most about a big principle and your audience cares about their daily problems.
In the "snowflake" model behind the Obama campaigns, the paid organizer spends weeks in one-on-one coffees recruiting a core team, and each team recruits more volunteers.
"She’s building relationships, looking not just for volunteers but for leaders." "The door knocking and voter contacting begins only after the team is launched."
Why it matters
In the "snowflake" model behind the Obama campaigns, the paid organizer spends weeks in one-on-one coffees recruiting a core team, and each team recruits more volunteers. Wisconsin volunteers knocked on twice as many doors in 2018 as in 2016 at roughly half the cost.
Use when: You're launching an effort and are tempted to start the work before you have people to lead it.
Wisconsin and Michigan kept organizing teams running before the nominee was chosen.
"…I said that we were building a “nominee-neutral presidential campaign” in Wisconsin. She laughed and responded that her goal was to build a campaign that was nominee- proof."
Why it matters
Wisconsin and Michigan kept organizing teams running before the nominee was chosen. They were the only two states where the Biden campaign kept the existing infrastructure for the general election rather than building something new in the final stretch.
Use when: A big decision is still pending and you could start building the capability any outcome will need.
A first vote in an off-year mayor's race makes a person more likely to vote for the rest of their life.
"Voting is habit-forming. It’s identity-forming." "Once someone has taken action in politics (as in any endeavor), they become more interested in what happens next."
Why it matters
A first vote in an off-year mayor's race makes a person more likely to vote for the rest of their life. Interest follows action. Getting someone to act once often matters more than convincing them first.
Use when: You're trying to build interest through argument and could instead get people to take one small action.
Individual effort is fragile and hard to sustain.
"Every one of the tactics listed above, and the many others you’ll discover in this volume, will be more effective when organized by a team rather than just done by you yourself. Small groups are the secret sauce of politics."
Why it matters
Individual effort is fragile and hard to sustain. A team spreads the work, keeps people coming back and builds the power needed to take on bigger opponents. Wikler's advice: join a group, or start one.
Use when: You're trying to sustain a long effort on willpower alone.
By the endgame of a campaign most people have chosen a side.
"What you do in the four years between elections helps determine how many people are, by the time you reach those critical final days, already in the “decided” column."
Why it matters
By the endgame of a campaign most people have chosen a side. The small group still undecided only matters if the race is close. That depends on work done long before anyone was paying attention.
Use when: You're saving effort for the final push of a sale, a vote or a launch.
In the survey Wikler cites, the biggest group of swing voters described their views in kitchen-table terms like "affordable" and "cost of living." They let the news come to them rather than seeking it out.
"For many people, all of politics—left, right, and center—is over there, whereas their real life is over here."
Why it matters
In the survey Wikler cites, the biggest group of swing voters described their views in kitchen-table terms like "affordable" and "cost of living." They let the news come to them rather than seeking it out. A left-right pitch misses them entirely.
Use when: You're pitching to people who don't follow your field and you're about to use your field's categories.
Conditions and the electorate set most of the outcome, and candidates and ads decide most of the rest.
"But the final percentage point or two in a campaign can come down to which side is better organized in the field—that is, which campaign has more successfully harnessed volunteer energy and turned it toward the kinds of voter contact that make the biggest difference."
Why it matters
Conditions and the electorate set most of the outcome, and candidates and ads decide most of the rest. Organization only moves the last point or two. In an era of razor-thin races, that is what decides who wins.
Use when: The market or matchup is close and you're deciding whether execution details are worth the investment.
Organizers call it the ladder of engagement.
"The idea is that, if someone’s at one rung of the ladder, your goal is to move them up to the next one."
Why it matters
Organizers call it the ladder of engagement. Asking a first-time voter to staff a hotline fails. Asking them for the next small step works, and each step makes the one after it easier.
Use when: You want deep commitment from someone who has barely engaged yet.
Turnout always falls in midterms.
"The party whose turnout drops by less from the presidential election is the one that wins the midterms."
Why it matters
Turnout always falls in midterms. The winner is decided by which side's voters are more alarmed and mobilized. That is why the president's party nearly always loses seats.
Use when: You're forecasting a contest where both sides will lose participation and the question is who loses less.
Wikler tells canvassers to set expectations low.
"The most recent review of the available evidence found that a conversation with someone at their doorstep in a “high-salience” election like a presidential race results in a 3 percent boost in that person’s likelihood to vote. So, talk to thirty-three people and (on average) you’ll generate one vote."
Why it matters
Wikler tells canvassers to set expectations low. About one door in five opens, and most conversations change nothing. Knowing the base rate keeps people going through dull hours, and shows that the effect is real.
Use when: You're asking people to do slow, low-yield outreach and need them to understand what success looks like.
The letters produced an avalanche of rage from Ohio voters.
"Perhaps the most notorious example of this phenomenon came in 2004, when the UK’s Guardian newspaper launched “Operation Clark County,” urging its global readership to send personal letters to voters in Clark County, Ohio, “citizen to citizen, explaining why this election matters to you.”"
Why it matters
The letters produced an avalanche of rage from Ohio voters. Outsiders telling people how to vote reads as condescension. Wikler's rule: the more the contact rests on a real relationship, the bigger the impact.
Use when: You're planning outreach to a community you don't belong to.
Lincoln wrote this to a Whig campaign committee.
"Keep a CONSTANT WATCH on the DOUBTFUL VOTERS, and from time to time have them TALKED TO by those IN WHOM THEY HAVE THE MOST CONFIDENCE."
Why it matters
Lincoln wrote this to a Whig campaign committee. Wikler's point is that today's relational-organizing apps add data on who might be doubtful and who has talked to whom. The underlying method is unchanged.
Use when: You need to win over a wavering group and are deciding who should deliver the message.
On the morning after the 2020 election, Wikler expected Trump to declare victory early.
"Our vote model isn’t the kind of thing that you can share with a media outlet. They’d assume that our analysis is just spin." "Via my own Twitter account. Fight fire with fire; fight tweets with tweets. Strike first, on truth’s side."
Why it matters
On the morning after the 2020 election, Wikler expected Trump to declare victory early. He called Wisconsin for Biden first, on his own name, based on the party's model. Twitter flagged the post as disputed. The call turned out to be correct.
Use when: You know something true before the official source confirms it and a false claim is about to fill the gap.
Wikler ranks outreach by how close the relationship is.
"Here’s the operating principle: All other things being equal, you’ll be most persuasive to the people with whom you have the closest connection."
Why it matters
Wikler ranks outreach by how close the relationship is. Talking to undecided friends and family sits at the top. Shouting at strangers online sits at the bottom. Campaigns call the first one "relational organizing" and treat it as cutting-edge, though it is old.
Use when: You want to change minds and are about to start with the widest, least personal channel available.
Wikler starts every doorstep conversation by reminding himself he has no idea what is happening in the other person's life.
"When someone on the fence says something that surprises you, don’t sputter. Don’t judge. Instead, remind yourself that you’ve just received a gift: a chance to talk to someone who, just maybe, could vote your way because you took the time to visit."
Why it matters
Wikler starts every doorstep conversation by reminding himself he has no idea what is happening in the other person's life. The undecided person is the whole point of the visit. Reacting with judgment ends the one conversation that could have moved something.
Use when: You're talking to someone on the fence and they say something that makes you want to argue.
Wikler pairs this with Rabbi Tarfon's line that you are not obliged to finish the work but not free to neglect it.
"I’m not asking you to do everything. I’m asking you to do something —regularly, for a long time." "Movements, to flourish, need to give people time to fall back and recharge after their stints on the front lines."
Why it matters
Wikler pairs this with Rabbi Tarfon's line that you are not obliged to finish the work but not free to neglect it. Rotation and modest, steady commitments keep volunteers around for years. Demanding everything burns them out in months.
Use when: You're asking people to commit to a long cause and they look overwhelmed.
Wikler presents it as the organizer's three-step sequence.
"You meet people where they are. You build relationships. And then you offer an opportunity for action based on a value that you hold in common."
Why it matters
Wikler presents it as the organizer's three-step sequence. Skipping to the ask turns a stranger into a target. The shared value gives the request a reason that belongs to both people.
Use when: You need someone to take an action for a cause and you've just met them.
Wikler warns against reading one loss as a permanent realignment.
"Take a step back. Look at the data. Listen to everyone. Use your common sense. Decide to win. Get better at it."
Why it matters
Wikler warns against reading one loss as a permanent realignment. 2024 was a bad year for incumbent parties worldwide. His advice is to question tactics, message and spending hard while keeping the fundamental commitments.
Use when: You've just lost a big contest and people are calling for a complete reinvention.
