Post Campaign Thoughts - Part I

It was a little over three months ago that I determined that it was not the right time for me to run for Congress and that I would, at the request of my friend Curtis Bostic, team with him to help him become the next United States Congressman from the 1^st Congressional District of South Carolina, the seat previously held by our mutual friend, now Senator Tim Scott.

You can read all about the events leading up to that day by reading my previous blogs in recent weeks. What I want to do here is paint somewhat of a picture of what has happened since then.  When Curtis and I determined to team up for this run, we had been friends for about six or seven years. Over the last three months, through the good pleasure of our great God, a deeper friendship has been forged in the trenches of an extremely fast paced political campaign that was sometimes exhausting, but more oftentimes a blessed experience. From the first meeting we had together, Curtis made it very clear that he wanted a true teammate, the joining of our skills, our expertise, our love for Christ, our desire to return our nation to the Rule of Law under the United States Constitution, and our like-mindedness of vision for what the founders intended for a member of the “People’s House”. It was absolutely amazing to watch God work out his ways in the building of a true grassroots effort of the people, people with the same vision.

People from literally all over the district came to join this effort, people we had never met before that saw what I saw, the opportunity to put up a superb “peoples” candidate. From Charleston to Beaufort, people were energized for the opportunity to help elect Curtis Bostic. Over 50 local pastors from all over the district were bold enough to openly individually endorse Curtis Bostic. Think about that, think about what it means about a candidates integrity and reputation when that many pastors are willing to place their reputations on the line to make a statement about a candidate for political office.

Early on, we knew that we needed to develop a true grassroots effort. In a field of 16, our strategy quickly became clear; we needed to get in front of people, lots of people. With that in mind we devised a strategy to get into people’s homes, living rooms, and community centers. We attended as many of the forums as we could, but frankly…we quickly realized that those were nice, but most of the time the same people showed up…and it was very obvious most already had their minds made up. On advice from our mutual friend, a certain United States Senator, we made a tactical decision to forego a few of the smaller events and focus on getting into homes and in front of everyday people. In essence, bypass the political machinery, and take our message straight to the voters and everyday folks. That is, “grassroots” grassroots if you will. Scores of awesome volunteers opened their homes and invited hundreds of friends, neighbors, and family members to come out and meet the candidate. We published these events on our facebook page and on our webiste. Some groups were small, some were large, but we did this almost every night of the week for three months, and we did it as a team. Curtis would explain his positions and answer questions and with my passion for Biblical Worldview and the United States Constitution, I would talk to the people about the unique qualification of this candidate. People got to meet the candidate in person and get their own questions answered without having to depend on a moderator asking their question. We were criticized heavily for this, some of the other candidates that realized what was happening, began to grumble about us and then started to float the idea that “Bostic is avoiding the forums and avoiding answering questions”. The funny thing is that the exact opposite was true; because of the dozens and dozens of drop-ins and meet and greets, no candidate was more accessible to the masses and answered more direct questions from voters than Curtis Bostic. Anyone and everyone that wanted to find out about Curtis positions were able to find an event to attend to meet the candidate and ask him their own questions.

In a campaign with an unprecedented 16 candidates, it was certain from the outset that there would be no clear winner with over 50% vote in the primary, so everyone knew there would be a runoff.  The polling suggested that Gov Sanford would be a lock for the 1^st position, the same polling however showed him vulnerable in a runoff. The Bostic campaign was written off very early and given little chance to make the 2^nd position, in fact most political pundits cast us as a 2^nd and in some cases a 3rd tier candidate. Therefore, we considered if we could find a way to get a 2^nd place finish, it would be a huge win for us and we felt confident that we had a good shot of beating Gov Sanford in the runoff.

To be continued in Part II....