Friday, October 7, 2022

Advocacy Made Easy: Birddogging in Election Season

Birddogging is an advocacy tactic used especially around election season. Activists coordinate to seek out elected officials and candidates at public events to question them about issues in front of other people. In hunting, a bird dog will tenaciously look for and flush out a target so the hunter can see it clearly. In election advocacy, you will tenaciously look for events where you can find the candidate and flush out their public statements about your issue, so everyone can see their position clearly. A team of activists can follow a candidate to events all around their district asking about their issue over and over!

Birddogging can be an accountablity tool to keep politicians honest. It could change their position - or just make them stop actively opposing you - if so many people confront them regularly and publicly that they think they're losing public support. But it can also be a friendly relationship building tool depending on how you interact with folks while you do it. I like it best when birddogging helps me to:

Build constructive relationships with members (or future members) of Congress & staff
Raise an issue in importance in the community
Meet allies and potential volunteers in the audience

All of those reasons together make it a great strategy! This post has my best tips I've learned from RESULTS and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

How to Birddog at Town Halls

Image: A 2018 three-candidate town hall held
at Shaare Emeth Congregation in St. Louis

Town hall meetings are candidate appearances held in big venues like auditoriums, houses of worship, or large meeting rooms in libraries. I wrote a blog with more detail about them here. The main purpose of birddogging for town halls is to get officials to state their views on the record in front of media and a lot of voters.

At a town hall, a candidate will speak uninterrupted for a while before opening up for questions from the audience. Written questions might be collected on note cards and then sorted by staff or drawn at random. Usually, audience members raise hands to be selected by staffers.

Your birddogging goal will change depending on a candidate's level of support. If they tend to ignore your issue or if they campaigned on it in the past without supporting it in office, this is a way you can apply sharp pressure on them. If they've never heard of your issue, this is a golden opportunity to grab their attention when you know they are listening. If they support your issue, you can reward their position with a thank you and a question that lets them talk about your cause.

Step-by-step tips for town hall birddogging:

Write out your concise question ahead of time, so you can read from it if you get nervous.
Wear an organizational T-shirt if the candidate agrees with you. They may want a picture with you to show they align with your org's values. If you don't know their position or they oppose you, I suggest no logos, so they won't deliberately skip you. But wear a bright color, so they can easily describe you when they call on you.
Arrive early.
Be friendly to staff as you enter and ask for stickers or buttons, so you can look like a big fan of the candidate. Ask about the format of how they will take questions, so you can prepare and they can know that you want to ask one.
Submit your written question ASAP or raise your hand fast & high each time they call for questions.
Sit toward the front and spread your team out, so there's a better chance that a few of you will get to ask a question. I like to sit on an aisle where it's easy to get a microphone.
Be enthusiastic! Clap and cheer during the speech for parts you agree with. They like to call on smiling faces because they hope for positive interactions.
Remain standing during your question and don't give up the microphone until they finish answering. You may get to ask a followup question.
Don't film the candidate on your phone during your turn. Have one of your team record for you and do the same for them.
If they dodge a question from your teammate, point that out when it's your turn and ask the question again more forcefully!

How to Birddog at Meet & Greets

Image: Former Senator Claire McKaskill
speaking at a Meet & Greet in a bar in 2018

Meet and greets provide an opportunity for a more subtle form of birddogging. I like to use it more for a relationship building tool than a "gotcha" moment. A meet and greet is usually in a popular community venue like a park, a college student center, or a coffee shop. As with the town hall, the candidate will give a speech. But then, the candidate will personally talk to as many people as they can. They will also pose for pictures.

Step-by-step tips for meet & greet birddogging:

Arrive early. Sometimes latecomers can't even get in the door if the candidate is very popular.
Wear an organizational T-shirt if the candidate agrees with you. When I wear my Moms Demand Action t-shirt to meet candidates who support gun sense policies, I sometimes I get to skip the line because the communications staff wants a candidate picture with that shirt for social media.
Be assertive, but not aggressive. Participants tend to crowd around the candidate in an uncoordinated mob. Be persistent and claim your space or you'll be pushed to the back and time may run out before you get a turn. Still, don't shove or be rude.
Shake their hand with a firm grip and don't let go until you've said your introduction and they have responded.
Ask for a picture together with them. Use that time while you pose to make one last comment.

Image: My Missouri State Senator Jill Schupp
held a masked, outdoor Meet & Greet
during COVID-19 in 2020

Birddogging in a Photo Op

I've had many experiences where birddogging worked perfectly with those tips. But sometimes it doesn't go according to plan. For instance, how do you talk with them if you only have a photo op instead of a conversation? Sometimes, especially with a sitting senator, a quick photo is all you get!

When I went to see Senate candidate Trudy Busch Valentine in 2022, she was having difficulty breaking away from someone using excellent techniques for keeping her engaged. Her aide was trying to keep her moving. I caught the aide's eye and mimed a camera and mouthed, "Can I get a picture?" He saw I was wearing a Moms Demand shirt (she supports us), so he nodded and then firmly intervened to bring her right to me for a photo.

As we were quickly side-by-side and the aide's camera was up, it would have been odd for me to break away for a talk. But you can see in these sequential pictures, that I leaned slightly into her to say that I hoped she would meet with me and other volunteers about gun policy if she wins the election. Then, she looked at me to respond that she would. Finally, we both looked forward and smiled for a nice picture that was later circulated both by me and her campaign staff. Tah-dah! The whole exchange probably took 20 seconds. But that was the second time I saw her and I will likely see her again, so she's familiar with me long before the election.