Politicians get creative
Try to draw online audience
Bay State pols are scrambling to maintain a public profile despite being on lockdown during the coronavirus crisis, flooding social media with everything from sports discussions, home-cooked recipes and children’s town halls while confined to their homes.
Legislators and candidates — lacking the broad powers of executive office holders like mayors and governors — have had to get particularly creative as they look for new ways to maintain name recognition and win over voters.
“These are strange times, especially for those of us in politics. We’re used to being with people and it’s very, very strange,” said U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-2nd, of Worcester.
McGovern and the rest of the delegation passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus response bill shortly before going on recess, which will last at least April 20. On Capitol Hill, he is a high-ranking member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s team and would usually have a heavy roster of meetings and hearings. He’s had to carve out a slightly new role as he stays home.
“It’s all very, very different, and some things we’re going to try are going to be a bust and others people will react well to,” he said.
The most popular campaign tool during the coronavirus epidemic has to be the Tele-town hall, with a roster of prominent guests that range from the informative to the heart-warming.
U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-3rd, of Lowell, has scheduled an April 7 town hall for kids and encouraged them to send along all their coronavirus questions.
Sen. Ed Markey, seeking to flex his Boston sports know-how in the midst of a tight race with U.S. Rep Joe Kennedy, D-4th, hosted a live discussion of Boston’s best sports moments with Boston sports commentator Bob Ryan. The conversation had 2,400 listens as of Sunday afternoon and was quickly growing, said Campaign Director John Walsh.
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., hosted a therapist last week to discuss ways of coping with coronavirus-triggered anxiety.
“You want to make sure you post important information, but if all we do is post the latest statistics it gets pretty depressing for people,” said McGovern, who’s posted videos of himself cooking brisket and cabbage on Instagram.
“This is not going to be over in a week, so we have to try to get people to not feel hopeless,” he said. Meanwhile, McGovern and others in the delegation
‘You want to make sure you post important information, but if all we do is post the latest statistics it gets pretty depressing for people.’
U.S. REP. JIM MCGOVERN
are working on a fourth coronavirus bill and for ways to return to Capitol Hill.
“We have to get appropriations bills done, we have to fund the government, we have to pass pieces of legislation,” said McGovern. “We’re going to figure out how we can get this done.”