A Candidate's Lessons Learned From Running For Office – Matthew Foldi

Matthew Foldi:

I learned more from my experience of running for office than I did majoring in political science.

Eric Wilson:

I'm Eric Wilson, managing partner of Startup Caucus, the home of campaign tech innovation on the right. Welcome to the Business of Politics Show. On this podcast, you are joining in on a conversation with entrepreneurs, operatives, candidates and experts who make professional politics happen. Today we're talking with Matthew Foldy, conservative journalist and former congressional candidate for Maryland's sixth congressional district. We dig into his experience as a candidate and gain insights about how he scaled his startup campaign. So, Matthew, I wanna start with what motivated you to make the leap from being an operative you've held different campaign roles at, at different organizations to actually putting your name on the ballot and running?

Matthew Foldi:

Well, hello Eric and thanks so much for having me on. I'm excited to talk with you today and probably even more excited to get a mug. And I definitely urge all of your listeners to take the three seconds to leave a review. Otherwise they're gonna have to come on the show in order to get a mug. So that seems like, and

Eric Wilson:

And we only ask tough questions.

Matthew Foldi:

Yes. I mean, this seems like a really, they get the, the better deal than I do in terms of mug getting, but you're right. I had worked on a lot of different campaigns and committees and I threw my my hat in the ring this cycle and really what was one of the most startup campaigns imaginable. But it wasn't that crazy for me. When I was in college at the University of Chicago, I actually became the youngest elected official still in Chicago history when I was 19, when <laugh>, the Chicago g o p, begged me to run for ward committee men there. And I didn't really have any interest cuz I was more about electing other people than myself. But after a lot of imploring, I decided to do it. And we was a whole circus. We took my fake democratic plan opponent to court, told her that you can, you know, be convicted of rampant ballot fraud or you can drop out. So I pulled that Obama disqualified her and then was able to, to win that unopposed. But so I had done it in

Eric Wilson:

The past Chicago style

Matthew Foldi:

<Laugh>. It's very, it was very, I mean, I, I learned more from my experience of running for office than I did majoring in political science. But, you know, this year to, to no one's surprise obviously will be a huge year for Republicans. And, you know, it drives me crazy as a native Maryland guy, the afterthought that our state is both in national politics and even within the state of Maryland and where I live in Montgomery County, you know, we're more perceived as a piggy bank for Republicans and Democratic candidates than, you know, being an area that actually should have a Republican congressman. Because following the work that governor Larry Hogan did in getting us fairer maps in Maryland, Northern Montgomery County, going all the way to the end of Western Maryland now is one of the toss up districts in the country. And so I was covering redistricting when I was a reporter at the Washington Free Beacon.

It was incredibly clear to me that based on the case that Hogan and his team were arguing that we would get a different map. Originally, Democrats had gerrymandered Maryland this cycle to be an eight zero D state, even though have one of the most popular two term Republican governors in the country. So I was looking at all of this, you know, objectively as a former house PAC guy. And I said, Wow. So we have a huge opportunity here. And I filed on the last day to run in the sixth district, which gave me very little time to scale up a campaign. I'm sure we'll talk about the startup aspects of that. And then within just a hundred very short days, I went from nothing to second place, which was cool. Obviously I was running to win, but came up short and learned a lot along the way.

Eric Wilson:

Well, that, I mean, you highlight something that I, I talk with founders about all the time, which is politics and political campaigns are some of the best examples of startups because you go from zero to, you know, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars if you're the, the nominee millions of dollars and you spend, well, I raise send it to zero thousands

Matthew Foldi:

Of dollars without even being the nominee.

Eric Wilson:

Correct. Right, Right. So you've gotta do that, obviously before you get to the stage, is my my point. And raise lots of of money very quickly, which is we, we'll talk a little bit more about kind of as a skill, but it, it, it is, it is a startup culture as much as, as anything else. And I think it's an even more intense crucible for, for startup skills because, you know, your election day is, is set in stone. If, you know, there are lots of startups that kind of amble along for years. And, and this really is a forcing function.

Matthew Foldi:

Well, we actually, this year, and, and maybe this happens elsewhere, you know, from, from time to time every 10 years with the Dec redistrict annual cycle, our election days were not set in stone. They actually paid

Eric Wilson:

Primary

Matthew Foldi:

By three weeks, which as I was thinking about whether I wanted to do this, kept sort of throwing wrenches in my plans of, you know, do I wanna go through with this. So we, we went from our standard June primary that we usually have to a, an unprecedented mid-summer July primary in Maryland. But yes, normally you, you do have your set primaries in general election days.

Eric Wilson:

So Matthew, what surprised you the most about, about running for office? In, in the primary?

Matthew Foldi:

It's just different when you are doing it yourself as opposed to doing it, you know, for other people. But you know, one of my favorite anecdotes on the trail that sort of gets to that was I was in Garrett County, which is the western most county in Maryland for their Lincoln Day dinner. And a couple of weeks earlier I had done a Fox and Friends hit where they just, you know, as they do on tv, cycled through some pictures from the campaign trail, but some of them were from the Garrett County Republican Parties headquarters office opening mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And my friends in Garra County printed those pictures and then gave them to the people who were in those pictures, and they asked me to sign them. I was like, Why do you even want me to sign anything? That's ridiculous. But you know, that was cool because Garra County is one of those areas of the country that does not get the attention that it needs both, you know, in terms of positive press, there's so much to do there. And also in terms of attention from Congress it's incredibly Republican county, one of the most Republican in the country. And you know, outside of Larry Hogan, there are no Republicans who rep, I mean, yeah, there are no Republicans who represent that area. So it's not like, you know, Chris Van Holland, Ben Card, David Drone can even find that area on a map. So being able to represent these areas and get them the attention that they deserve, even just from a primary campaign was you know, incredibly rewarding.

Eric Wilson:

So is it, when, when you say it's different, is it, is it the fact that it is your name on the ballot and you like the the buck stops with you

Matthew Foldi:

In essence? Yeah,

Eric Wilson:

I, I, I think that a lot of people don't under don't appreciate how much of, of an impact this has on candidates and decision making. Someone asked me the other night of, could you come up with an algorithm that basically helps someone run the perfect campaign? And I say, Well, sure. That's, that's the easy part. Finding a candidate who will listen to it is, is the hard part, right? Because whenever it is your name on the ballot and your reputation at risk, your relationships that becomes a lot more, more difficult.

Matthew Foldi:

Yeah. And it is, it's just sort of an indescribable way in which it's different. But, you know, when I am chatting with either other former candidates or our nominees or members of Congress, it's just, it's just, you sort of get it, you know, you can talk about these things that happened on the trail that basically happened to everyone, and you just sort of are, are in this club of people who went through the ringer because we want to make our country better. And you know, I think we all want that, but this is such a unique way of trying to make that happen, that until you've done it yourself, it's just hard to imagine. Like, I've knocked on, for example, thousands of doors for other Republican candidates across the country, but doing it for myself was just, you know, it felt a little weird,

Eric Wilson:

Weird how,

Matthew Foldi:

See, that's the thing, I I don't even know exactly how, because it's the exact same thing. You know, it's basically the same script that you would do for anyone else. The same script that I've done since the primary for other Republicans in Maryland. I guess maybe I would say it felt surreal the whole time of doing this when I was 25. And you know, getting second place in every single county in the district, and obviously, you know, overall having the faith and trust put in me as opposed to, you know, someone else from these people to be their voice in government. It just, it was a different, it's just different when you know that you're advocating for yourself as opposed advocating for your friends who are running or for other, you know, candidates that you believe in.

Eric Wilson:

And so, Matthew, on the other side of that coin, what don't political operatives understand about campaigning?

Matthew Foldi:

You know, there are obviously the political operatives and staff who are doing the day to day, and then those who are doing the bigger picture. I think that, you know, we can, when we're reading about campaigns or things like that, we forget that it is actually just someone like you and me who's doing all of the things. And you know, it gives, the whole experience gave me a huge amount of respect for anyone, you know, Republican or Democratic who says, You know what, I wanna do this myself. And I think that, you know, my team all understood like this, what you're doing is you're doing this and we're just helping. We're we're along for the ride to help make it happen. But sometimes I think, you know, it's easy to forget that, that it's an incredibly stressful thing and, you know, the person who is the candidate is as much a person as the staff.

And I think there's a lot of frustration from staff from time to time about candidates not listening. I would, I would say to, you know, basically every candidate, just listen, as long as you are in a good place with your staff and think you can trust them, just understand that they're not going to make your life more difficult. I took the keys, gave 'em to the team and said, Do whatever you want. Tell me where you need to be. Which surprised them how lax I was with this, because everyone had basically worked with hard to manage candidates <laugh> right at at times. But, you know, that's, you don't wanna be wasting your own team's time. You know, that's, that's one of the axiomatic truths that everyone's always told is you know, the, you, you can't get time back in a campaign and when you're doing a 100 day primary, you really can't get time. So we, we definitely did not waste really any time. But the, the takeaway we had was basically, it was still just too short of time to get my name Id up to where it needed to be. But the reception for the campaign that we ran was phenomenal. We just didn't get enough people, right. We didn't get on enough people's radars.

Eric Wilson:

Well, I, you raise a really important point here, which is, I, I see it almost universally that every candidate spends a lot of time and energy making sure that they pick the smartest best people to run their campaign, and then for the rest of the campaign, they don't listen to them <laugh>. And I, I, I get it. It, it's tough when you're getting contradicting advice maybe from your own advisors at the table from the people that you've had relationships with before. But I, I think your advice is apt of you hired these professionals for a reason, Listen to them. It's not, you know, sort of abdicating your responsibility. But at the same time, I think I, I, I wanna give probably the most important piece of advice I can give to anyone who's trying to build a career in politics is go work on a campaign, Go and do what you did and have done and, and, and knock on doors, be outside of Washington DC where actual Republican voters live and, and get to know the process, get to understand how people make their decisions. It's just, I mean, it, it's really the biggest advantage you could have if you're trying to build a career in DC

Matthew Foldi:

Yeah, that, I mean, you know, everything along the way that I've done, I, I can't imagine doing it or having done any of it without being, you know, when I was in high school, I was Maryland young Republican of the year, Montgomery County, young Republican of the year, and all of that just stemming from, you know, tens of thousands of houses knocked on and phones called, It's you gotta do it. And every, every single person on my team door knocked with me. And, you know, it's a good, and you know, my GC amazing guy, he said, You know, it's important for all of us to make sure that we're in touch with the people who we're trying to get to elect you to Congress.

Eric Wilson:

Well, and that drives directly to another piece of startup advice, which is to get to know your user, right? You can't solve their problems if you don't know who they are and, and what they, what they need. Correct. Matthew, what what advice would you give to someone who's listening to this podcast and is thinking about running as a candidate themselves? What, what are some considerations they should have before they go down that path?

Matthew Foldi:

You know, make sure you've done your homework. For example, in Maryland, it's incredibly easy to get on the ballot. I drove to Annapolis, paid a hundred dollars and became a candidate on the last day. But, you know, you wanna make sure that before you do it, you have as many ducks in a row lined up as possible. But also understand that you're not gonna have everything that you need right off the bat. You know, you're not gonna have a perfect website, You're not gonna have every possible box checked off. And I think as long as you've done the major things that you need to do, like making sure that you're not gonna get kicked off the ballot for bad signatures or, you know, things like that. And as long as you have a, a sense of where you need to go, there's a basic checklist that anyone should, should have, but understand that you're just gonna have to roll with some punches and then hopefully minimize all further amounts of punches <laugh> after that. But, but definitely I think for us, the most hectic part was probably the first couple days of just, Wow, we're doing this, let's go win.

Eric Wilson:

Right? It's sort of, it's like the old adage. Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face. Yeah. And you get punched in the face a lot in campaigns. One thing that that jumps out to me, and I see this a lot in my, my international work, is it's one very common for campaign staff and operatives to run as candidates themselves, right? We, we've sort of moved away from that in the US in, in response to kind of like the Tea party movement of where we want the, the, the joke is conservative outsiders, right? Where, where we want people who have had no experience. And then the other thing that I point out is it is, it is common practice just about everywhere else in the, the world to have a full ballot for your party in every contest, whether you have a shot of winning or not.

And, and you know, in, in Virginia where I live, there, there were state House of Delegates races a couple years ago where it was just uncontested. We see that in, in other states, and, and that has the effect of, you know, of course it's unlikely that Republicans would win those seats, but it also frees up resources and, and focus. So I, again, I think what you are, what you've done I is a good model for other people going forward of let's press the issue in, in every seat in every district.

Matthew Foldi:

Yeah. I mean, and that's, that's smart. You know, the race I was in was not a sacrificial lamb kind of district. Right. But you know what I said one of the reasons why I filed was when I was working as a reporter at the free week. And I, you know, I did lots of stories on democratic corruption, you know, the disastrous Biden administration. But you know, I, I, you know, I've thoughts not, not for this podcast on, on the media but one of the ways, you know, that I always say you see media biases both in what they cover and what they choose not to cover. Exactly. And to me, one of the most glaring examples of that was, you know, the government, the capital that we pay for was closed by Pelosi and Schumer, people didn't even realize this. We have the Capital Hill Press core that when they're not working from home all day, is there to walk around and harass Republicans. But Democrats had literally just not been going to work. They'd been proxy voting or

Eric Wilson:

Not from France

Matthew Foldi:

<Laugh> for years. And so as I was walking around our government realizing that we have governing political party that has no interest in working I was, you know, frustrated as a taxpayer and citizen. And then of course I saw that the congressman here, David Tr had not been working, all of his district offices have been closed for two years. He's running total wine, which has zero locations in our district seven days a week. But if you wanna try and reach this guy, it's impossible. And I saw that we were not pressing him on this. So I said, Look, you know, I'm gonna go do this myself you know, hold him accountable for a two year taxpayer funded vacation and not working and I'm gonna make him spend here. And cuz tr is a multimillionaire democratic mega donor, it's the only reason he's in Congress.

And he just donates to Democrats around the country. I said, This is insane. You know, we've got an actual r plus one district that he's running in. I'm gonna make him, you know, dedicate resources here. The only jobs he creates in this district are when he drops, you know, tens of millions for his reelect every two years. Otherwise he does literally nothing here, doesn't show up, doesn't do anything. And I did exactly what I set out to do, which was he donated 10 million of his own money to his campaign. <Laugh> de C listed him as a vulnerable incumbent and put the race on the map. I mean, this is a district and this is a congressman no one had ever heard of because he literally doesn't work. So that was you know, it's, it's important obviously to contest elections because, you know, American people should have a choice in, in who they're voting for.

and you know, there were people in this district, you know, in the Montgomery County side who were running super uphill battles, but were better off for being able to vote for them. And you know, having them go into very areas and saying to voters, you know, you don't have to suffer unified one party rule in Annapolis. And that's definitely important because, you know, democratic rule is terrible in Montgomery County. Our county executive is a disaster. And obviously DS in Annapolis our poised to have unified control for the first time in a while. And Maryland will absolutely be suffering because of that.

Eric Wilson:

You're listening to the Business of Politics Show. I'm speaking with Matthew Foy about his recent congressional campaign in Maryland. Now you are obviously very savvy with social media and internet culture. How are you able to take advantage of that in your campaign?

Matthew Foldi:

I mean, you know, one of the ways that I did that was going in just going to David Throne's offices and just filming very short videos outside of them and pointing out that he doesn't work because he would just get this free pass from journalists. His team would say, Our offices are open. <Laugh> journalists would say, Okay, and then do no follow up because their definition of open meant that someone was sitting on a computer. And even though they basically, I don't even think had call forwarding set up, cuz when I was doing my reporting as a journalist about Democrats who don't work, I couldn't even reach his offices. So but journalists are, will, will take any talking point from a Democrat at face value and do absolutely no further digging. I mean, remember that literally the Capitol Hill Press Corps walked by Chuck Schumer's closed office for two years and never reported that he doesn't work.

So, you know, they have interest in protecting their dem sources and don't want to tell the American people that an entire political party doesn't work. So that was one way that was probably a, a a main way of doing that. But the, the real success of our campaign was the traditional voter contacts that we did. We did almost half a million in about a hundred days. And I think that journalists, again are incredibly lazy and will take any narrative given to them by Democrats. So they, they wrongly believed that our campaign was some online only campaign. Even we did over 300,000 calls, things like that. And I, I always think it's funny now that I'm more, that I'm back to looking at politics more nationally. You know, John Federman in Pennsylvania is barely alive, right? And his campaign is actually online only.

It's just they hired a bunch of five year olds to tweet for them and use TikTok for him, which is obviously controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. And that is an online only campaign. John Federman is not met physically well enough to campaign and he actually gets glowing coverage for his online only campaign. And, and voters are gas lit into thinking that he is well and to think that he is running an actual campaign. So that's an interesting sort of contrast to me is, you know, journalists will rave about when Democrats use a lot of the technologies that you talk about here and then minimize when Republicans do it. And you should, you know, your listeners should ask why is that? Well it's cuz a lot of them are effective and it's bad for journalists if more Republicans are elected and you know, if we use innovative technology that could be beneficial to us. So, you know, therefore it is bad.

Eric Wilson:

So you used your, I, well let me just clarify. So is, are you saying that you used your, your social media savvy and ability to create this culture and your existing network as kind of a top of funnel for recruiting people into the volunteer and that, that voter contact,

Matthew Foldi:

That was, that was one of the ways to do it? I think the two main things that were helpful to me in terms of getting people to volunteer on my campaign as opposed to any other campaign they possibly could were people from around the country who were phone banking for me who knew me from my reporting or you know, followed me on Twitter and then reached out and said that they wanna help. So that was one way. And then the other was the people that I know from almost half my life in Maryland politics and working in the area. So we had a hugely robust in person volunteer network in addition to, and I, after my primary, I've repurposed my phone bank, which again did over 300,000 calls to help Republican House candidates around the country. And that's awesome. It is shocking to me how much we were able to do.

You know, we would do, we would have days on my campaign, which would be in terms of phone banking for example, that would turn out the numbers that other campaigns do in a month, <laugh>. So I think that's a testament to how excited people were for my campaign and which is amazing. And you know, it was important for me after we lost to, you know, keep helping other candidates, make sure that we harness the red wave. Cuz that I think is one of the, the only obstacles to Republicans is complacency this midterm cycle. So making sure that people, you know, have the info that they need and, and remember to vote on November 8th.

Eric Wilson:

Yeah. And it's really important to emphasize how building this long term sustained power of campaigning is critical to winning. That's one of the reasons why I started Startup Caucus because technology innovation does not follow the campaign cycle. And so we've gotta keep going beyond November and building cycle over cycle, maybe you mentioned you raised over $200,000 very quickly for your campaign, which is an impressive feat. I think that, you know, in, in just about any other seat that would put you at the, the top of the list of recruits for, for nrcc. And, and it's also something that startup founders need to do. So I'm curious to hear what tips you have to share about tapping into your personal network for fundraising, because that can always be a little bit of an uncomfortable conversation.

Matthew Foldi:

So it's funny because you're right, I had a tremendous amount of success we were raising by the end we would do, you know, 30,000 a week more on average. I have very little insight on this. I would always say to the team, Oh you know, man, I, I really hate fundraising. And said, Well you just raised $35,000 <laugh>. And I think that you just have to explain the case at the onset, my family, even if I were running in a d plus a million, was going to be supportive because they're my family and I'm incredibly appreciative of that <laugh>. So, you know, what I was told is, you know, you go through the people that you know and you write how much you think they'll give you and then you divided it by two <laugh> and then sometimes divided by four. And that will be what you actually are realistically going to have when you start out.

And I think that the, the other axiomatic truth is that the first 100,000 raised as a candidate is the hardest. Cuz a lot of times, as soon as as you start moving away from the people that you know, when you're asking people to donate to you, a lot of times it's say, Well how much have you raised so far? And if you say, I've raised $10 and that's it, then you'll be lefted out of any room that you go in. So, you know, starting with the good foundation is critical to then expanding beyond, you know, your friends who obviously want you to succeed and will throw you a couple hundred bucks.

Eric Wilson:

Give our listeners who are entrepreneurs and building products and businesses in politics, a little bit of a glimpse into your decision making process about how you and your campaign team made those decisions about technology, whether to invest in them what you were looking for. Give us, give us a little behind the scenes on that mindset.

Matthew Foldi:

I think it was fairly straightforward. You know, I don't, I don't think that we, I think the only things that we did that other campaigns don't do is I started off with more name ID than most first time house candidates. And that way we didn't have to waste time getting me to a point where reporters would understand that this is a serious campaign. But other than that, in terms of just the tools, you know, we used very similar things of email, fundraising, TV ads, the internet. It's just, I was more adept at using them than if I were an 80 year old doing

Eric Wilson:

For the first time. But what were the, what were the sort of

Matthew Foldi:

Using drones or anything like

Eric Wilson:

That, right? Right. But, but what were the, I guess, frameworks or, or how did you decide we're gonna go with this consultant as opposed to that consultant? I'm, I'm trying to give our listeners a, an insight into to how they should pitch candidates and campaigns.

Matthew Foldi:

Well, that's a great question. I don't even know the answer to that because I had nothing to do with any of those conversations. I said, Look, you guys do all of this. I was not, I don't think I was on a single call with email fundraisers or anything like that. I just said, You guys, you know, I trust you guys. Figure it out. I couldn't care less at all about any of these things cuz that's really not something any candidate should care about. Right? that is, you know, how you descend into micromanaging hell. And, you know, it's not the candidate's job to say, Oh, we're gonna go with this vendor over that vendor. It really doesn't matter, right? Like from a can. Like that's not my job. My job is to go out and meet voters and raise money that we can then make sure we can hire vendors and then raise more money. Because in this district it's an incredibly expensive media market. And again, trone, the only thing he does to campaign is drops 10 mil on TV ads to close out a cycle. So it was very important to raise money. We were never gonna go dollar for dollar with him, obviously, even if I had won the nomination. But that's that this question, the help I can provide to your listeners is just the knowledge that a candidate should not be on these calls,

Eric Wilson:

Right? So don't, don't pitch the candidate.

Matthew Foldi:

Never, never you know, if you are, it's not gonna matter because they're, they really, I mean this is my experience from, from my campaign, which I think is the correct one is I'm sure you guys are great. I don't care cuz this is not where my experience is. And you know, you can make it sound awesome, but again, I just don't, it's not, it's not my decision really. <Laugh> Got it. Talk, talk to my team.

Eric Wilson:

All right. So what was a problem that you experienced campaigning that you think would make for a great tech solution that, that some startup should go out and get, get working on?

Matthew Foldi:

Better sell service in western Maryland? <Laugh>, it's a huge problem. That's one of the problems in this district. And you know, I would, when I would be either going to events or door knocking, I literally, I mean, I have T-Mobile no service. So, you know, you, you would do things like download the Walk book app, like the walk book list ahead of time and then it would sync up later. But that's, that was one of the biggest problems on the campaign was when I would more or less get past Cumberland. I have no self service, other tech things. What are your favorite examples that have been said? Let me, let me brainstorm off of those.

Eric Wilson:

Well, I, I, I'm, I really use this as just a way to, to source ideas for new startups to get people.

Matthew Foldi:

Honestly, really, whatever Eric's doing is probably a good idea that

Eric Wilson:

I can't to talk that. But yeah, that, that's a, that's actually a really important practical tip is do not assume that you have 5G for your application in every context, Right? Being able to have an offline mode is, is essential.

Matthew Foldi:

Yes.

Eric Wilson:

Well, thanks to Matthew for a great conversation. I'm gonna include a link to his Twitter account in the show notes. Give him a follow, stay up to date on what he's doing next. And if this episode made you a little bit smarter or gave you something to think about, all we ask is that you share it with a friend or colleague and it also makes you look smart in the process. Remember to subscribe to the Business of Politics Show wherever you listen to podcasts, so you never miss an episode. You can also sign up for email updates now at our new website, business of politics podcast.com. With that, we'll say thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.

‍