Smith has made a name for herself in recent months by working with a new crop of candidates in the middle of the country, including Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (center). You know what people are going to react to, and you know that the tabloids, just like the political press, oftentimes just wants a little scalp and then they will move on., How the Intercept Is Fueling the Democratic Civil WarBy Steven Perlberg. And there was not a better antidote to Trump than Pete in terms of style, in terms of life experience, and in terms of his worldview. Dont miss it! He was a once-in-a-generation talent, someone who perfectly met the moment, says Smith. And someone needs to be. Jeff Smith, her former boyfriend, recalls one time when he was running for office, his campaign managers phone rang. Pete helped pull back that part of me, because while that might work when youre dealing in the New York tabloids, that doesnt sell as well in the Des Moines Register. [5] For a larger list of national campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action. In that moment, in retrospect, it seems like Harris couldve ended Buttigiegs campaign. And it makes it especially difficult for challengers. Otherwise, I would kill myself. Which is to say that Buttigieg may know seven languages and carry around Ulysses and sit in with the South Bend Orchestra on piano, but as far as his top aide is concerned, it is only because he has an extra year on her. That even in the age of Twitter, that especially in the age of Twitter, people dont really care about gaffes. And I agree with him that you cant get sucked up in the game. Gharavi is a BAFTA and Sundance-nominated filmmaker. Buttigieg reignited Smiths love for politics, she says, after a really difficult 2015 and 2016 due to her breakup with former New York Gov. Not long after that, at the presidential primary debate in Miami on June 27, you take us inside the greenroom backstage as you watched Pete get asked about this incredibly fraught moment. Hes someone who is very special to me, and I hope hes always a part of my life. The saga gave Smith an insight that most campaign operatives lack: what it's actually like to be that bug trapped under the magnifying glass. The list below shows notable staff departures found in media reports. I was blindly ambitious, versus blindly loyal, and where the shiny object of being a New York City press secretary was more alluring to me that I was willing to overlook his very clear deficiencies. Policy: Christopher Nelson Caitlin Styrsky Molly Byrne Jimmy McAllister Samuel Postell Deciding to get into politics for me, and in the world of political operatives, was like jumping off a cliff. . I am humbled and flattered and appreciative of when people recognize the hard work I put in on our media strategy, and the fact that we employed a media strategy that was radically different from everyone else in the field. Smith: Yeah. They have one man to thank. But Joe Biden is president today, and Kamala Harris is his vice president. The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms LisSmithMartinO'Malley. Maybe Im done. From 2006 to 2010 she stayed busy, participating in numerous gubernatorial campaigns, and then in 2012 being named the rapid response director for the Barack Obama . A text arrives from John Weaver, a top adviser to former Ohio Governor John Kasich. Please email us at editor@ballotpedia.org. Theyre in the agencies. Lets be real, Adam. It pisses me off, she adds, When candidates think they are too good for some of these outlets, or that it cheapens them to do TMZ or do a more entertainment-focused thing. But is it undermining its own side? The private Terry is a lot more low-key, and lot more humble, a lot more thoughtful. @lynnsweet, @kaitlancollins, @Lis_Smith and @PriscillaWT discuss! Smith: Oh, thats simple. I, in those races, became extremely battle-tested. Its about hustling for opportunities. Lis Smith: My favorite was one person asking me if I lost a bet or something. That was my philosophy. Smith had moved to New York in 2013 to work for Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor who had stepped down in a prostitution scandal. Lis Smith on Pete Buttigieg's campaign bus during a four day tour of Iowa, September 23, 2019. Well before she worked for Cuomo and then briefly rejoined as an outside advisor during the height of his sexual harassment scandal, Smith worked for his arch nemesis, de Blasio. In 2016 she was deputy campaign manager for Martin O'Malley, the Democratic governor of Maryland who ran for the White House. Smith: Democrats love to bitch that we dont have a bench. (The rapid-response job, Smith says, was for her like being a pig in shit. I think its a little bit of a ride. Wren: You mentioned that some people might view you as radioactive. Wren: What do you look for in a candidate? This page contains a select list of Pete Buttigieg's national campaign staff and primary state directors. Its really hard to do a hit piece on a guy who you are going to see the next morning over coffee and donuts, says Weaver. Smith a Bengals fan believes quarterback Joe Burrow is a great leader with a clear social conscience, and she wouldnt rule out the possibility of him having a political career. .circle { Are you kidding me? No. Sign up for our newsletter. I want people to know what its like behind the scenes. Smiths mother is a descendent of a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and a cousin of lead Watergate investigator Sam Ervin. He is in talks to do a Fox News town hall in the coming weeks, building off the surprise success of Bernie Sanders appearance on Fox, and in the past couple of weeks has also been on Ellen and The View, as well as Preet Bhararas podcast, The Intercepts podcast and The New Yorkers podcast. Wren: He rehabilitated you and taught you to love the political process again. I like to call myself the Forrest Gump of politics but in a positive way because I feel like I have been a random witness to just so many seemingly insignificant things that then turned out to be like big historic events. Except then it didnt. What makes him such a magnet for criticism on both the left and the right? Lis Smith is currently a Deputy Campaign Manager at O'Malley for President from May 2015 to February 2016 (10 months) in Baltimore, Maryland Area. Lis Smith is an American campaign manager affiliated with the Democratic Party. During the campaign, Forbes considered her one of "the essential people to follow on Twitter," saying:[5], The New York Times noted that Smith's rapid response tweets "were a big reason that the campaign was able to define Mitt Romney before he could define himself."[4]. Its that everyday when I go into work to try and get these people elected its because it will impact lives. Lis Smith is recording this call. When they gave me the job I thought, first of all this job exists? Our meeting was part of a strategy, one run with surprising sophistication and efficacy for a candidate whose highest-profile gig so far is a local office in the fourth-biggest city in Indiana. How badly," she asks me, are you trying to fuck me over right now?, Interactive: The Lo-Fi Voices That Speak for AmericaBy M. Scott Mahaskey and Zack Stanton. Operations: Meghann Olshefski Mandy Morris Kelly Rindfleisch Mistakes Ive made in my professional life. Acting. And you just like have this moment, where youre like, Maybe this is it. After his loss in the primary, Smith went to work on the winning election campaign and then the transition of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. This is what day one looks like. 1. It may look like the sky is falling, but just ride this out.. POLITICO Weekend delivers gripping reads, smart analysis and a bit of high-minded fun. A lot of people thought that to beat Trump, you had to be Trump. I want Republicans to read this book. She puts the word fuck through every part of speech the word can be bent into: noun, pronoun, gerund, verb, term of endearment, sobriquet, epithet, honorific. Wren: When you started working with Aftab Pureval did Pete feel like you were two-timing him with another Midwestern mayor of a river city with a funny name? He announced he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination on January 23, 2019, and formally kicked off his campaign on April 14, 2019. Even TMZ got in the act LEO DICAPRIO OFFERED BUTTIGIEG HELP DURING 2020 RUN, trumpeted the chyron. Buttigiegs rise from unlikeliest of contenders to actual top-tier presidential candidate has been fueled in part, maybe in large part, by his astonishing success courting the press. The table below shows a sampling of the candidate's 2020 national campaign staff members, including the campaign manager and some senior advisors, political directors, communication directors, and field directors. The most important thing is theres no one way to be a Democrat no matter what any of these lefty groups in Washington say, and we cannot expect candidates in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Ohio and Arizona and North Carolina to check off every box on the progressive party purity test. Through the DNC race and afterward, Smith treated the national political press like it was another constituency that needed to be courted. I should know: Last October, I had my own intimate, off-the-record encounter with Mayor Pete. The whole saga also taught her the rhythms of the New York tabloids, which have similarities to the national political press. Sign up for notifications from Insider! That means that shes held to a different standard than sometimes other candidates. Smith, the campaign's senior communications adviser, has proven to be a political star in. So many flacks lose their mind over inconsequential things, and have no sense of, This is good press, this is mediocre press, and this is awful press. That is something you know once you have been through awful press.. You get a sense of the news, what is going to get picked up, she said, reaching into her bag for her copy of the Post, which she said she was saving for Buttigieg. Adam Wren: In the beginning, you scored the contract for this book based on your high-profile turn as a senior communications adviser to Pete Buttigieg. Read More . ", Before they get in the car, I ask Buttigieg if Smith is being helpful in his campaign. [4], In 2012, Smith was the rapid response director for Barack Obama's (D) presidential campaign. }. Here are links to the candidates' staff pages: Campaign staff plays an important role in the presidential primaries. Even in decline, AM radio matters more than you might think. Theres a public Terry and a private Terry. "Joe Biden has had one of the most successful. [10] O'Malley announced his presidential run on May 30, 2015. Shes had some very forceful moments as vice president. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Smith: All the good candidates are comfortable in their own skin. | You dont reach out to the 35-year-old gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, because you think it will be an easy ride.. Everyone thought I was crazy. Its a local-politics mentality to find the people that are going to be telling this story, and if nothing else, making sure they have a real understanding of who you are. And I talked about that in the book. From the second I met Pete, I knew that there was something special about him. They know who they are and will not let consultants, pundits, whoever, change them. And the fact that hes everywhere, from cable TV to Ebony to your local NPR show to your favorite sports podcast, means that a guy with no name recognition is suddenly hard to avoid. Oversaturation? Smith: Thats hilarious. Buttigieg recently started getting savaged online when it surfaced that he had told an audience in 2015 that all lives matter, and as it happened, he was due to speak at Al Sharptons annual National Action Network convention. Pete's 2020 campaign manager and now chairman of the Indiana Democrats, that my dream project would be to take off . This 35-Year-Old Mayor From Indiana Is Wowing National Democrats The New Republic declared. Smith previously worked on campaigns for former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D. The bad candidates are people who are insecure, who put their finger in the wind, who dont trust their instincts enough and dont have the backbone to do the right things. [4], According to the Washington Post, Lis Smith began working with Martin O'Malley in 2011 during "the first part of his tenure as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. Now more than ever, people are seeing politics touch everything in our lives. But as long as its just like that one percent that you need to have the confidence that you can go out and rally thousands of people, and that its just that 1 percent and not 70 percent, then its all good. The story of American presidential politics is in part the story of the consiglieres who steer the candidate along the path: The person who pushes them forward, comforts them when the campaign flails, plots long-term strategy and tactical short-term advantage, bends the ear of the press corps and makes the public case for a candidate in ways the candidate cannot. She was the deputy campaign director for Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential campaign. The death of local news is a tragedy for voters and it's a tragedy for campaigns. There may be nobody more central to Mayor Petes media successbesides the candidate himself, and arguably his social-media-savvy husband, Chasten Buttigiegthan Smith, who serves as a communications adviser and all-around aide. For example, you write in your book about going to a pop-up bar in South Bend with Pete and his best friend and campaign manager, Mike Schmuhl. Political Hotshot Lis Smith Talks Women in Politics, Democrats' Future and the Secret to Buttigieg's Success. I'm not saying that it affects him negatively, but it's an interesting question. Not surprisingly, her politics are establishment liberal. In what ways does your brand benefit from Petes, and in what ways does Petes brand benefit from yours? Maybe a story that would be 80-20 bad you can get down to 60-40 bad, and that little bit is worth it.. The Democratic bench isnt going to be found on Meet the Press every Sunday, and its not going to be found on cable news. It was a reporter from BuzzFeed News, waiting to take my place. In 2012 Lis directed President Barack Obama's rapid-response team for his re-election effort. I really did feel he treated me as an equal. Smith: Mayor Pete is where Mayor Pete is now because Mayor Pete is just one of the most uniquely talented members of the Democratic Party. if(document.getElementsByClassName("reference").length==0) if(document.getElementById('Footnotes')!==null) document.getElementById('Footnotes').parentNode.style.display = 'none'; Ballotpedia features 408,464 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Since a lot of your book is about relationships in politics, could you start out by telling me about the time you met Bill de Blasio when you were volunteering for the John Edwards 2004 presidential campaign in New Hampshire? Theyre just not looking in the right places. Pete was completely different. She's taken gambles on underdogs like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, advised establishment stalwarts such as former Virginia Gov. Theres the article in the Atlantic where the writer met the mayor of South Bend, Indiana for a chicken tempura lunch in Manhattan. And it was the first time Id worked in politics that Id ever felt that way. How much of his success was because of you, and how much was because of him? At that point, reporters she had developed relationships with began to reach out, wondering what she was doing wasting her credibility on a little-known character who seemed like a step down the ladder of political prospects. I know, but sitting at this dinner in Indianapolis, I was completely gobsmacked by how impressive some of the speakers were that I had never heard of before in my life, that you will never read about in national publications. Jason Bergman for POLITICO. Smith, the famously aggressive political operative battle-honed in the brass knuckles politics of New York City and in red-state political tilts, plotted the rollout of Buttigiegs longshot presidential campaign. Research: Josh Altic Vojsava Ramaj Based on that experience, how should Democrats make gains in those kinds of states in 2022? The tabloids followed the pair to Christmas at Smiths parents house in the upscale suburb of Bronxville. Buttigieg campaigns in Iowa shortly after officially announcing his bid for the Democratic nomination for president. She has a 3-day-old copy of the New York Post in her bag. A few weeks ago, a couple of hundred people expressed interest in this event. She is practically shaking with excess energy. Smith: So with John Edwards, I was a college student. And if I can help you with my experience, my profile, my contacts, to do that, then I will do it. Hes someone who is involved fighting childhood hunger. Smith also gets points for interacting. Days after Pete Buttigieg officially launched his presidential campaign in mid-April, his senior adviser on communications, Lis Smith, found herself in the bathroom of her Manhattan apartment . I Want Him on Everything: Meet the Woman Behind theButtigieg Media Frenzy, proclaimed Business Insider during the race, California's road to recovery runs through D.C. Republicans, Why New Jerseys ventilator guidelines may favor younger, whiter patients, Rhode Island ends specific restrictions on New Yorkers by making them national. Lis Smith (born October 15, 1982) is an American political strategist affiliated with the Democratic Party. It took THREE journalists to come up with this throwaway article: Lis Smith, senior adviser to Pete Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign: ".I think it's probably something we have no idea about." https://politi.co/427TvyH via @politico. That is not the typical relationship of adviser to political principal, but typical is not a word people use about Smith. Weve got that Joey Burrow swag, but he does have humility to him. Pete Buttigieg emerges as Democratic rock star proclaimed Business Insider during the race. After 20 campaigns flacking for candidates such as Transportation Secretary and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, former Virginia Gov. And so when they feel like they are getting attacked, or their families are getting atttacked, they think staff can never talk to them on the level, and it is frustrating for principals, because they are like, You are just a kid, you dont know anything. But with me, I can tell them, This is what is going to happen, this is how we are going to deal with it. So what I try to do is to meet candidates where they are, and to help work with them on what their strengths are and not to erase the things in them that are quirky or not, but see if we can use them as assets. Wren: Youre often credited with vaulting Pete from the mayor of Indianas fourth-largest city to a member of Bidens cabinet. Lis Smith is a veteran of twenty political campaigns. Martin O'Malley presidential campaign, 2016, Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton presidential campaign key staff, Donald Trump presidential campaign key staff, Lincoln Chafee presidential campaign key staff, Martin O'Malley presidential campaign key staff, Bernie Sanders presidential campaign key staff, Ben Carson presidential campaign key staff, Chris Christie presidential campaign key staff, Carly Fiorina presidential campaign key staff, Lindsey Graham presidential campaign key staff, Mike Huckabee presidential campaign key staff, John Kasich presidential campaign key staff, George Pataki presidential campaign key staff, Rand Paul presidential campaign key staff, Rick Perry presidential campaign key staff, Marco Rubio presidential campaign key staff, Rick Santorum presidential campaign key staff, Scott Walker presidential campaign key staff, https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Lis_Smith&oldid=8905524, Pages using DynamicPageList3 dplreplace parser function, Martin O'Malley presidential advisors and staff, Martin O'Malley primary election influencers, Martin O'Malley former presidential advisors and staff, Conflicts in school board elections, 2021-2022, Special Congressional elections (2023-2024), 2022 Congressional Competitiveness Report, State Executive Competitiveness Report, 2022, State Legislative Competitiveness Report, 2022, Partisanship in 2022 United States local elections. The one thing you saw on our campaign in 2020 is that everywhere we went, he was introduced by young leaders, young mayors. a bigger long-shot project than Mike and succeed," Lis Smith, a . Well, of course someone running for president would need to talk about it with me first, right? If you are not someone who is an established name, it's really hard to break through. [The vice presidency] is probably the toughest, most thankless job in Washington D.C. The problem with a lot of people, not just candidates, but anyone in life who is caught up in a crisis is that they react. I dont live and breathe politics every day. He was going up against George Bush, who had $50 million and he had $4 million, and so he just decides to tear up the playbook and put himself out there. They lead with emotion. John Edwards comes to mind. Letting Terry be Terry. This section featured five news stories about Buttigieg and his presidential campaign. I consider him a friend . Politics has a bias toward the status quo, she says. Keep in mind she was 22 at the time, Smith said. In the car, wed go back and forth on random trivia, and pulling up things on Google. Pete has no battle scars. Why would a Pete Buttigieg hire me? He weighed in after the shooting in Uvalde. Your Bengals fandom and their Super Bowl run is a part of the book.
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