How Social Media Will Affect Kasich's Campaign

Evolution of Campaigns

After the 2008 election many campaign managers started to realize the importance of social media. To that point no election had really been influenced by the role social media had on society during a campaign cycle. Obama was a master in utilized many things alongside his image and speeches that characterized him as a symbol for hope and change many people desperately wanted. The Obama 2008 campaign may be most known amongst campaign strategists for micro-targeting and social media, often times mixing the two. However micro-targeting is something that’ll play a bigger role as we get closer to when people actually get out to vote. So let’s focus on social media which plays a highly influential role in the public’s perception of a candidate.

Free and New Media

In past candidates have always played a balancing game of trying to get out their message, but not have it altered along the way. With people the relationships they have can change the tone of a campaign message and with the media there is a scary lack of control over what will be said about a candidate. However a new age of communicating with virtually no cost has allowed candidates to go directly to the constituents they’ll need to get voting in order to win a campaign. Instead of paying for postage they simply focus on the message itself and not how it may be changed as people alter its message. Recognizing the importance social media can play for a candidate let’s take a look at the Buckeye state’s Governor and his social media presence in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary Race.

A Good Ole Boy on The Web

I’ll focus around the two most known social media sites Facebook and Twitter for obvious reasons as they are and for the foreseeable future will be the biggest in the game. Facebook appears to be geared towards a combination of promoting videos of him speaking on policy and at events he’s hosting along the campaign trail. There isn’t much that stands out on this page, but the hope of videos on Facebook makes a lot of sense. People are much more willing to click on it assuming a friend posted it and that they are sitting at computer somewhere they can watch compared to other platforms geared to a more mobile environment.

Realizing how a platform is utilized is essential for an effective strategy and Kasich used this along Twitter as well. The campaign has two notable accounts with a ‘personal’ John Kasich account that highlights his campaign stops and notable interviews and a Team Kasich campaign communications team account. There is a difference between the two as the communications team seems to be geared less toward image and focusing around the storyline of the campaign – likely geared towards reporters and bloggers. The personal page is geared much more to his image and promoting this idea of strong and compassionate leader you’ll see along the campaign trail. The Kasich’s campaign on Twitter as a whole appears to be focused more around encouraging retweets and followers as it should be. Twitter is much less of a discussion than it is for someone to scroll through as they’re waiting for the bus. Kasich knows this and has highlighted the differences in how people approach them in their strategies.

Predicting the Future

All of these things are interesting, but must be taken into context if we will be able to understand how they fit in the picture as a whole. Be sure to check out my previous blog in order to realize Kasich’s strengths, weaknesses, and how he’ll work with outside forces in the future. Where do I recommend they go from here as it pertains to growing the Kasich For America movement? A central strategy of promoting his programs is good and utilizing broadcasted interviews and debates is great as it pertains to getting out the message relatively easily, but they’ll need to do much more than that. Kasich’s messages of hope and a stronger middle class will be better communicated with clips from him on the trail. Having a dedicated team who knows how to videotape, cut, and publicize this with the necessary equipment should do a lot of the leg work though. Instead of putting a 30 second portion of a debate onto a quick video with some background music get an image of passionate leader who people can rally behind and support will follow. From there increasing the interaction with other candidates and creating an incentive for news journalists to cover the campaign will take Kasich For America leaps and bounds ahead. The real question is when they’ll start employing strategies like this as timing is always important. For more on John Kasich and other campaign strategies candidates can employ keep checking The Trend.

Long-Term Strategy of a Candidate In a Public Debate

Strategies Behind the Candidate

On the heels of CNN’s Wednesday’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate many journalists are focused around the winners and losers, who is electable and fell on their face, and how what candidates said matches up with their history. However, every candidate worth their weight in salt takes into account these narratives in preparing for a debate. They recognize that, just as every comedian on a stage does, any joke, pun, or one-liner can fall flat on its face no matter how many times it has been tested. This leads many candidates to focus on the image they project in what they’re saying by their target group rather than trying to be deemed a ‘winner’ or ‘loser’ by a pundit. Being consistent is oftentimes is one of the tougher things for a candidate in projecting who they are.

Kasich’s Image

When John Kasich interjected in the second question of the debate to call for ‘a focusing on real issues’ it certainly was not a rash decision. Throughout the rest of the night he harped on his credentials having served as a Representative of Ohio in D.C. for 18 years and as the sitting Governor of Ohio. These two narratives may appear mutually exclusive in the moment of a heated debate are in fact far from different. Kasich went into Wednesday’s debate realizing that not many people had a formed opinion on him yet and that on face value his credentials were the most impressive of all of the candidates on the stage. That debate meant he had the perfect opportunity to create some soundbites and will be tools for evaluators of his campaign as to how Kasich for America will pivot in the future.

Other threats and weaknesses about Governor Kasich’s campaign will appear in the coming months and he’ll have to combat them just as he is now with a low recognition score amongst likely voters. When it goes down to the issues the decades of public office experience will be the foundation of that strategy. As the architect of the last federal balanced budget he’ll be able to stand pretty confidently when it comes to issues of the deficit and over-spending by the federal government. Of the many foreign policy questions asked Wednesday he’ll be able to go in with real knowledge compared to the other Governors having served 18 years on the Armed Services Committee. Finally many candidates talk about how broken the system may appear and what Governor Kasich may stand out most from everyone else is being able to say that he reached across aisles to balance the budget with one of the most popular Democrat Presidents of all time in Bill Clinton while still having strong Republican roots in working with Ronald Reagan. The biggest might just be the very public position he held as a Fox News show Host he held for 6 years before deciding to run for Governor of Ohio.

Kasich 4 America

John Kasich the candidate as an image in the mind’s eye will likely rely on how strong his campaign staff is though. Unfortunately he’s polling just in the top ten nationally without any surges like those Donald Trump, Ben Carson, or Carly Fiorina have experienced in the last few months. Journalists don’t seem to be too enthused with covering the mild mannered man from the Rust-Belt as they are of these outsider candidates coming from seemingly nowhere. Most notably about Kasich for America is that he is just getting started when it comes to endorsements from party officials. On the bright side for the Governor no one in the Republican Party seems comfortable endorsing anyone really. All of these issues appear for any campaign in its infancy and will be determined as weaknesses, strengths, opportunities, or threats in how they are spun in the coming months. If Governor Kasich is able to emphasize his sizable gains in New Hampshire with having spent only a limited amount of money then it could be considered just the beginning. However if there becomes a growing narrative around a measly war chest as a point of not being a viable candidate or a hindrance to building a national infrastructure campaigns need then just the opposite might be true. In the end the narrative around Governor Kasich’s campaign is just being formed and this next month could establish him as the party favorite or be his death knell.

Getting to know the Candidate - John Kasich

 Purpose of Bucking the Trend

While everyone seems to be covering the 'Trump card' of the Republican Party there are plenty of other Candidates to investigate for the upcoming 2016 Republican Primary. This blog will be dedicated to focusing on the campaign style and strategy of a candidate who was elected and re-elected in a key battleground state for the Republican Party. While many first think of the Florida Governor Jeb Bush or current Senator Marco Rubio I contend that Ohio's John Kasich is the much more convincing Republican Nominee. So who is John Kasich? What has he done to think he deserves the Republican Nomination? Finally what makes him an interesting candidate?

Pre-2000 Kasich

Kasich spent nine terms in the United States House of Representatives for Ohio's 12th District from 1983 to 2001. In this time he focuses on his 18 years on the House Armed Services committee and 6 years as chairman of the House Budget Committee. From the video below you'll see just how much of his campaign is focused on these two central principles (starting on the :36 mark).

Pre-Governor's race

Kasich decided not to run for a tenth term leading up to the 2000 campaign cycle instead launching a Presidential Campaign that left much to be desired dropping out before even the Iowa Straw Poll. From this point he served as a commentator for Fox News hosting 'Heartland with John Kasich from 2001 to 2007.

Governor Kasich

Kasich left his full time hosting position with Fox News in 2007 and started thinking about a campaign for Ohio's Governor race in 2008 while having to wait for election day 2010 to see if the people of Ohio were still behind him. When that day came he was elected as Ohio's 69th Governor and won by one of the slimmest margins in Ohio's history. Despite this close race Kasich was easily re-elected at a 64% to 33% majority over Democrat Ed Fitzgerald.


Kasich for America

These are the general outlines of what brings Kasich to the position he is in today. He's been a party member for decades serving in a key battleground state of Ohio for that time period. He's learned from a failed presidential  bid in the early 2000's having already run against a shoo-in with 2000 Bush. Lessons from that campaign will come in handy when comparing him to the likely Democratic opponent of Hillary Clinon - if he reaches that point.

For that However these things say nothing of Kasich's policies he would implement if he were elected. For that it will likely be easiest to evaluate his House Record for determining how he'll attempt to lead as the leader of the nation. During Kasich's time in D.C. he differentiates himself from the majority of other candidates by having consistently reaching across the aisle. In 1994 he was one of 42 Republicans to cross party lines in order to help pass President Clinton's Federal Assault Weapons Ban.  Unlike many in Congress today he had actively worked with a Democrat friend in Leon Panetta, Clinton's Chief of Staff.

This quality may make him seem a bit too Dole-esque for many Tea Party enthusiasts of the Republican party, but he has one quality that separates him from every other candidate on the ticket right now. Kasich is largely credited as being the last architect of America's first balanced budget since 1969 - something not done during the last 4 Republican presidencies.

These are the questions Republicans will have to ask themselves when going to the polls and seeing John Kasich's name with an empty box to check. Is this someone with the same fundamental values as me and can I trust him to carry them out as President? Kasich will have to answer this question and convince them that he will be the best person for this in the coming 14 months. Bucking the Trend will be with him on every step of the campaign trail as long as he keeps on booking rallies. and we hope that you'll be there with us.