DIRECT MAIL STRATEGIES FOR WINNING PRIMARY RACES

Case Study Thursday! Many of Our Primary Races are Won with Just Under 10 Votes. Here Are Three (3) Winning Pre-Primary Tactics!

In 20 years, Cornerstone has had at least three races where the outcome was decided by under 10 votes, and two of them by 5 votes. Thankfully, we were on the winning side each time, but it could have gone either way in all honesty.

Primary races are a little different than general election races, mostly because there are fewer voters coming out. Therefore, General Election strategies don’t often work for primary races, but here are three ideas to help out:

1. COUNT YOUR VOTES. It is highly likely that the “usual suspects” will come out, and we call these voters “prime” voters, especially if they have a “high prime” voting habit of showing up at least 2 out of 3 (or 3 out of 4) of the prior primary elections. Focus on these voters only if funds are tight and only go door-to-door (if you must) for these voters; ask for a commitment of their vote for you because, psychologically, people don’t tend to break their word to themselves if they verbalize it aloud.

2. MAIL TO ALL PARTY VOTERS. If you’re in a tight race, then you might need to make every vote count, and you can’t afford to lose votes. Therefore, the “prime” voter filtering may not work. How often to mail? That’s the next recommendation.

3. THREE-CYCLE OUTREACH STRATEGY: If you’re looking at a June Primary, our recommendation is to mail for three (3) cycles in the month of June. First, for the first week of June, send what we call a “Meet & Greet” Card — something big like a 6″ x 11″ card that introduces or reintroduces the candidate (you) to everyone. Even if you are the incumbent, and have been doing a good job for the last two or four years, you still need to send a “Meet and Greet” card because people will have forgotten about you simply because you *have* been doing a good job – you need to remind them! Second, a week later (2nd week of June), your next card should be endorsement-laden. Show off all your “merit badges” with endorsements from other VIPs, small business owners, unions, other loved politicos, your Mom… almost anyone. The attributed yet famous saying from Will Rogers still applies: “Get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will carry twice as far.” Finally, the last card will be small, perhaps a B/W 4″x6″ or 5.5″x8.5″ card that acts as a GOTV (Get Out the Vote) Card at least to the “Prime” voters who are most likely to show.

Here, we have a full color example from the late Hon. Al Bruno Jr. (ref: https://www.seamonwilseyfuneralhome.com/obituary/Albert-BrunoJr) who kept it simple in 2019 and went on to win the General Election, representing the Saugerties area Ulster County Legislative District# 2 for the 2020-2021 legislative session (ref: https://legislature.ulstercountyny.gov/legislature/legislator-archive/2020-2021).

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