Don’t Lose Your Election Like Hillary Clinton

Since Donald Trump’s win over Hillary Clinton last November, there’s been more than a few books, blogs, and TV shows dedicated to figuring out how the heck he did it. There are plenty of contributing factors, but it’s clear that one Yuge reason played a heavy role:

Hillary Clinton KNEW she was going to win.

The old adage says: there are two ways to run a race: Scared or Unopposed. — Hillary missed that memo.

Her campaign-long “advantage” in polling, the media, and Trump’s mis-steps all contributed to a sense of security and inevitability among her entire team. In their minds, there was just no way for them to lose!

As a result, they got complacent and played it safe. They played it far too safe.

Here’s the thing: You can make this mistake too! And it can kill your campaign as surely as it did hers.

Underdogs fight harder and lay-up fewer shots. I’m not saying you need to be reckless. Far from it. You need to make sure that your poll position in the race isn’t determining your actions.

It doesn’t matter the budget of your race or the level of office you’re running for. If you assume that you’re ahead and winning, it’s really easy to let that start impacting your decisions. Maybe you don’t want to do that last GOTV advertising blitz because, “I’m going to win anyway.” Or you decided organizing the poll-watchers and GOTV phone bank is going to be too much work since, “This thing is already in the can.” How might that attitude impact your willingness to take a public stand on an important issue?

It ain’t over till it’s over. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet so don’t let off the gas!

Being ahead is my favorite position in a race. It’s great! But you can’t let it stop you from being aggressive.

Here’s a great article that talks more about why this mindset caused Hillary to lose.

If you make the same mistake Hillary Clinton did, your next stop will be this article on how to cope with a loss!