Why Good Opposition Research Always Matters – Willis Jones

Opposition research is often painted as a dirty tactic or dark art. It’s neither. It’s about knowing yourself and knowing your opponent. Without it, you’ll lose.

This week we’re revisiting an incredibly important topic that we haven’t touched in a few months: Opposition Research. John Lappe of Intellz joined us back on Episode 18 to discuss the topic but there’s more than we can talk about in just one episode.

This week, Willis Jones of Capitol City Research is here to discuss some of the biggest takeaways he’s learned from over 20 years of work in the business.

Willis is based in Missouri but does work for Republican campaigns in several states. Their mission is to arm their clients with every piece of information possible. But that’s only part of it. They help interpret the data as well and show how it can be weaponized during the campaign.

Good opposition research and a rock-solid vulnerability study are incredibly important to any winning campaign and I’m excited to have Willis here to talk about them.

Links from the Podcast:

Connect with Willis Jones on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can also learn more about him by checking out Capitol City Research.

What You’ll Learn about Opposition Research from Willis Jones In This Episode:

[00:00] Podcast Introduction & Willis Jones Bio

[01:18] How Willis became involved in politics and interested in opposition research

[06:30] Why Opposition and Vulnerability research is ALWAYS critical to a campaign

[24:30] How much does opposition research cost and what do you get?

[31:05] Willis’ favorite war stories

[36:42] Final words of advice for candidates and campaign staff

[40:12] Where can people get ahold of you on and offline?

[41:48] Closing thoughts and Exit