Up next in 10
Rachel Kania: What it takes to get elected
639 views
Jun 5, 2025
Talk to the 7/28/14 meeting of Texans for Accountable Government at Sherlock's in Austin, Texas.
View Video Transcript
0:00
important form of activism uh a lot of
0:03
Ron Paul's victories were not what
0:05
happened you know uh what happened
0:08
legally or any real change it was the
0:09
revolution that was inspired by getting
0:11
his message out there and uh running
0:14
running to get the message out there is
0:16
one form of running but running to get
0:17
in is another form so Rachel Kena is
0:20
going to be talking about what it takes
0:22
to get elected what it takes to run a
0:23
professional tight campaign that reaches
0:26
as many people and uh optimizes the
0:29
campaign budget to be as successful as
0:31
absolutely possible so thank you so much
0:33
Rachel
0:38
K hi everybody thank you for having me
0:42
um so first of all before I get started
0:44
I just want to make an announcement
0:45
before I forget about uh Liberty on the
0:47
Rocks I also run the chapter here in
0:49
Austin it's called Liberty on the Rocks
0:51
it's a a networking event we host events
0:53
monthly for young professionals who are
0:55
interested in Liberty and talking about
0:58
local issues and uh the next one is this
1:01
Wednesday night it's at the Chicago
1:03
House downtown off of Trinity and Sixth
1:06
Street um so right there 36 and uh we
1:09
have the whole place and we have free
1:11
drinks all night and the event is on
1:13
ride sharing so the topic is ride
1:15
sharing and as most of you probably know
1:19
um Lyft and Uber um ride sharing
1:21
companies are having a hard time getting
1:23
started here in Austin some of their car
1:25
cars have been impounded and they've
1:26
been getting ticketed um so so we're
1:29
we're having an event to shed some light
1:31
on what's the legality of this why why
1:34
are they getting impounded why is this
1:36
an issue when it's a free market
1:37
solution to a transportation issue that
1:40
we all have here in Austin it's hard to
1:41
get a cab I mean how many of you try to
1:43
get a cab in Austin it's almost
1:44
impossible so lft will be there giving
1:47
out free rides home so you can literally
1:49
get free drinks and get a free ride home
1:51
and listen to really awesome a lawyer
1:55
Lor Larry salsman from the insute for
1:57
justice will be there talking about
1:59
constitutional rights of companies like
2:00
this to operate in the United States
2:03
they have launched in like San Francisco
2:04
and other big cities and they've had no
2:06
problem but of course in Austin they're
2:09
uh are pushing back on it because they
2:10
want to push this light rail agenda um
2:14
so I I'm supposed to talk about how to
2:16
win elections and obviously that's a
2:18
really there's a lot of layers to that
2:20
and depending upon what election and
2:21
what candidate and what district and all
2:24
that stuff so um I'm going to just focus
2:26
on city council races today since we
2:28
have city council C here and I'm
2:31
actually here on behalf of Bill waram
2:33
who's back there in the corner all right
2:35
Bill hopefully I do justice but uh I
2:38
actually had an opportunity to work for
2:39
Ron Paul and Tech carees in the past and
2:41
um so that's what been my experience and
2:44
I'm just going to talk about the ways
2:46
that you guys can get involved on a
2:48
campaign because all the campaigns I've
2:50
worked on have been you know those
2:52
Underdog races fighting The
2:54
Establishment fighting the um the front
2:57
runner who has tons of money who's
2:59
willing to buy the race which we have an
3:01
opponent like that in this race as well
3:03
um so it all really depends on
3:05
volunteers and y'all helping because um
3:08
some of you may know we have really
3:09
strict contribution limits here in
3:11
Austin on U how much money we can raise
3:14
it's $350 per individual and so $700 per
3:18
couple which is like absolutely no money
3:20
at all per person uh so so it's really
3:23
uh heavily weit uh waited for incumbents
3:27
and it's very hard for firsttime
3:28
candidates are people are who are want
3:31
to get in who haven't run before don't
3:33
have a lot of name
3:34
identification it's really hard to raise
3:36
the kind of money that you need and so
3:38
Laura Laura Presley she's doing an
3:39
amazing job but it really ultimately
3:41
falls down on the volunteers and having
3:44
a really good ground game and so I know
3:46
a lot of us come to these meetings I've
3:48
been to a handful of them and I became a
3:50
member earlier this year I know Justin
3:53
really well and um we all come here and
3:56
we talk about the issues but it really
3:58
doesn't mean anything unless actually go
4:00
and do something must you're here to
4:03
that yeah and it's not it's not
4:05
glamorous work it's absolutely not
4:07
glamorous at all and so it's why a lot
4:09
of people don't want to be a part of it
4:10
but more than anything you're a part of
4:13
of movement you have friends you meet
4:15
new people and you're fighting for
4:17
something greater than yourself that's
4:18
going to benefit your entire community
4:20
and so I have about five things of
4:24
course there's more that I think that
4:26
you can do to help on any City Council
4:28
election you want or even just to fight
4:30
for an issue if you want to work on the
4:31
Travel Committee Against The Project
4:33
Connect which you absolutely should and
4:35
show up on August 7th but if you want to
4:38
work for a candidate because you believe
4:39
in that candidate I have five things for
4:42
you to do so number one do you mean work
4:44
yet not work officially for but run a
4:47
parallel campaign are you talking about
4:49
volunteering directly for the campaign
4:50
or running a parallel campaign no
4:52
volunteering for the campaign you can
4:53
run a parallel campaign but there's a
4:55
lot of problems with that uh we saw that
4:57
with the Ron Paul campaign people want
4:59
to run their own Grassroots initiative
5:01
that's great but if you're not
5:03
coordinating with the campaign how can
5:04
you possibly get any kind of synergy or
5:06
movement or momentum um so I'm
5:08
encouraging to get involved with the
5:10
campaign every campaign is different but
5:13
uh you can do on every campaign you can
5:15
do five things and they all do them
5:17
differently but here's five things you
5:19
can do block walking I'm sure you guys
5:20
are all familiar with this I hope I'm
5:22
not telling anything you darn know but
5:25
I'm up here to say this anyway so block
5:27
walking um you either get walk list or
5:30
now we have an app on our phone and you
5:32
can literally just hit the hit the
5:34
answers to the questions you walk door
5:35
to door and talk to people in that
5:37
District it's actually not as bad as it
5:39
sounds you do it with one other person
5:41
preferably a guy and a girl and you go
5:42
door too it's a really good workout bre
5:46
W get his hand and eat you start at like
5:48
8:00 a.m. in the morning you stop at
5:50
lunchtime one way to get involved and
5:52
block walking is super important in
5:54
these city council elections because
5:55
some of the data that we have and I'm
5:57
going to say this across the board
5:58
probably for all theity Council candas
6:00
there's not a lot of phone numbers so
6:01
block walking is very important it's
6:03
expensive to buy phone numbers and have
6:04
good data on people so block walking
6:07
number one way you can help out number
6:09
two way you can help out is yard signs
6:11
and normally I would say yard signs are
6:14
not the the second most important way to
6:16
get involved but in this case they are
6:18
because it's a city council race it's
6:20
right here in your neighborhood you can
6:22
put a yard sign anywhere in Austin and
6:24
someone's going to connect that like I
6:26
have Laura Presley signs in my district
6:28
district three and and I think it's
6:30
awesome but so so yard signs all
6:32
throughout 4 by8 highway signs we need
6:34
help paying set setting those up we need
6:36
to go to Home Depot get the post like
6:39
literally put them in the ground like
6:41
people don't do this we don't pay people
6:43
to do this we rely on volunteers and so
6:46
4 by8 signs signs in your yard that's
6:49
the second way to help out third way to
6:50
help out phone banking sitting at in a
6:54
restaurant like this drinking a beer
6:56
while you make phone calls to getting
6:59
drunk that District you can get a little
7:01
drunk it's actually better
7:02
than no really it is you know you you
7:06
don't feel as nervous about it um as
7:08
long as you know what you're talking
7:09
about
7:11
script s to script script um phone
7:14
Banking and so you call this is really
7:17
crucial like the three weeks two to
7:18
three weeks before the election before
7:20
early voting I should say where you
7:22
remind everybody to get out to vote
7:24
because even if you've identified your
7:25
supporters through your block walking
7:27
your online advertising or your emails
7:30
or your direct mail previously you still
7:33
have got to remind people hey the
7:34
election is actually on this day and we
7:36
actually need you to show up in person
7:38
and actually check the box people don't
7:42
totally think through it you have to
7:43
remind them that's number three number
7:46
four hosting meet and greets or
7:48
fundraisers even at your home if you can
7:51
I mean all over Austin these city
7:53
council candidates are running in a
7:55
district one part of Austin but they're
7:57
running to be an Austin city council
7:59
member so they're running to represent
8:01
all Austin nightes um and so you need to
8:04
if you have friends and family that you
8:05
think would be interested as a liberty
8:08
person as someone connected to your
8:10
church as
8:11
someone even with your work I don't know
8:14
what you do for a living but maybe you
8:15
can find a way to tie that in anything
8:17
try to think of any Avenue and then post
8:19
a meet and create your home and then
8:20
that really just leads into number five
8:22
is pulling together any contacts you
8:23
have and making the connections if you
8:25
can just sit here tonight and think of
8:26
five people that you know that might be
8:28
interested in in Ed English Bill waram
8:31
Laura Presley whoever it is traffic
8:33
commity Project Connect stuff fighting
8:35
that um think of who those people are
8:38
make the connection connect those people
8:40
over email set up the time for them to
8:42
meet each other this is some real basic
8:43
stuff that people can do any any time
8:45
anywhere um the only thing that I would
8:48
say is think about you know what your
8:49
personality type is I mean I know that
8:51
all this isn't for everybody um it might
8:53
be really daunting for you to walk up to
8:55
someone's house knock on their door and
8:57
ask them a couple questions on a
8:59
Saturday morning um might be easier for
9:01
you to just put up yard signs all of it
9:03
is equally important and um we really
9:06
really need some help so um I'm just
9:09
going to leave it at that don't forget
9:11
Wednesday night free drinks and free
9:12
rides home I don't know how you could
9:14
not want to do that but um and good
9:16
crowd too hope to have like over 100
9:18
people there so I'm GNA leave it now to
9:22
Justin you know yes all
9:26
right I just have one little with what
9:29
you're saying with uh yard time being
9:31
the second one thing I've seen people
9:33
doing is like that little bitty skinny
9:35
sliver on the one side of your driveway
9:37
put a sign there and then put one on the
9:40
opposite side of the yard so it kind of
9:42
looks like two neighbors have sign like
9:45
safety and numers people are like oh
9:47
there's lots of people in my
9:48
neighborhood that support these good
9:51
candidates uh it's kind of a trick but
9:53
you know little visual trick but um
9:55
something make it better so take two
9:57
yards
10:00
tell us again what's happening on
10:01
Wednesday Wednesday night is the Liberty
10:04
on the Rocks event It's actually an
10:05
event that we're hosting with americ
10:07
Future Foundation Americans for
10:09
Prosperity and in Institute for justice
10:12
so and where is it going it's a huge
10:13
event hosted by four organizations at
10:15
the Chicago House Chicago House on
10:18
Wednesday downtown Chicago House on
10:21
Wednesday downtown just write down
10:23
Liberty on the Rocks Liberty on the
10:25
Rocks Liberty on the Rocks I wanted to
10:28
ask her about selling merchandise for a
10:30
campaign how do you keep that separate
10:32
from
10:33
donations yeah you can sell merchandise
10:36
as a part of the campaign I mean um it's
10:38
kind of a little legal runaround but you
10:40
can sell merchandise um as part of the
10:42
campaign you just ask for like a $15
10:45
donation and with that donation you get
10:47
a yard sign is that what you're asking
10:49
well like if I have T-shirts hats some
10:51
killer posters I want to sell them yeah
10:54
how would I do that and avoid the like
10:57
campaign limits or do I have to get
10:58
their name I would just ask for a
11:00
donation and then email and then mail to
11:03
them
11:07
yeah work towards
11:09
350 I think it probably does so you
11:12
would need to make sure you collect all
11:14
the Texas ethics commission information
11:16
when you sell the merge yeah you just do
11:18
it through the website do it through the
11:19
website way you would collect any other
11:21
donation and just list you know $2
11:25
this so now uh to change first of all
11:28
thank you so
#People & Society
#Public Policy
#Social Issues & Advocacy