[2] He suspended his campaign on March 1, 2020.[3]. We are humble and kind, to quote Tim McGraw. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Yeah. Smith is a fierce New York City-based Democratic operative who helped engineer the plan to get Buttigieg in front of not just national political reporters, but anybody with a camera or microphone. Why that works with Pete, whatever you want to call it the earnest side of him, this nerdy side of him, the wonky side of him was because it was authentically Pete. The good candidates have humility. Smith: One of the reasons I wanted to write this book was because when I was thinking at 19 or 20 about getting into this world, [a book like this] didnt exist. "We can't fool ourselves the Republicans are eating our lunch in terms of attention and viewership because of the unprecedented, unilateral, and arbitrary way the DNC Chair determined this. I like to call myself the Forrest Gump of politics but in a positive way because I feel like I have been a random witness to just so many seemingly insignificant things that then turned out to be like big historic events. In 2016 she was deputy campaign manager for Martin O'Malley, the Democratic governor of Maryland who ran for the White House. Now more than ever, people are seeing politics touch everything in our lives. Are you kidding me? And its really heartening because you realize the future of the Democratic Party is really bright, and that all we need to do is help lift these people up. It was younger reporters, super-hungry reporters that really know how to use Twitter, people who can then go to a cocktail party and tell their friends they had a beer with this guy Pete Buttigieg three hours from now. Smith: Youve got to meet voters where they are. Across the street, Brooklyn hipsters of all ages and manner of facial hair are lining up around the block at a bowling alley/music venue to catch Buttigieg at a fundraiser. That's helped him to make a strong case for himself for 2024, said Democratic strategist Lis Smith, an adviser to Pete Buttigieg in his 2020 bid. Eight hundred have showed up. And so, she says, she cant talk right now. Weve seen a lot of cataclysmic things happen. Lis Smith (born October 15, 1982) is an American political strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party. Because he completely disrupts the idea of what a successful younger politician is. The Obama campaigns director of rapid response, Lis Smith, is not afraid to take the gloves off on Twitter. After his loss in the primary, Smith went to work on the winning election campaign and then the transition of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Buttigiegs rise from unlikeliest of contenders to actual top-tier presidential candidate has been fueled in part, maybe in large part, by his astonishing success courting the press. He was an incredible leader at Louisiana State University someone that team could rally around, and such a maturity to him. The most important thing is theres no one way to be a Democrat no matter what any of these lefty groups in Washington say, and we cannot expect candidates in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Ohio and Arizona and North Carolina to check off every box on the progressive party purity test. Smith has made a name for herself in recent months by working with a new crop of candidates in the middle of the country, including Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (center). Because he was a badass. This includes with her own boss. What do I get if I pay for your consulting services? It was Lis telling me I need to fire my campaign manager, that the guy is a fucking idiot. It obviously leads to a lot less accountability for politicians. We knew the McKinsey stuff would be it, but he was bound by an NDA. The way Smith tells it, she thought she was done with presidential politics after OMalleys campaign fizzled in 2016. She is operating on two and a half hours of sleep, having just arrived back in New York on a charter jet from South Bend, Indiana, after Buttigieg announced he was running for president. They have one man to thank. RT @UChiPolitics: How do we avoid rookie mistakes on the campaign trail? UChicago Institute of Politics (IOP) Eric Appleman of Democracy in Action describes candidates' efforts to hire staffers as a "race for talent, both nationally and in key early states." Her father was a partner at the white-shoe law firm Sidley Austin. And you just like have this moment, where youre like, Maybe this is it. Wren: What is your relationship with Pete like now? It was by no means an obvious career move for Smith. It was a reporter from BuzzFeed News, waiting to take my place. The Democratic bench isnt going to be found on Meet the Press every Sunday, and its not going to be found on cable news. No, actually, it shows a fundamental disrespect for the people who consume their news on this platform if you arent willing to go where they are.. I had to deal with candidates who, unfortunately, did not give me all the facts, and you cant effectively handle a crisis. Eliot Spitzer and Lis Smith Break Up - TOTPI I think it forced them to up their game in terms of their digital campaigning, and they understand I think more so than the Trump administration did that a lot of the ways you reach people now is not just through traditional big legacy media outlets. It is my passion. I remember in Iowa, we had all these young mayors for him. Weaver says that recreating that atmosphere in the days of Twitter, and in the days when the national political press corps has metastasized into a constantly hungry and multiheaded beast equipped with cell phones, is 10 times harder than when his team tried it in 1999. About Lis Smith Liswho has worked on over a dozen political campaigns has extensive experience in public affairs campaigns, media relations, and crisis communications at the local, state and national level. As for their interactions with reporters, it's a good question, but if you look back on the Biden campaign's outreach during the general election, I think it actually increased his number of interactions with local press with the number of interviews he did remotely in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. That fall, Spitzer and Smith started dating, which led to the New York City tabloids staking out her apartment to watch the pair coming and going. .center-table-mobile { That was my philosophy. @media only screen and (max-width: 400px){ Wren: Youre a very competitive person. Its about getting to know people and them getting to know you, Buttigieg says when I see him after the Brooklyn fundraiser, where he at least pretends to recall our earlier meeting and what we talked about. I think I am impressive because I am a violinist and I went to Dartmouth and I speak French and have traveled all over the world and, I dont know, I know a lot about great apes, she says. She is not letting Buttigieg read her book, Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, ahead of publication day. Smith, the famously aggressive political operative battle-honed in the brass knuckles politics of New York City and in red-state political tilts, plotted the rollout of Buttigiegs longshot presidential campaign. Pete has no battle scars. Days after Pete Buttigieg officially launched his presidential campaign in mid-April, his senior adviser on communications, Lis Smith, found herself in the bathroom of her Manhattan apartment . Smith: Im not going to say who. Lis Smith was just a college student when she worked on her first political campaign. Sign up for notifications from Insider! She is 36, a year younger than Buttigieg, which, Thank God. Hes someone I ask for advice. Wren: He rehabilitated you and taught you to love the political process again. After 20 campaigns flacking for candidates such as Transportation Secretary and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill,. "He has been dismissed and discounted at every turn, and still overperformed expectations. I would do that for free.). He was attempting a comeback by running for the modest job of New York City comptroller, and when the vote came in, he pulled in a respectable 48 percent, even though the entire citys political establishment was against him. Oftentimes its not going to be found in Washington, D.C. At the newsstand around the corner, you could buy a New York magazine with Buttigiegs beatifically smiling face splashed across the cover, and a New York Times with an A1 story about his time at Harvard. In 2012 Lis directed President Barack Obama's rapid-response team for his re-election effort. She most recently worked as a senior advisor in communications to presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. For a complete timeline of Buttigieg's campaign activity, click here. Policy: Christopher Nelson Caitlin Styrsky Molly Byrne Jimmy McAllister Samuel Postell Show this thread. The Women Running 2020 Presidential Campaigns | Marie Claire Pete helped pull back that part of me, because while that might work when youre dealing in the New York tabloids, that doesnt sell as well in the Des Moines Register. That means that shes held to a different standard than sometimes other candidates. He stood out obviously because of his height, but he was one of those guys that was almost overly enthusiastic about knocking on doors and making phone calls, to the point that everyone else around the office sort of rolled their eyes. Traveling Press Secretary at Lunsford-Stumbo 2007 from February 2007 to . Chuck Kennedy/PFA. [The vice presidency] is probably the toughest, most thankless job in Washington D.C. Im realistic here. [1] She was the deputy campaign director for Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential campaign. The two of us talked this week about Buttigiegs political future, whether Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow could jump into politics, and the ingredients of a good political candidate. Smiths Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story, out July 19, is an irreverent, intimate and honest look behind the curtain of modern political image-making including her own. It also includes each staff member's position in the campaign, previous work experience, and Twitter handle, where available. Our meeting was part of a strategy, one run with surprising sophistication and efficacy for a candidate whose highest-profile gig so far is a local office in the fourth-biggest city in Indiana. As someone who was a mayor who was on the ground, who knows how important this stuff is, hes a great messenger to send out there to these smaller media markets everywhere, where he can meet with the mayors, speak to them in their language, help make sure that theyre getting the resources they need. How Lis Smith Turned Pete Buttigieg Into a Serious Contender Wren: One of your legacies is the coaching tree, to use an apt football metaphor, that you left behind on the Pete campaign. Politics is literally a matter of life and death. She has extensive experience in public affairs, media relations, and crisis communications at the local, state and national levels. He adds, "The goal is to assemble a team of top talent that can work together effectively to mobilize resources, boost the candidate and his or her message, and ultimately secure the party's nomination. In the car, wed go back and forth on random trivia, and pulling up things on Google. [5] For a larger list of national campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action. Her phone is literally exploding. There is a top political reporter for a major national newspaper apologizing for blowing off a meeting with Buttigieg earlier and trying to get one now, asking Smith, Will you ever forgive me?. The bad candidates are people who are insecure, who put their finger in the wind, who dont trust their instincts enough and dont have the backbone to do the right things. Lis Smith Says the Future of the Democratic Party Is Local: Q&a As a thirty-something mayor of a medium-size city, Buttigieg faced a credibility threshold with the national press. And although Smith would never say it, it plays on political reporters' narcissism, too. I want him on everything, she told me. President Biden announces he's running for reelection in 2024 : NPR How has it turned out so far? And you dont know who is actually going to attack you. He was going up against George Bush, who had $50 million and he had $4 million, and so he just decides to tear up the playbook and put himself out there. "Joe Biden has had one of the most successful first two years of any president in recent history," Smith said. Petes hitting at this moment in part because of the legwork they did. Lis knew that she had to build wide to build up, said Stephanie Cutter, who also worked on Obamas 2012 effort. I see Donald Trump win the White House, which like everyone else, Im flabbergasted. | Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC via Getty Images. Visit Presidential election key staffers, 2020, to see our coverage of staff on other campaigns. Eliot Spitzer]. Maybe a story that would be 80-20 bad you can get down to 60-40 bad, and that little bit is worth it.. He announced he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 23, 2019, and formally kicked off his campaign on April 14, 2019. Because even power needs a day off. She was the deputy campaign director for Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential campaign. They are doing things that are more directly relevant to peoples lives. Most people do have corny sides to them. There were, Smith guesses, probably 150 such meetings with the national press corps, and when he traveled across the country, speaking to local county party dinners and fundraisers across the Midwest and Great Plains, they would make time for one-on-ones with the local political press there, too. Most people do have earnest sides to them. | So what I try to do is to meet candidates where they are, and to help work with them on what their strengths are and not to erase the things in them that are quirky or not, but see if we can use them as assets. She has advised New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Montana Governor Steve Bullock, people who on paper at least are far more likely top-tier presidential contenders, and she served as a top aide for a number of Senate and gubernatorial races. Why do I fucking love John McCain? Because 2015 and 2016 were really difficult times in my life. On Sunday, Bill de Blasio put out a statement in a New York Post story in his own name defending himself against the portrait you paint of him in your book as obsessively paranoid. If you were working for him, and a book like yours came out authored by someone else, how would you have advised him to address the situation? But until they released him from the NDA, we just didnt get his clients. (The rapid-response job, Smith says, was for her like being a pig in shit. I worked in politics nine years before I ever moved to New York. Thats a pretty ballsy thing to do. Smith, the campaign's senior communications adviser, has proven to be a political star in. He was out there. Trail Blazer | Dartmouth Alumni Magazine | Smith managed communications for de Blasio throughout the campaign and in his transition to office; she was slated to do the same when de Blasio took office. | Scott Olson/Getty Images, Lis has an insurgent mentality, said Axelrod, a top aide for both of President Obamas campaigns. When they gave me the job I thought, first of all this job exists? At that point, reporters she had developed relationships with began to reach out, wondering what she was doing wasting her credibility on a little-known character who seemed like a step down the ladder of political prospects. I worked in states like South Dakota, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia. People get stuck in a rut because something worked last cycle, and so they think it will work this cycle and it doesnt. Lis Smith - Ballotpedia If you had any balls you would have said what I told you to say.. Smith said McCaskill chose to campaign aggressively in rural counties, which likely contributed to her narrow win over Talent. If Im going to be honest about other people and their shortcomings, its really important for me to be honest about myself and my own shortcomings, Smith told me. Smith: One of the things Ive learned over my time in politics is that youve got to let your candidates be themselves. [4], According to the Washington Post, Lis Smith began working with Martin O'Malley in 2011 during "the first part of his tenure as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. Hes been a guest on BuzzFeeds morning news show, been featured on Vices nightly news show and sat down with a couple of the guys from Barstool Sports. Pete Buttigieg emerges as Democratic rock star proclaimed Business Insider during the race. I want Democrats to read this book. Smith, standing behind Buttigieg as he campaigns at various events in New York this April. Honesty is really, really important to handling a crisis because you have to have all the facts at your disposal. We just had the Supreme Court decision on abortion. He announced he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 23, 2019, and formally kicked off his campaign on April 14, 2019. Theres a public Terry and a private Terry. Lets just blow it out. He looked white as a ghost, didnt say anything, just nodding along. And especially on far-leftist DSA Twitter, Im basically just depicted as a mix between Lady Macbeth and Rasputin in a wig, that Im like some soulless political operatives. "I basically blacked out for the next ten minutes as he talked about everything from Fiorello La Guardia to Buddhism," she wrote of her first job interview with the future mayor. Read More . Obama had David Axelrod. Lis Smith talks how 'going everywhere' helped McCaskill | STLPR And those are the people that we should be elevating. From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. For example, you write in your book about going to a pop-up bar in South Bend with Pete and his best friend and campaign manager, Mike Schmuhl. She doesnt give a fuck. Shes on her phone talking to another Buttigieg aide. That is not how she ran his race. And so when they feel like they are getting attacked, or their families are getting atttacked, they think staff can never talk to them on the level, and it is frustrating for principals, because they are like, You are just a kid, you dont know anything. But with me, I can tell them, This is what is going to happen, this is how we are going to deal with it. He was thinking of running for chair of the Democratic National Committee. One thing I find incredibly admirable about him is what you see is what you get. A text arrives from John Weaver, a top adviser to former Ohio Governor John Kasich. That is not the typical relationship of adviser to political principal, but typical is not a word people use about Smith. I think thats always been part of Joe Bidens appeal. When Smith opens her laptop, there are saved tabs about Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, a YouTube video of a facial massage routine, kale recipes, a Time Out City Guide to Dubai and a 2012 Huffington Post article about how the Obama and Romney campaigns used Twitter.
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