By Chris Godbey
If Republicans are going to win in 2019 and beyond, they have to discover a solution to the so-called suburban woman problem, a phrase that is meant to be the downfall of the Republican party in 2020 and beyond.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak at the Virginia Federation of Republican Women (VFRW) Convention in Norfolk, Virginia, and was impressed by the turnout of dedicated leaders. This is a group of Republican leaders from around the Commonwealth who are challenging the “suburban woman problem” narrative at its root, by growing grassroots organizations that bring women of all ages together to talk about the current political environment.
The primary conversation that I was having with different groups centered around finding ways to get new members to stay active and involved. But the undertone was focused on how to combat the stigma that is affecting campaigns with regard to women’s engagement.
To address that question we spent the majority of my breakout session discussing why nationalizing news stories have a negative impact on people who are not politically active. A statistic that may be shocking to Bearing Drift readers and the attendees of the Convention says that the average American only spends seven minutes a week thinking about politics.
We have to spend more time personalizing the stories that we are telling people, either those who are not involved or in support of the candidates that we want to see elected.
The GOP has always been know as the party of the Old White Men and that stigma is changing, but its replacement is just as damaging – the party of the logic and statistics. This isn’t a new line. The modern Republican party, going back to Reagan, has relied on numbers to tell a story. The problem is that in this day of twenty-four hour news cycles, social media, and meme sharing, numbers are about as effective as a full-page newspaper ad on the first Tuesday in November.
The VFRW is going to have a big impact on the upcoming 2019 elections in November, particularly since they are already building their infrastructure to host events and encourage new people to get involved. The greater impact they will have is going to come from the multitude of personal anecdotes that they bring in support of the Republican candidates seeking office, particularly if they take the time to use the talking points that campaigns are putting out and tell them using their own stories.
We as a party need to get away from relying on the campaigns to provide the water cooler discussion about what is happening politically. Politics is not just something that happens seven minutes every week; it is something that is constantly, directly having an impact on our lives. Those stories will always be more effective in changing a swing voter’s opinion about an issue rather than blandly reciting facts and figures. The key with a personal story, though, is it has to include empathy to allow the listener the opportunity to be a part of it. Otherwise, we miss the mark.
The key takeaway that I tried to leave those who attended my breakout was this: taking the agro out of politics is easy if we make it relatable to our lives and how it’s changing how we live. The last thing that we need to do is lose friendships or neighbors over our conversation about elections. We as a country are stronger than the partisan divide that is hyped up by the mainstream media.
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Chris Godbey is a Republican political consultant who has worked on campaigns domestically and internationally as communications, grassroots, and digital consultant. He has served as an election observer in South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Caucuses. Currently, he is the Senior Grassroots Coordinator for the Leadership Institute and the Executive Director of the Young Republican National Federation.