February 3, 2008
Nearly every day, Stacey Brayboy, director of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's S.C. presidential campaign, marched into a St. Andrews Road grocery store to buy her favorite drink, lemonade, and chip away at the ambivalence of one of the store's female security guards.
"I talked to her. I gave her literature. I got her phone number. She became my own little focus group," Brayboy said.
During visit No. 8, Brayboy delivered the final pitch: "Have you been contacted by any of those other campaigns?" Brayboy asked. "Edwards? Clinton?"
The security guard shook her head from side to side. "What does that tell you?" asked Brayboy, a Manning native. "They don't care. But we want your vote because it matters to us.
"We need you."
On Jan. 26, the security guard and a much-expanded universe of voters in the state's Democratic primary catapulted Obama over U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton by a whopping 2-1 ratio.
Obama’s grass-roots campaign, which stressed one-on-one contact, turned the traditional electioneering model on its ear, touching young people who had never voted before, women interested in the economy and African-Americans disenchanted with politics.
That expansive grass-roots network — combined with a visit from media mogul Oprah Winfrey, high-tech politicking and a victory in Iowa — allowed Obama to win South Carolina despite pointed criticisms by a popular former president.
DESPERATION MEETS INNOVATION
Obama's grass-roots strategy was born out of desperation, not genius.
As his team rolled into South Carolina in the spring of 2007, influential leaders, including pastor and state Sen. Darrell Jackson of Columbia, already had pledged their allegiance to Clinton, who was enjoying a double-digit lead in the polls at the time.
Obama wasn't just trailing. He was an unknown to many S.C. voters.
Even those who recalled his much-lauded speech during the 2004 Democratic National Convention doubted his chances against the Clinton machine.
Brayboy and her team — augmented by several familiar S.C. faces, including Anton Gunn, who ran unsuccessfully for an S.C. House seat in Northeast Richland — needed a new plan.
"We were staring out at a deficit," said Brayboy. "So many pastors and elected officials had already been snapped up."
And no second-tier powers were available to tap.
"South Carolina doesn't have labor unions," Brayboy said. "People here aren't organized like that."
With the blessing of Obama's national campaign manager, David Plouffe, the S.C. team began tapping individuals.
Instead of courting the ministers of large churches and influential lawmakers, Obama's campaign courted the little guys, lesser known church leaders and members of the congregation, and neighborhood leaders.
Instead of setting up campaign offices only in Columbia, Charleston and the state's other large cities — as Clinton and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina did — Obama’s campaign went statewide, operating in all 46 counties.
Instead of about 100 paid staffers — the force that New York's Clinton had in the Palmetto State — Obama employed closer to 200.
Instead of telling voters to head to the polls on Jan. 26, Obama's camp told them to vote early. While Clinton used a similar strategy, it's Obama's supporters who took it to heart. In 40 of 46 S.C. counties, Obama received more absentee ballots than Clinton, totaling nearly 20,000 votes statewide.
The result was an organization built from the bottom up and powered by an army of 15,000-plus volunteers.
Working like fingers on the same hand, the volunteers reached into beauty salons and barbershops. It was a tactic Obama staffers say they devised but other campaigns quickly adopted.
They grabbed voters at festivals, in neighborhood meetings, even in living rooms during private parties.
The campaign wasn't certain whether the strategy was working until a burning June day when temperatures passed the 90-degree mark.
More than 300 people — young and old, black and white — knocked on doors across the state to spread the Obama message.
"It was working," Brayboy said. "We knew we had a winner."
OPRAH TAPS TECHNOLOGY
An unexpected boost arrived in December. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who had endorsed Obama in the spring, hit the campaign trail, including a stop in Columbia.
Pundits speculated the media mogul would generate buzz for Obama but not votes.
They missed the point.
As 32,000 people, primarily women and African-Americans, gathered in Williams-Brice Stadium, campaign volunteers collected thousands of e-mail addresses and phone numbers of potential voters.
This information proved to be the golden ticket to winning the hearts of key voting blocs. Women cast more than 60 percent of all votes in the Jan. 26 primary, while African-Americans cast more than 50 percent.
"In the world of politics, there is nothing more important than 'the list,'" said Dave Wilson, chief strategist for the Lexington communications firm Inspired Hype, who did not work on the Obama campaign.
"The more contact information I have, the greater chance I have of getting my message in front of you. And if you give me your information, then you are more likely to listen to me and be persuaded.
"His campaign used technology to accomplish something that could not have been done in 2000," Wilson said of Obama, noting cell phones and texting services only have become prevalent in the past few years.
Obama's national campaign included new media staffers like Chris Hughes, co-founder of the online social networking site Facebook, who thought outside the box on using the information.
A deluge of e-mails and text messages nurtured a constant dialogue between the campaign and potential voters.
For example, message recipients got a heads-up about Obama's appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." They were encouraged to text in feedback after debates. And when an issue-related question sprang to mind, they could text the campaign and get an abbreviated answer within seconds.
IOWA AMAZES; CLINTON NEUTRALIZED
More than any other event, Obama's victory in the Iowa caucuses sent a message to South Carolinians: White people will vote for Obama.
He has a chance.
Really.
"One of the things that you kept hearing (before the Iowa win) was that people didn't think the country was ready to elect an African-American president. You heard it from African-Americans even," said Columbia attorney Bill Nettles, one of Obama's top S.C. donors, who also helped with fundraising. "Iowa convinced them. Iowa changed it all."
The next two contests, which were Clinton wins in New Hampshire and Nevada, knocked some of the shine off the Iowa victory.
As Obama's sole win slipped into the past, South Carolina morphed into a "must-win" state, the only chance to halt Clinton short of the Democratic nomination.
Early S.C. polling showed strong support for Obama among African-Americans. However, his campaign wondered whether that alone would be enough to carry the Palmetto State.
Attacks by former President Bill Clinton, a superstar of the Democratic Party, and Hillary Clinton also grabbed attention as the race took on racial tones. But the Clintons’ "going negative" didn’t derail the Obama train.
According to exit polling, about 60 percent of S.C. voters said Bill Clinton's involvement was important. About 40 percent said it wasn't.
Obama took the majority of votes in both categories. In other words, no matter what voters made of the former president's comments, they still voted for Obama.
"(Bill Clinton's) comments may have contributed to some additional votes for Obama," said Scott Huffmon, a pollster and Winthrop University professor. "Or (the comments) were one more justification for voting for Obama. Either way, it didn't hurt him."
Now that the South Carolina win is under their belt, members of Obama's S.C. campaign staff have dispersed to key Super Tuesday states, including Virginia and Alabama.
The shorter timeline and multi-state nature of Tuesday's contests mean many of Obama's South Carolina strategies can't be repeated.
But Brayboy, now working in Virginia, is pining for lemonade and another victory.
"I know where to find new voters," she said.
