A Yinzer roughneck advances in Pennsylvania
Some of you likely saw the fundraising email from Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman after he won Pennsylvania Democrats’ nomination for U.S. Senate on Tuesday:
Omg, Tom.
Now that I’m *officially* the Democratic nominee in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, I wanted to send yinz a quick note to introduce myself + then ask you to split a $10 donation between my campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
When people first meet me, they usually notice two things: My height (I’m 6’9”!) and my tattoos. On my left arm, I have “15104”.
That’s the ZIP code for Braddock, Pennsylvania — my home and the community where I was honored to serve as Mayor for 13 years. My wife Gisele and I are raising our kids here, right across the street from Andrew Carnegie’s first steel mill.
The yinz jumped off the screen as a signifier of “average Joe” and a marker of authenticity. A comms friend yesterday praised it and sent along David Graham’s Wednesday newsletter about Fetterman:
Many Democrats are pinning their hopes on Fetterman—and future candidates in his mold—to bring blue-collar voters back to the party. The buzz around him reveals a party bereft of a national identity, a clear message, or an obvious successor to President Joe Biden. If there’s one thing most people seem to agree about, it is the appeal of Fetterman’s vibes. As I wrote last night, the attraction for many voters is not Fetterman’s actual policy platform but his persona: “Looking and sounding like a Yinzer roughneck is handy when many of the voters you need to win do too”—especially when you’re a relatively left-wing candidate.
Graham notes that Fetterman is sui generis, making him an unlikely role model for other Democrats. Younger Democrats who styled themselves after Barack Obama failed to catch on, he adds, as did Trump imitators such as Madison Cawthorn.
But authenticity matters. Project aloof and you’re toast. Only leftier-than-thou voters use issue checklists to decide how to vote. Even then, they are kidding themselves.
Looking back (January 3, 2020):
Yascha Mounk examines in The Atlantic the notion people voted for George W. Bush because, as a poll question revealed, “most undecided voters would have preferred to drink a beer with Bush rather than his opponent, John Kerry.” What if the question gets it backwards? What if people actually preferred the candidate they felt “would rather have a beer with them.”
Mounk explained:
The original formulation of the beer question invites the question of why voters would care so much about something that is exceedingly unlikely to happen. If you invert it, however, voters start to look a lot less irrational. After all, they can’t foresee all the decisions politicians will need to make once in office, and have few ways of holding them accountable if they don’t follow through on their promises. So they need to estimate which politicians are most likely to understand and advance their interests.
A candidate’s attitudes toward “people like me” thus become a powerful heuristic. If a candidate generally likes people like me, then it seems plausible that he will look out for my interests in a wide range of scenarios. If he dislikes people like me—if he would hate sharing a beer with me, and secretly thinks I’m trash—then he is far more likely to sell me out.
The best politicians I’ve met have that. Most voters are not policy geeks or activists.
So, once again:
As a field organizer in the South, I remind canvassers that, no, those voters are not stupid. They’re busy. With jobs and kids and choir practice and soccer practice and church and PTA and Friday night football and more. Unlike political junkies, they don’t keep up with issues. They don’t have time for the issues. When they go to the polls they are voting to hire someone to keep up with the issues for them. And when they look at a candidate — your candidate — what they are really asking themselves is simple: “Is this someone I can trust?”
One of my favorite southernisms is, “I wouldn’t trust anyone my dog doesn’t like.” That, I caution canvassers, is how most Americans really vote, like it or not. And if you don’t purge the thought, those “low information” voters? They will know you think they’re stupid before you do. Right before you ask for their votes.
Voters want to see themselves reflected in their candidates. Across much of Pennsylvania, Fetterman doesn’t have to say a word. Well, maybe only one.
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Request a copy of For The Win, 4th Edition, my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us.
If in a position to Play to win in 2022 (see post first), contact tpostsully at gmail dot com.