Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast
Culture within an organization is more powerful than any strategy, and if culture and strategy are not aligned, the mission fails.
Welcome to The Democratic Dilemma — where we stop debating what needs to change and start building how to win it.
While 92 County Plan launched our community, it’s time to get laser focused on our True Compass. Over the next few weeks, I will be re-branding and rolling out our new podcast! We are super excited! November 2026 is right around the corner. And what a time to transition. Last night was electric. When MSNBC called the race for Abigail Spanberger - my eyes welled up with tears! And with each election results called, more tears! HOPE is alive. And now the work begins!
You have heard me say this multiple times — Culture eats strategy for breakfast — its time to change the culture of how we run our campaigns. This is Unfiltered Marketing for a New Generation of Candidates and Causes — no gatekeepers, no jargon, no permission slips from Old Politics. We’re here to demystify the how: how to run (and win) in every district especially the sweet-spot statehouses; how to define what winning looks like; how to build media that moves people, not just algorithms; how to connect with voters year-round without burning out; and how to develop leaders who don’t just campaign but ignite movements.
Our mission? Old Politics profits from your confusion. We floodlight the path forward — because if talking about justice won elections, we’d all be done by lunch. It doesn’t. Rants don’t recruit. Panels don’t persuade. We help you win real power, votes, volunteers, and small-dollar fuel on your own terms, with your own voice, in your own community.
Subscribe. Learn. Win. The future isn’t waiting. It’s being built, block by block, by the people who refuse to ask for permission. Let’s get after it.
A collaboration between Mary Noone (92 County Plan) and Gina Clementi (Goodstory)
The perfect example! The culture of Mamdani’s campaign was vibrant, inclusive, and brimming with joy. It wasn’t just a vibe, it was a strategy. It was a deliberate rejection of politics-as-usual that treated voters like transactional targets rather than community co-creators. This culture thrived because it centered humanity — laughter at block parties, shared meals during canvasses, TikToks of volunteers dancing between door knocks — turning organizing into something people wanted to be part of, not just something they were asked to join.
When people feel seen, celebrated, and excited to show up — not just obligated — we don’t just win elections, we build movements that last. Culture doesn’t just eat strategy for breakfast — it fuels the whole damn revolution.
Let’s get grounded in what successfully launched Mamdani’s Campaign - why it took hold.
Gina Clementi, Goodstory:
When I wrote about Zohran Mamdani’s primary campaign, I broke down why his movement worked: clear values, simple messaging, and people who actually believed in what they were building.
How You Turn Culture into Actions?
Because you have heard me say multiple times ➡️ “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”
Alright, let’s get real for a second.
✅ You’ve got the why — the values, the vision, the fire in your gut that says, “This is not the America we signed up for.”
✅ You’ve got the what — the policies, the platforms, the promises that actually lift people up instead of lining the pockets of billionaires.
✅ You’ve got the website up - now what?
➡️ But here’s the hard truth: none of that matters if you don’t have the how. If you don’t have the people → the volunteers. The neighbor who knocks on doors. The grandma who texts her book club. The student who posts on TikTok. The organizer who shows up at 7 a.m. to hand out flyers. Because democracy isn’t a spectator sport. It’s not a hashtag. It’s not a meme. It’s a movement. And movements are built one relationship at a time.
How Did Mamdani Actually Mobilize 100,000 Volunteers —Onboarding for Ownership
Let’s start with the BIG Question: How did Mamdani’s campaign get 100,000 people to show up — not just once, but consistently — and feel like they own this fight?
The answer? You stop treating volunteers like “assets” or “foot soldiers.” You treat them like owners. Like stakeholders. Like members of the team who have skin in the game.
Start with the “Why” — Not the “What”
People don’t show up for a candidate. They show up for a cause. For a feeling. For the future they very much wanted too.
Candidates forget - it is not about them - they are just the conduit for a future their community wants - a true leader sees this, recognizes it, and works with it not against it.
Next, use Marketing Tactics because they work to bring followers out of the digital space into the campaign.
Remember that banana bread recipe you got via DM after following that cute bakery on Instagram? Yeah. That’s exactly how Mamdani’s Campaign pulled people out of the digital world and into the campaign. They turned followers into volunteers. They used ManyChat — not to spam people, but to invite them. Thank you to Gabriella Zutrau for sharing her strategy across the progressive ecosystem so we can all learn. Below are a few examples on how it could work for your campaign.
“Hey, we saw you liked our post about school funding. Want to get involved? Comment “name of your school” and we’ll send you a quick 3-minute video on how you can help.”
“We’ve got a volunteer hub launching this Saturday. Want to be one of the first 10 to sign up? Comment Volunteer Hub.”
“Neighbors are signing up to host block parties. Want to learn how to host your own block party? We’ll send you a toolkit. Comment Block Party”
This isn’t “marketing.” This is movement-building. It’s using the same tools that turn customers into brand loyalists - personalized, low-friction, high-reward - to turn voters into organizers. We’ve all heard the term “ladder of engagement”. It is not a fancy campaign buzzword but a human pathway to building relationships. Using ManyChats, Mamdani’s campaign brought votes down the ladder of engagement from the digital space into the campaign.
What the Data Showed About Voter Targeting — It’s Not Just About Demographics, It’s About Emotions
Let’s talk about data because if you’re not using it, you’re flying blind. But Mamdani’s campaign masterfully flipped the script on traditional voter targeting by recognizing that effective outreach isn’t just about checking demographic boxes, it’s about tapping into the emotional pulse of each community. Rather than treating New York City’s boroughs as monolithic blocs, it is quite apparent that his team treated each as a distinct cultural, economic, and emotional ecosystem with its own history, pain points, and aspirations.
In Brooklyn, they centered housing justice and tenant rights; in Queens, they amplified immigrant voices and small business survival; in the Bronx, they tied economic dignity to public safety and school funding. This hyper-localized, emotionally intelligent approach didn’t just resonate→ it built trust. Voters didn’t feel like data points; they felt seen, heard, and valued. The data confirmed what organizers already knew: when you speak to people’s lived experiences with authenticity and urgency, you don’t just win votes, you build movements.
Ground game execution that made the message land - those who shared the message lived in the community
The ground game was the engine that turned Mamdani’s message into a lived reality — not because it just knocked doors or made calls, but because it centered community messengers: neighbors talking to neighbors, parents speaking to parents, workers organizing workers. These weren’t scripted canvassers from outside the zip code, they were people who lived the struggles they were talking about: tenants facing eviction, workers underpaid and overworked, students in underfunded schools.
That authenticity cut through the noise.
When someone from your block, your church, your union, or your child’s PTA tells you, “This campaign gets it,” you believe them because they’re not selling you a candidate, they’re inviting you into a shared struggle.
And in today’s digital world, the ground truth had to be amplified, and reinforced online.
The field operation didn’t just drive digital engagement; it informed it.
Door-to-door conversations revealed what issues were burning hottest in real time, not what polls said weeks ago and that intel fed directly into targeted digital ads, social media storytelling, and SMS campaigns. Meanwhile, digital tools didn’t replace the human touch, they multiplied it.
✅ A viral video of a local mom talking about rent hikes could be paired with a QR code that linked to a neighborhood canvass sign-up.
✅ A tweet about a school budget cut could be followed up with a text inviting supporters to a block captain meeting.
The digital and physical didn’t compete — they converged, creating a feedback loop where every online share was backed by real-world relationships, and every face-to-face conversation was empowered by digital tools. That’s how you turn data into dignity, and clicks into collective power.
Feedback loops and how we can replicate this feedback loop model in other cities with different demographics?
Feedback loops are self-reinforcing cycles where the output of a system becomes its own input creating momentum, either upward or downward. In campaigns, this means every door knocked, every story shared online, and every volunteer recruited doesn’t just stand alone rather it fuels the next action - if we are willing to pause and listen. A supporter who feels heard on the ground is more likely to share the message digitally; that digital reach then draws new volunteers back into the field, deepening trust and expanding impact. When designed intentionally, feedback loops turn small actions into large-scale movements — because the more people engage, the more others see them engaging, and the more they want to join. It’s not magic, it’s strategy, scaled by human connection. And this strategy beats social pressure.
1. Start with Community-Led Listening, Not Assumptions
In every city, begin by identifying and empowering local messengers not just organizers, but trusted figures: faith leaders, small business owners, tenant association reps, youth mentors. Host neighborhood listening circles (in person and digitally) to map not just who people are, but how they feel fear, hope, frustration, pride. This becomes your emotional targeting map.
2. Build a Two-Way Digital-Ground Tech Stack
Use tools like Reach or Hustle for SMS and peer-to-peer texting that can be customized by neighborhood or issue. Sync with NGP VAN or EveryAction to ensure every digital touchpoint (a tweet, a text, a Facebook post) is informed by what’s being heard on the ground and vice versa. A canvasser in Oakland’s Fruitvale might report rising rent anxiety that triggers a hyperlocal Instagram Story with a QR code to a tenant rights webinar, which then feeds back into door-to-door follow-up.
3. Design for Cultural Nuance, Not One-Size-Fits-All
In Miami, that might mean bilingual SMS campaigns tied to local festivals; in Detroit, it could be partnering with car clubs to spread voter info via Instagram Reels; in Minneapolis, it might mean co-creating content with Indigenous youth groups for TikTok. The digital message must reflect the cultural texture of each community, not just translate it.
4. Create Reciprocal Feedback Loops Between Field and Digital Teams
Hold daily 10-minute syncs where field organizers share what’s resonating (or not) then digital teams pivot messaging that same day. If a canvasser in a rural Georgia county hears voters say, “I don’t trust politicians, but I trust my neighbor,” the digital team can push a “Neighbor to Neighbor” video series featuring local residents which then drives more door-knocking.
5. Measure Emotional Engagement, Not Just Votes
Track not just “contacts made” or “click-through rates,” but emotional resonance: Did voters share the message? Did they tag friends? Did they show up to a meeting because someone they know posted about it? These are the leading indicators of a healthy feedback loop and they’re scalable across any demographic, geography, or cultural context.
The bottom line: You don’t replicate the tools — you replicate the principle: Trust is built when people see themselves in the message, and the message is shaped by the people who live it. That’s the feedback loop that wins in South Bend, in Albuquerque, in Chattanooga, and beyond.
The infrastructure required to scale without losing authenticity
Scaling without losing authenticity isn’t about doing more of the same, it’s about designing for replication through local ownership. Mamdani’s campaign proved that when you equip neighborhood leaders with the tools, trust, and autonomy to adapt the core message to their community’s emotional and cultural rhythm, you don’t dilute authenticity, you multiply it. (stressing my point here).
The lesson is clear: You can’t fake meaning at scale. You either have it or you don’t.
Instead of top-down scripts, you create modular frameworks: a central narrative (e.g., “We deserve dignity, not just survival”) that local teams can translate into their own stories whether it’s a Bronx tenant talking about heat in winter, a Queens small business owner fighting rent hikes, or a Brooklyn parent demanding school safety.
Digital tools like localized SMS, hyper-targeted social content, and shared data dashboards help coordinate without controlling. The key is to treat every new borough, block, or zip code not as a market to capture, but as a movement to co-create — because when people feel they’re shaping the campaign, not just receiving it, the message doesn’t scale — it spreads, organically, powerfully, and authentically.
Now what?
Mamdani’s campaign isn’t just a win in one district, it’s a blueprint for a new kind of politics that centers the voter not as a target, but as a co-creator of power.
By rejecting top-down messaging and instead listening deeply to the emotional, cultural, and material realities of each neighborhood, his team proved that authenticity scales when it’s rooted in local leadership and reinforced by smart, responsive digital tools.
This model flips the script: instead of asking “How do we get voters to believe in us?”, it asks “How do we help voters believe in themselves — and in the future they’re already building?” It’s a politics that doesn’t just win elections — it builds movements, reimagines possibility, and plants the seeds for systemic change across cities, states, and ultimately, the nation.
The future isn’t waiting for a savior, it’s being built, block by block, by the people who live there. And that’s the revolution we can replicate if we’re willing to listen, trust, and lead differently.
The Real Question?
The old establishment and consultants - will join or get in the way?
Some are watching yet nervously. Others are still scrolling through their old playbooks, mistaking data points for human stories and turnout models for movement-building.
The truth is, they see it — the energy, the authenticity, the way Mamdani’s campaign turned neighborhoods into engines of power but I am not sure if many believe it can scale, or worse, they don’t know how to replicate it without losing control.
That’s their weakness.
Because this new model doesn’t need permission from the political class because it’s powered by the people who’ve been left out of their calculations. The question isn’t whether they see it — it’s whether they’re willing to change. And if they’re not? Good. Because the future isn’t being designed in D.C. boardrooms it’s being built on stoops, in laundromats, at PTA meetings, and in DMs. And that’s exactly where real power lives.
What I am reading … and pushing
🗳️ RUNNING CANDIDATES IN EVERY DISTRICT
If you want voter turnout to increase - give voters a choice on the ballot.
Red to Blue, Everywhere!
Stunning Wins in Former GOP Strongholds
“An incredible case study of why you run everywhere, with the stunning results in the Virginia House of Delegates…”
Launch —> BLUE INDIANA
You’re Fired!...Then What?
In states like mine, some candidates are just recycling decade-old fire-the-educators plans from Republican governors. They miss key insights from the rest of the business world.
INDIANA is grappling with redistricting and Lt Gov. Beckwith is right there in the middle of a sex scandal. This is an unfolding story.
Pastor’s son arrested on child sex abuse charges plans to hire lawyer embroiled in deepfake porn scandal
Indiana police arrested Jonathan Peternel, the son of Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s mentor and adviser, Nathan Peternel, Thursday
 | A guest post by
|