Case Study: George Leing for US Congress
“Leing received the most votes of any Congressional non-winner in the US and the 2nd Congressional District had the highest turnout in the state. ”
George Leing (R) ran for Congress in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional during the 2014 midterm election against second term incumbent, Jared Polis (D). Prior to tFPR’s involvement, Polis had refused to engage Leing in debates. Leing is likable, articulate on the issues and connected well with voters in person, yet struggled to garner earned media and social media attention. Funds were not available for saturation necessary in the traditional ad space to adequately improve Leing’s name ID. Late in the campaign, tFPR came on board as the lead on communications, including social media messaging and marketing, email campaigns and media relations.
tFPR launched a contrast messaging campaign and an integrated marketing communications strategy, including media relations and social media strategy and the launch of compelling and boosted content. The campaign drew a clear contrast between Polis and Leing positions on the issues, pushing out messages through social media ads, email campaigns and regular and engaging press releases.
3. The Outcome
Within a few weeks, Polis agreed to a series of five debates and began banner advertising on local online news outlets. Though voter profile of the District placed the odds against Leing, a Colorado Springs Gazette editorial suggested Leing had a chance of pulling it out against Polis. This was one of the 60 media hits Leing received from September through November.
1.7 million Facebook impressions were created resulting in nearly 27K actions, including page likes (866 were added), comments, and post shares. On twitter, total (paid and unpaid) tweet engagement after tFPR came on board included 317 @mentions and 538 retweets and nearly 100K impressions were made resulting in 5K engagements (including retweets, follows, and replies) and an addition of 141 twitter followers in a few weeks time.
Leing was mentioned or covered 60 times by national, statewide and local media online, in print, and on air. On average, press release open rates were three percentage points higher than the average for political email. Media coverage was tough to earn in a race less competitive than the hot races of Gardner, Beauprez and Coffman. In an interview with International Business Times, Leing was asked what he thought about the relative in-attention to his race. He understood, stating that tough choices have to be made about which races to cover. Still the race drew the attention of National Review online on election day, stating that it was possible Leing could “pull off an upset” in his race against Polis.
Leing enjoyed coverage by several papers and online outlets, the endorsement of four newspapers, and numerous appearances on radio talk shows. Having initiated the endorsement process with the Colorado Springs Gazette and securing a meeting for our team with the Editorial Board, the campaign was pleased to receive the endorsement of this influential out-of-District paper. Though the Denver Post did not endorse Leing it qualified its endorsement of Polis, pointing out that CD2 was difficult to call “because of Polis' threats this year to fund initiatives to curb energy production.” Thanks to a team effort across Leing’s campaign, he enjoyed endorsements from the following papers: The Coloradoan, Estes Park Trail-Gazette, CSU Rocky Mountain Collegian and the Colorado Springs Gazette.
tFPR secured appearances for Leing on the Mike Rosen Show on 850 KOA, Kelly and Co. on 710 KNUS (2x), Mandy McConnell on 630, the Morning Show with Jimmy Lakey on 600 KCOL, Randy Corporon Show on 560 KLZ, and twice on the Ken Clark Show on 560 KLZ .
A number of articles were the result of five Leing-Polis debates. Prior to September, Polis refused to debate Leing and employed the strategy of ignoring his low-Name ID opponent. An early campaign tweet from the Club 20 Debate dissed Polis as a no-show. After the campaign continued to progress on several fronts, including several weeks of heavy Facebook advertising on ‘shadow sites’ exposing Polis’ negative record, and regular contrast posts and ads on Leing’s page, Polis finally agreed to debate.
Though Jared Polis beat Leing, winning a third term in Congress, David Hawking pointed out in Roll Call that Leing received the most votes of any Congressional non-winner in the US. Colorado had the fourth highest turnout this cycle in the nation, and the 2nd Congressional District had the highest turnout in the state. The second highest vote count in a Colorado Congressional District had about 67,000 less votes, 19% less than the turnout in CD2.
As reported by the Denver Post George carried four counties–Larimer, Jefferson, Grand and Park. Larimer is the largest county in the district and George is the first Republican Congressional Candidate to win Larimer County since 2002.
Many thanks and immeasurable credit goes to candidate George Leing and campaign manager Gregory Carlson, as well as the support of countless volunteers and field staff, for the victories experienced in this campaign. Leing did not win his race, but made many gains amidst a difficult political climate.
