Candidates get creative with campaigns amid virus outbreak
For first-time state legislative candidate Carrie DelRosso, running for office is more literal than she imagined.
One afternoon this past week, her campaigning involved jogging up Pillow Ave. in Cheswick, a conscious effort to meet as many voters as possible in the 33rd legislative district while adhering to the guidelines of social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic — guidelines that have made it nearly impossible for candidates to undertake more traditional routes of voter outreach.
“No shaking hands,” Ms. DelRosso said of the people she meets along the way, “but at least they know who I am.”
That will be the challenge for the dozens of candidates running in contested races this year in Western Pennsylvania, as limits on social gatherings to prevent the spread of the virus also have prevented aspiring officeholders from meeting their constituents face-toface at their doors and at fundraisers.
With just over two months to go until the newly-postponed June 2 primary, many candidates have had to ditch their strategies and rely entirely on social media to get their messages out. Others have had to cancel planned fundraisers, and are wary — generally — of asking people for money during times of economic instability. Some have stopped campaigning altogether, or shifted most of their attention to volunteer in the community.
“There’s no script on how to run during a pandemic,” said Devlin Robinson, a Republican state senatorial candidate who has temporarily halted his campaign.
Mr. Robinson, who is bidding for the nomination in the 37th to face incumbent Democrat Pam Iovino, said he hopes his campaign efforts before the pandemic will be enough to put him over the top on Election Day — but “if it doesn’t work out the way I wanted it to, so be it, that’s in God’s hands.”
“There just wasn’t any point to [campaigning],” Mr. Robinson said, adding that he is instead focusing on helping veterans cope with isolation through his volunteer work with Semper Fi Odyssey.
For others, finding a way to get through to voters — most of whom are in isolation themselves — has become an immediate priority.
It’s “suddenly like learning how to campaign in a foreign language,” said Emily Kinkead, a Democratic candidate for the 20th state House district who has made a concerted effort to create more video content. For 28th district Republican candidate Rob Mercuri, it’s meant hitting the phones and mail to reach voters.
Then, there are candidates like Lissa Geiger Shulman who are holding virtual house parties and Google Hangouts — part of a “patchwork” of figuring out how to reach people where they are, she said.
Ms. Shulman, running in a contested Democratic primary in the 30th legislative district with hopes of eventually facing Republican incumbent Lori Mizgorski, said her original plan was heavy on face-toface interaction — insisting she had a “grassroots army’ ready to knock doors, but which now has to focus elsewhere.
The results of those efforts won’t be known until Election Day, she noted — since it can be difficult to measure enthusiasm in specific districts on virtual platforms.
Some districts cover large territories, too, including the one Ms. DelRosso is trying to jog. The spread of COVID-19 has put her campaign in “reset mode,” she said, and it doesn’t help that she has her sights set on unseating longtime incumbent Democrat
Frank Dermody, the leader of the House Democratic caucus in Harrisburg.
On top of facing an incumbent with a vast fundraising network, Ms. DelRosso, a Republican, said it seems “very selfish” to ask people for money right now with the economy struggling.
Michele Knoll, eyeing a general election rematch with Republican Valerie Gaydos in the 44th state House district, said the pandemic hasn’t had a notable impact on her fundraising, and that she’s been able to access people more easily because they’re at home.
But Ms. Knoll, who has canceled all in-person events and direct voter contact, has focused more of her efforts on personal projects lately, including a series of videos she’s posted on social media to teach children while they’re out of school. One of her recent features was a science lesson on how to make a bubble pipe, drawing on her own experience in childhood education.
Jerry Dickinson, a Democrat running for Congress in the 18th district, said he’s using his experience in housing and criminal justice activism to offer guidance to low-income tenants in the area who have questions about evictions.
On the campaign front, Mr. DIckinson said he’s lucky to have gotten a head start, having launched his campaign last April.
“What’s great about having started so early is we built a very strong infrastructure and foundation having been through every single municipality within the district,” Mr. DIckinson said, adding that it’s allowed him to focus his fundraising efforts entirely on donating to charitable causes.
Achieving focus
With voters inundated by information related to the pandemic, some candidates have noted that it’ll be hard to convince them to focus on the importance of the upcoming elections.
Ms. Kinkead said people aren’t thinking about voting right now, and are more concerned about their families and paying their bills. She said she’s working to strike a balance between “the need to get information out about the campaign with the need to use our bully pulpit to get the best, most accurate, and most recent COVID-19 information out to folks as well.”
A.J. Doyle, an unopposed Republican candidate who will face the winner of a crowded Democratic field to succeed outgoing Rep. Harry Readshaw in the 36th, said it’s difficult to “rise above all the background noise” and get his message across to people in the district during a presidential year.
“This could have longer lasting effects as well, traditional door to door campaigns could be met with trepidation throughout the summer and into the fall,” Mr. Doyle said. “Voter turnout could be lower, or, people could come out in record numbers.”
Mark Johnson, running in the Democratic primary for that seat, said he sees the campaign restrictions as a means to level the playing field, noting that he’s running a “rather small operation.”
“Some of my opponents have significantly more resources and could, in a more traditional campaign, capitalize on those resources for an advantage,” Mr. Johnson said, adding that voters now have to pick their candidate “based on the issues and information available to them.”