In this interview, TJ Walker and political strategist Bob Berkowitz discuss how aspiring Democratic candidates can lay the groundwork for a future run, even if they aren’t planning to campaign for the next election cycle. They stress the importance of early relationship‑building, learning from both successful and unsuccessful past candidates, and developing a personal brand through community engagement. Key recommendations include: conducting in‑depth interviews with veteran candidates and extracting concrete lessons; donating to and volunteering for like‑minded campaigns to create reciprocity; leading fundraising arms of local nonprofits to demonstrate commitment; launching a community‑focused podcast to increase visibility and network with local leaders; securing a mentor and seeking diverse perspectives across demographics, business, academia, and socioeconomic groups; recruiting, training, and assigning clear tasks to volunteers; and maintaining a daily habit of taking at least one concrete action that advances the future campaign. The conversation also addresses practical grassroots fundraising ideas, such as small‑scale block parties, to build political capital without large personal expenditures. Overall, the dialogue offers a step‑by‑step playbook for prospective candidates to build name recognition, skill sets, and a supportive network well before they officially enter the race.
Chapters
You're thinking of running for political office as a Democrat, but not this year. You may be thinking, okay, I can coast, I can relax, I can sit back. Oh no, now is the time. It's never going to be easier to start a strong foundation for your ultimate candidacy, whether it's in 1 year, 2 years, or 5 years, than right now. Bob, we live in an era where name ID is highly valuable. Visibility is valuable. As again, sorry to bring up the big orange one's name, but Donald Trump spent a lifetime, 50 years plus, getting his name out into the media in ways not associated with politics that directly translated into political capital when he did enter the political arena. What is your advice to someone who thinks they just maybe might wanna run for office, whether it's city council, mayor, state legislative race, Congress, but they're thinking, okay, that's in 2 years from now or 4 years from now. What is your advice for them on what they can do right now to build a skillset, to build assets, to help them for that ultimate run?
I would talk to 2 different kinds of candidates, a successful candidate, somebody who's already in office, or somebody Maybe they're not in office now, but they won in the past. And people who did not win, people who tried, weren't successful in getting problems. Ask them some smart questions. Say, ask them things like, you know, what did you, what surprised you? What did you do that you could pass on to other candidates like me? What's the biggest lesson you learned for running for office? What mistakes did you make? If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently? What would you do more of? More of than you did last time that you ran? Uh, what's— what, what voters really care about? How do you know that they care about that? Uh, tell me about the various demographics in our area. Uh, maybe we have a lot of Hispanic folks that are moving into our district. What are their interests? What do they care about? Uh, what about younger voters versus older voters? Those are demographic questions and you can specifically understand what they're interested in. Not to say that all young people care about the same thing, but they're gonna be a little different. They're gonna be more tech-oriented, for example, than their older compatriots in the district. So ask a lot of questions. What worked? What didn't work? What would you do differently? What, you know, what surprised you? Maybe something that, You didn't think it was a big deal, was a big deal. What issues resonated? Again, the issues of the past may or may not resonate in today or tomorrow, but they may. You never know. And so, you know, talk to them. Who would you recommend I hire to run my campaign, to help me to get the message out there? How do I attract volunteers? And speaking of volunteers, they need to be trained. They really need to understand how to get the word out and what your word is that they are gonna get out. Who, you know, what do you stand for? What do you believe in? So those are the kinds of things that a veteran politician, either a winner or a loser, can help you learn. Now, a really ideal candidate was somebody who lost the race and won a race down the road. Maybe it was for the same office, maybe it was for a different office. What adjustments did they make the second time when they ran successfully that they, learn from their loss, their initial race. So those are some ideas. Be a good interviewer, be a good questioner. And after you finish the conversation, if you can record it, great. Write down the biggest ideas that you got from that person. If there were 3 pieces of advice that the successful veteran candidate, uh, got, was going to give to me, what would they be? 3 pieces of advice, 3 things to do or 3 things not to do, uh, in running for your first office, the first time you're going to step into the political arena.
Sage advice, Bob. Also realize there's never a better time to reach out to people than when you're not a candidate asking for something. So it's a perfect time to form new alliances, to, to build your Rolodex, to build connections. And one way of doing that is becoming a financial contributor yourself. If you know you're going to be raising a quarter of a million dollars or a million dollars or more, and you have the means to donate, start donating to people who have similar views as you do, similar allegiances, or on the same team. Build relationships, because if you've already given money to one candidate and certainly, if you helped them raise money, and now it's 2 years later and you're thinking of running, they're gonna return your calls. They might not give as much as you want, but there's gonna be that reciprocity there. So, and it doesn't have to be in the political world. One of the best training grounds for a candidate, I think, would be to become the volunteer head of the fundraising arm of your local United Way or the local Cancer Association where people see you actively doing things in your community to help people, and they see you investing your time and your money to make something better in the community, it leaves a message. It leaves an impression, and it's going to make it a lot more credible when you ask them to do something for you, whether it's 2 years from now or 10 years from now. And I think In addition to those things, I won't say it's the number one thing, but it's maybe tied for number one. You should start your own podcast where you're interviewing people in your community about what's going on. Don't worry about being the next Joe Rogan. Don't worry about getting big sponsorship deals and collabs and Kim Kardashian Skims as your sponsor. Just focus on having meaningful conversations with people in your community. It could be putting a spotlight. It could be a spotlight. It could be a spotlight on successful businesses. It could be a spotlight on what's, what's holding back our businesses in our community. It could be just talking to nonprofit heads of what they need. I think it almost doesn't matter as long as you're doing something where you're trying to help people and learn more about what people in your community are doing, whether it is whether it's for nonprofits, whether it's helping needy people, but being a part of a conversation where you're meeting people, you're forming alliances. If you're interviewing them and promoting them on Facebook and YouTube and LinkedIn, you're helping them, you're putting a spotlight on them. So I think it helps, and it could be for a political issue. It could be to save the river or stop some new development. But it could be for something that is completely about a hobby of some sort, because more people in your community— you're in Colorado somewhere, Bob, your old stomping grounds— and just half the people love mountain climbing, and you just start the number one mountain climbing podcast in audio and video format. That can be a huge springboard for, for later political capital. Bob, final words on tips for people who are not running this year, not even telling people that they're going to run for office, but thinking about it and wanting to do things that will help them in the future if they decide to throw their name in the hat to run for office.
Number 1, get a mentor. Get somebody who is successful or even unsuccessful in running for office. Get them as a mentor. Use them as a sounding board. Bounce ideas off of them. You think this will work? You think this doesn't work? What should I do here? What was your biggest lesson as a candidate? So get a mentor. Ask a wide variety of people for their thoughts. Just don't get people who are in your amen corner, the people who already agree with you about stuff. Go to the business community, go to academia, go to students, go to people who are wealthy, people who are not so wealthy, you go to poor people. Go to a wide variety of people and get their take on what's happening, how things could be better in your area. Recruit volunteers, people who are on your side, but they want to do something. And, you know, teach them, this is what I need you to do. This is a specific task that would be extremely helpful for this campaign. But always keep in mind, why am I in this race? Why, why did I decide to, to, to spend a lot of my time and political capital and emotional capital and actual money sometimes to get in this race? Keep reminding yourself every day. And then finally, ask yourself this question as a candidate every single day. What's the one thing I can do today? One thing I can do today to advance my campaign, to make me more likely that I'll win come Election Day. And it's more than one thing. Make it two things, make it three things, but at least one thing every day that you can do to advance your campaign.
Great points, Bob. And I was remiss in leaving one point out. I'm guilty of what a lot of people say is bad about the Democratic Party, that the candidates, the party, it's all about people making high six figures, seven figures, and I didn't want to make it sound like it was easy for everyone to just be giving $10,000 campaign contributions. Let's say you want to run for office and you're a community organizer and you're— or you work at a local nonprofit, you want to be on your city council. There are ways of you getting involved with fundraising that don't involve you writing a big check. If you could hold a block party on your street and raise $5 from 100 people, virtually any other candidate running for office in your community would love you. They would really remember that. And maybe you don't even spend any money of yourself, but just organizing people. If you can get 100 people to give $5, that'll get attention from certainly local candidates who now see you as someone who is a political leader. Coming up, final comments from Bob Berkowitz on words of wisdom if you are a first-time Democratic candidate.
