
What We Should Not Yet Believe About Campaigns
Five claims about how campaigns work, tested against the evidence instead of repeated as fact
Former congressional candidate, Obama DOJ alum, and political strategist. Writing about politics, technology, power, and what comes next.
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Five claims about how campaigns work, tested against the evidence instead of repeated as fact

Three 2020 campaigns bet on it. None of them won. What that does and doesn't prove.

Why 5-8 is the number campaigns keep converging on and where the number stops being a rule

Testing each claim

A Grading System for Every Claim in This Series

Why the Harris campaign's biggest decision came months too late and what would have made it come sooner

Why burn rate, not cash on hand, is the number that predicts collapse

Appendix to “How Do You Compare a Field of Nearly Thirty Campaigns That Have Little in Common?”

Part of The Build — Foundations.

Five outside fields, studied in isolation from politics, and what transfers

Foundations, principles, patterns, synthesis, and every 2028 candidate mapped before it starts

Money, message, movement, and why none of them work alone.

How agenda-driven polling and prediction markets create the appearance of a competitive candidate

Cash on Hand, Donor Behavior, and the Structural Race for Resources Before a Single Vote Is Cast