Aaron Evans - President, Winning Republican Strategies Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the seventh district in Tennessee is just outside of Nashville.
Aaron Evans is with this president of winning Republican strategies.
We're talking about a race in a reliably red state, Aron,
where the margin between the Democrat and the Republican is
like two percentage points last time I saw whether I
think about five percent undecided. So this is an election

(00:20):
that obviously is too close to call and could go
either way. Why is this such a close race? Yeah,
I think that's the million dollar question. I mean, we're
talking about a district that President Trump won by twenty
points just last year.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
And so, you know, I think a couple of dynamics.
One with special elections, you know, it always is a
little tighter. Those are the elections that you have to
pay more attention to because people aren't expecting it's the
middle of the holidays. People aren't expecting to be voting.
You know. We just you have elections in November, you

(00:55):
have elections maybe you know, primary season, and no one's
going into the christ season thinking about voting. And so
I think that in and of itself presents a challenge
and uh and so so really it comes down to
voter enthusiasm and which party has their base fired up
the most, And the two most powerful motivators are are
fear and hope. And I think right now the Democrats, uh,

(01:18):
you know, have the fear angle. I mean they've definitely
uh continually weaponized uh firing people up on the Democrat
side against the president and and uh the American First Agenda,
that's the Americans voted for at large. But you've got
a small, small minority that's very uh you know, very

(01:39):
energetic right now with the Democrat base uh in that district.
And and so you know, we've got to get the
vote out. Republicans have to turn out to vote.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Or sometimes maybe the candidate is not everything you would
want him to be. What can you tell me about
the Republican nominee, mad Ben Epps? What kind of guy
is he?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Hey? Look, uh, you know VENs is a phenomenal candidate.
I think he's a great guy. Uh. You know, President
Trump has said he's going to be a champion for
uh the American First Agenda and a strong member of Congress.
You know, I think that at the end of the day,
you know, it's it's a short uh, it's a short
election process. And I would actually say this as as

(02:19):
someone who's led winning campaigns and you know, had some
losing campaigns over the years. You know, it's uh in
a in a in a race like this, it really
is on the campaign to deliver the message. And so, uh,
you can have the best candidate in the world. But
you know, I would when when I'm looking at these numbers,

(02:40):
you know there's something missing on on how the message
is getting uh conveyed to the voters themselves. So I
would probably be more I'd probably be looking a little
more uh closely at the campaign itself versus the candidate,
knowing that this is a great candidate and he's going
to be a great member of Congress. But you know,

(03:02):
we've got to get better as Republicans on get out
the vote programs, and we've got to get better as
Republicans on how do we connect with these Trump only
voters who vote in presidential years. And I mean, I
think that's a problem we've seen. We just saw it
in Virginia, we saw it in Georgia. You know, how
do we get people who will show up to vote

(03:23):
for President Trump and for his agenda with passion to
show back up and vote in these other elections that
are critical if they want this agenda to actually come
to fulfillment.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
You know, we have been talking about messaging and about
voter turnout for twenty thirty forty years. How come why
is it that nothing ever changes on that.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah. I think it's like anything.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
I think that.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Industries and consultants and parties get stuck in their ways,
and ultimately, when that happens, I do think that you
start seeing losses occur. And you know, I mean one
of the things we used to kind of joke about, Uh,
we we'd make fun of Obama for being a community organizer,
and it's you know, what the heckx of community organizer?

(04:10):
And and look, I think the Democrats have proven to
us what a community organizer is since two thousand and eight.
And I mean they they've uh, you know, they've they've
organized like crazy, and and they get their base out.
I mean, they have uh, coalitions and groups and and
and micro targeting, and they know who their people are

(04:31):
and you know, and I feel like that's the type
of infrastructure Republicans have to get serious about if we're
going to really compete in this new landscape over the
next you know, decade is uh, you know, we we've
got to we've got to do some of the same stuff.
And right now, Republican campaigns typically, you know, we depend
on uh, you know, mail and texting and digital and

(04:54):
you know, and all those things are great, but there's
very seldom a real grassroots infrastructure in play, whereas the
Democrats really have the communities organized and they know who
their people are and they get them out and that
makes a big difference.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
You're right, Aaron, Thank you appreciate it. Aaron Evans, President
of Winning Republican Strategies,