One Presidential Candidate, Two Elections, Two Different Strategies & One Outcome

President Obama, Maine
2008 & 2012

Maine is one of only two states which split their electoral votes – Nebraska being the other. The real fight in Maine is for the one electoral vote in the 2nd Congressional District, the northern more rural area. We ran President Obama’s campaign in 2008 and 2012. These were two entirely different campaigns, but they shared a single outcome – Barack Obama winning all four electoral votes in Maine.

In 2008, the strategy in Maine was to go all-in. There was a staff of twenty-four spread out across the state in ten campaign offices; in previous presidential campaigns, the staff consisted usually of four people. The energy was palpable in 2008 with volunteers pouring through the doors all day, every day. We outspent Senator McCain by a margin of roughly five to one on the airwaves. Even with this energy, Senator Obama was essentially tied with Senator McCain in the 2nd Congressional District going into October. Eventually, we won all electoral districts in Maine going away because of the vigilant Maine-centric campaign we ran.

2012 campaign was the antithesis of the 2008 campaign. Volunteer enthusiasm was low, there were six staffers in three offices, and our strategy was completely different. Where in 2008 all efforts stayed in Maine, 2012 we focused on New Hampshire. All of our volunteer capacity went towards securing New Hampshire for President Obama. Even though Super PACs spent roughly $1 million in northern Maine in support of Mitt Romney, we did not spend one dime and still won all four electoral votes in Maine.

One could have made the mistake that the strategy for 2012 should have been the 2008 strategy and vice versa because of the enthusiasm gap. The reality is we had to size up our resources, our opponents and utilize the data to determine the appropriate strategy in 2008 and 2012. It just goes to show that appearance is not always the reality when developing a winning strategy.

Maine is one of only two states which split their electoral votes – Nebraska being the other. The real fight in Maine is for the one electoral vote in the 2nd Congressional District, the northern more rural area. We ran President Obama’s campaign in 2008 and 2012. These were two entirely different campaigns, but they shared a single outcome – Barack Obama winning all four electoral votes in Maine.

In 2008, the strategy in Maine was to go all-in. There was a staff of twenty-four spread out across the state in ten campaign offices; in previous presidential campaigns, the staff consisted usually of four people. The energy was palpable in 2008 with volunteers pouring through the doors all day, every day. We outspent Senator McCain by a margin of roughly five to one on the airwaves. Even with this energy, Senator Obama was essentially tied with Senator McCain in the 2nd Congressional District going into October. Eventually, we won all electoral districts in Maine going away because of the vigilant Maine-centric campaign we ran.

2012 campaign was the antithesis of the 2008 campaign. Volunteer enthusiasm was low, there were six staffers in three offices, and our strategy was completely different. Where in 2008 all efforts stayed in Maine, 2012 we focused on New Hampshire. All of our volunteer capacity went towards securing New Hampshire for President Obama. Even though Super PACs spent roughly $1 million in northern Maine in support of Mitt Romney, we did not spend one dime and still won all four electoral votes in Maine.

One could have made the mistake that the strategy for 2012 should have been the 2008 strategy and vice versa because of the enthusiasm gap. The reality is we had to size up our resources, our opponents and utilize the data to determine the appropriate strategy in 2008 and 2012. It just goes to show that appearance is not always the reality when developing a winning strategy.