What 25+ Years in Politics Taught Me About Reaching Voters
Voter contact strategy has changed a lot over the last 25+ years, but one thing hasn’t: campaigns still win when they find effective ways to talk to real people.
Nicole Schlinger recently sat down with the Leadership Institute’s What Do You Do? podcast to talk about how CampaignHQ got started, how the industry has changed, and what still works when it comes to reaching voters.
If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: Talking to real people still wins.
It didn’t start with phones
CampaignHQ didn’t begin as a phone company.
It started in Iowa, in the late 90s, with fundraising.
Nicole spent the early part of her career helping candidates raise money. But like most campaign professionals, she ran into the same problem over and over again:
Win or lose, the cycle ends and you’re starting over.
So she tried something different. Instead of working for one campaign at a time, she built a model where multiple candidates could share services like fundraising, mail, and scheduling.
At the time, that wasn’t normal. It worked anyway.
The shift wasn’t planned. It was demanded.
The move into phone work didn’t come from a strategy session. It came from clients.
They kept asking for more:
- Can you call donors and follow up?
- Can you chase absentee ballots?
- Can you do voter ID calls?
That’s when it clicked.
This wasn’t just support work. It was a scalable way to reach voters directly.
And unlike fundraising, it wasn’t limited to one state.
“It begins with pattern recognition. What do your clients ask for more than once and are you paying attention?”
Why Voter Contact Strategy Still Has to Include Phones
There’s a narrative out there that no one answers the phone anymore, but the data says otherwise.
Across millions of calls, answer rates have stayed consistent, even with all the changes to mobile devices and filtering.
And more importantly, phones do something nothing else does, they create a real conversation.
- Door knocking works, but you miss a lot of people.
- Digital reaches people, but it’s passive.
- Mail gets seen, but not always read.
Phones fill the gap.
Not all phone tactics are the same
One of the biggest misconceptions is that “phones” just means one thing.
It doesn’t.
Different tactics solve different problems:
- Live calls: Real conversations that persuade and identify voters
- Patch-through calls: Drive immediate pressure on lawmakers
- Telephone townhalls: Reach thousands at once with real engagement
- Live ringless voicemail: Deliver messages people actually see and hear
Each one has a role depending on timing, audience, and goal.
The common thread is simple: You’re reaching people directly, not hoping they see your message.
Where things are heading
If anything, the value of real human interaction is going up.
Voters are more skeptical than ever. They assume digital content is filtered, manipulated, or AI-generated.
That makes authenticity matter more, not less.
“People are looking for ways that are indisputably authentic and cannot be mistaken for AI.”
That’s where phones have an advantage. A real voice, a real conversation, real engagement.
Hard to fake. Hard to ignore.
What hasn’t changed
A lot has changed in politics over the last 25+ years, but the core principle hasn’t.
If you want to win, you have to reach people.
And if you want to reach people, you have to actually talk to them.
See how this works in practice
If you’re building a campaign, running an issue effort, or trying to move legislation, we can show you exactly how these programs work.