the gist
In 2018 and 2020, Missouri’s Second Congressional District offered Democrats a rare chance to flip a valuable seat in a red state. Long story short, they failed. Enter: Trish Gunby, state representative and my lovely mother.
Having already flipped a state house seat and held it, Trish was a proven winner. But with 2022 promising a Republican gerrymander of district boundaries and a crowded Democratic primary, there were no guarantees she’d even be in the mix come November.
the work
Over the course of 18 months, the line between personal and professional was completely blurred as my Mom and I spent each and every day together. On small, scrappy campaigns, even the communications director may find himself knocking doors and staffing fundraisers when he’s not managing the candidate’s social media presence, coordinating shoots, or developing her policy platform.
We knew we couldn’t spend at the rate of our opponent, a 10-year incumbent, and the vast majority of the campaign’s funds were allocated to field operations (marshaled by Rosetta Okohson and her magnificent team at MO Political). But we worked our asses off to generate interest in a race in which local and national stakeholders told us, “You’re on your own.”
In the primary, Trish outlasted one opponent and defeated the other by a staggering 70.4% margin. But in the general, the combination of a deeply partisan gerrymander and our opponent’s deep pockets won out.
There are few moral victories in a “winner-takes-all” election. It sucks, no matter how proud you are of your candidate.
Still, in a race the New York Times forecasted our opponent to win by 14%, we outperformed that margin by nearly 7,000 votes (11.8). I’ll take it (and get ‘em next time).