Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed creator of the Huey Report and direct mail expert, Craig Huey, in-studio to discuss (TN-4) Congressman Jim Cooper’s Democratic opponent and how she will angle and tackle her campaign for his dynasty seat.
Leahy: In the studio with us digital marketing expert, well renowned around the country and moved here from California a year ago, loves it here in Tennessee, Craig Huey. Craig, during the break, you said something very important about how the left is creating the impression that they are sort of the majority. And there was a clue here, by the way, in Democratic challenger Odessa Kelly’s campaign announcement.
She’s going to run against Jim Cooper. Jim, by the way, the show’s been on the air for two and a half years. We’ve invited him to come in. He’s never come in. Odessa Kelly, Miss Kelly, you are welcome to come in. We’d be happy to talk to you about your socialist, progressive agenda for Nashville and your campaign themes. Now, I’m a little bit selfish in that regard, Craig, because I think she would be easier to beat in the general election to Jim Cooper. That’s my thinking.
Huey: Well, you know, here’s the thing. Maybe somebody listening lives in that congressional district and they could be running against her or against Cooper in the upcoming election, they need to be able to understand that they can win. The fact is, Kelly is going to be running using modern marketing techniques to be able to beat an incumbent. And she can do it. She doesn’t even have to have as much money.
Leahy: Well, she’s probably going to get a lot more money. She’s going to use Act Blue and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez will be out there with all of her campaign statements and asking all of her pals to give money to Odessa Kelly.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: The people who live in Los Angeles and San Francisco and guilty liberals. (Chuckles) Boston, New York City, Maryland. They’re going to give money to Odessa Kelly.
Huey: I would say she’ll probably have a million to a million point five.
Leahy: Probably more than that.
Huey: Maybe. And she probably needs at least two million to win.
Leahy: In the primary?
Huey: In the primary. So few people vote in the primary. Michael, that all you have to do is mobilize a very small group of people and make sure they get out the vote. She’s a community organizer. She understands digital marketing to be able to identify her right voter. She understands how to do modern election mobilization.
Leahy: Her team does just like Democrats. They use it to get Alexandria Ocasio Cortes to beat an old White guy in the Democratic primary.
Huey: That’s right. And it’s happening to several other congressional races and it’s happened throughout different states.
Leahy: Now, there’s a clue that you caught, and I want to talk about this right now. In her opening statement the challenger to Jim Cooper, the Justice Democrats, the national version of Alexandra Ocasio Cortez. “My faith has taught me that our fates are tied together.” Now, what does that statement tell you?
Huey: That tells me she understands in her district one of the key voting blocks is the church. And she’s probably targeting the Black church where many of the pastors are pro-Democrat. And they basically are violating biblical principles on marriage and abortion and on freedom, caring about the persecuted church and about Israel. And basically, these pastors compromise on those issues because of history. Because of pressure from other pastors. And Michael, they have a thing called souls to the polls.
Leahy: Souls to the polls. A little rhyming there.
Huey: Exactly. And on Sunday before the election, they mobilize people in the church to go to the poll.
Leahy: So the Black churches here are almost certain to be supportive of Odessa Kelly. She’s gay.
Huey: They are going to overlook that.
Leahy: They’re not going to care about that.
Huey: They should, but they will overlook it.
Leahy: Okay, so there’s that. Also, we have a story that’s relevant. So another Reverend used his faith to become elected. He’s basically a Communist progressive. His name is Raphael Warnock.
Huey: It’s a heartbreak. Yes.
Leahy: So this guy barely won the runoff election in Georgia. There’s a story at The Georgia Star News. You probably heard this. Raphael Warnock, Easter Sunday Tweet Unsettled Christians Who Call it Blasphemous. Let me read the now-deleted tweet. The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether you are Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others, we are able to save ourselves. Now, I am not a theologian, but to me, that seems exactly the opposite of the Orthodox Christian faith.
Huey: The core of Christianity is Christ dying on the cross and rising from the dead for your sins and forgiveness. And the fact is, he’s denying this. He’s just saying it’s more of a philosophical politicized type of issue. You talk about Republican in name only. This is Christian in name only.
Leahy: Yeah, exactly.
Huey: And he was able to fool the Christians in Georgia to vote for him, and where he stands on the anti-biblical platforms.
Leahy: Well, I didn’t stop him from getting elected Craig. (Chuckles)
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Odessa Kelly” by Odessa Kelly
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed creator of the Huey Report and direct mail expert, Craig Huey, in-studio to discuss possible campaign tactics that Odessa Kelly may use in the fight for Davidson County’s congressional seat.
Leahy: Our guest in studio, our good friend Craig Huey. So let’s talk about this congressional election in Davidson County. There is a primary challenge. Odessa Kelly, I guess the Justice Democrats are trying to make her the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Nashville. Jim Cooper, I want to look at Jim Cooper’s electoral history.
He’s a Harvard grad. He’s about in his mid-sixties. He’s represented this district in Congress since 2002. He won in 2002. He beat Robert Duvall, who has been the chairman of the Davidson County GOP, 63.33 percent. In 2004 he had 69 percent. In 2006 he had 69 percent, 65 percent in 2008. In 2010, his closest challenge ever in the general election. That was the Tea Party year.
Huey: That was.
Leahy: He got 57 percent to David Halls 32 percent. Okay, so that tells you something right there. In all of these cases, the Republican was far outspent. Now, what’s interesting if you look at Cooper’s vulnerability in the primary last time, Keeda Haynes challenged him and lost 57 percent to 40 percent in the primary. Now, Keeda was underfinanced compared to him.
And I think she had sort of an unusual background. I think she had several run-ins with the law as a younger person, became a public defender. I think that’s the case. We’ll double-check on that. So now she has not been selected by the Justice Democrats to run. So they picked Odessa Kelly. We think she is likely to get quite a lot of money from around the country. And we think she’s got a good chance of beating them in the primary.
Huey: I think she can because she knows how to organize and mobilize. And that’s the key. I’m hoping a really great candidate steps forward to run against Cooper or against Odessa Kelly whoever wins that race.
Huey: On the Republican side.
Leahy: On the Republican side. And you’ve got some suggestions for how they could win. Now, remember, I would think that an underfinanced Republican, the high watermark, lost 57-42 in the general.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: But you think it’s possible that either running against Jim Cooper or Odessa Kelly in the general of 2022, a Republican could win if a, they start now and b they start thinking in terms of digital marketing. Tell us what would work.
Huey: Sure. So, Michael, 2022 is going to be a great year because you have people upset and angry about what’s happening in Washington, and they want to change it. And just like with the Tea Party, I think this will be a Tea Party on steroids, the reaction. And the key to this is that the candidate running understands they have to raise the money. If they don’t have the money, they have to raise the money. They can’t run just because they have better ideas.
Leahy: What! Let me just stop for a moment. A lot of our friends think I’ve got the answer. A lot of our conservatives. A lot of our Tea Party friends.
Huey: I see it all the time.
Leahy: I’ve got the answers. I’ll just go out and say those answers, and people will realize just how correct my answers are.
Huey: It doesn’t work.
Leahy: It doesn’t work?
Huey: It does not work. You’ve got to communicate and you have to mobilize.
Leahy: Now I’m disappointed. (Chuckles)
Huey: Oh, I’m sorry, but it’s the reality. But here’s the good part, Michael. Even in a Democratic district that has that advanced registration and a built-in Democratic vote, a Republican challenger can come in there and upset that election in 2022. But they have to be able to raise the money.
Leahy: How much money are we talking?
Huey: I would try to raise about four million.
Leahy: Four million? Have you ever run for Congress?
Huey: I have.
Leahy: Back in 2012? Was it 2012?
Huey: 2011 in a special election. And I ran in a district, that was 22 percent higher percentage of Democrats. And I shocked everybody with no name recognition. I ran against the mayor of the largest city. I ran against the California Secretary of state. I ran against the most powerful county of Los Angeles, a City of Los Angeles City Councilperson. I beat these people in the primary, which shocked the nation.
Leahy: So you won the primary?
Huey: I won the primary. I shouldn’t have. I won the primary.
Leahy: Yes, you should of. (Huey chuckles) Because you use your marketing techniques.
Huey: Yes, I’ll tell you about that. So, Michael, what happened then was that Obama brought in his Organizing for America and used my campaign as his test campaign of using data and digital marketing to tie it to get out the vote. And so I saw what was happening and he was out-marketing me. And it was unbelievable what he had developed.
I needed to switch 2,000 votes, and I would have won that race. I was outspent eight to one. And I could have won it. But here’s what needs to be done and what my opponent in that race and what Odessa will be doing. They will be marketing by developing data. They will have petitions. They will have petitions to parents about schools. They will have petitions about better roads.
They will have petitions about some issue in Washington, D.C. identifying their voters. They will create digital ads where once somebody signs a petition or goes to our website, the ad will follow them around wherever they go, whether they’re on Facebook or Google. And so there will be a campaign to be able to market and build that database.
Leahy: Why are they building the database?
Huey: They’re building it so that they can then communicate with those people that they have on the database to get them to the poll. It’s get out the vote. They make sure that they have identified enough voters to overwhelm Cooper. And that’s what she’s going to do. And not only that, she’s going to use techniques like geo-fencing. She’s going to geo-fence every church. Anybody who goes to a church on Sunday, she collects the data to send them a video or a Facebook ad. That’s just one of the techniques. And are the Republicans going to do this?
Leahy: So let’s step back. First, you need a candidate. Second, he needs to raise he or she needs to raise four million dollars. Okay, then what do they need to do then? This is for the Republican to win the general election against either Jim Cooper or Odessa Kelly.
Huey: I recommend they don’t hire a Republican consultant. (Laughs)
Leahy: Now, first, you said something very important. I think that’s good. And why should they not hire Republican consultants?
Huey: Because they’re marketing as if it was 20 years ago.
Leahy: They’re doing TV ads.
Huey: They waste money on TV ads. They don’t understand how to get out the vote or even training. Michael, what Odessa will do is she’ll have somebody coming to the door saying, hey, I see on this petition, you believe in better education. Well, so does Odessa. Now, I want to make sure that you go to the poll on Tuesday. Can I drive you to the poll? Oh, I can’t drive you to the poll? Well, maybe what I can do is come back. I’ll come back after Tuesday. I’ll knock on your door, and I’ll say, how did it go at the poll? It increases turnout by 10 percent. These are the tactics that these people use and we have to use too.
Leahy: Well they are clever. And, by the way, Odessa Kelly, we’re just telling the world your campaign strategy here based on experience. You’re welcome to come in and tell us if we’ve got it wrong. (Huey chuckles)
Listen to the third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
