Image from Amarillo Globe-News
The Stark County Democrats mobilized for Tim Ryan and Emilia Sykes. Though they lost the senate seat, they won the House race as well as our family court.
But politics entails more than federal elections. The greatest impact you and I have is local. What we do now determines the strength of the conservative movement in Stark County.
Here are the top five ways to stay politically active after the 2022 midterm elections—and, in the process, own the Stark County Democrats.
5. Call your lawmakers—don't @ them.
I’ve worked in government for six years. I’ve done my time in D.C. and at the Ohio Statehouse.
Here’s a secret: lawmakers don’t run their own email accounts or social media. Staffers do.
Here’s a secret: lawmakers don’t run their own email accounts. Staffers do.
Staffers gatekeep what goes to their boss. They pass along information only if they deem it relevant. Most times, they respond to messages as if they were the lawmakers themselves.
And that’s if they read your messages. Volumes of emails and letters overwhelm offices to the point that, even if they try, they cannot respond to them all.
The workaround? Call.
An assistant will pick up the phone. Ask to speak to the elected official. If he or she isn’t available, leave a message with the assistant and request a call back from the lawmaker. Make sure to include your name, city, and zip code. City and zip code are crucial because they let the office know if you fall within its district. If not, it can direct you to the right place.
If you want to talk to your federal lawmakers, call their district office, not their D.C. office. You are more likely to catch them at their district office since they are only in D.C. during congressional sessions. In other words, they are in D.C. only when they have to be (and sometimes they still skip).
Remember: whether you love or hate your lawmakers, be polite. Conservatives have class.
4. Get to know your school board.
Early childhood education is political.
C.S. Lewis, the great philosopher of the past century, wrote that the children's classroom is the hunting ground upon which predatory ideologies prowl about seeking the ruin of souls.
“It is not a theory [the teachers] put into [the student’s] mind, but an assumption,” says Lewis, “which ten years hence . . . will condition him to take one side of a controversy which he has never recognized as a controversy at all.”
Activist teachers openly admit to teaching critical race theory in K-12 schools. The official U.S. Department of Education promotes anti-science trans ideology in biology classrooms. Even if school districts ban divisive topics, left-wing activists subvert the rules to plant the seeds of their worldviews.
Ten years later, their students are reliable Democrat voters.
Why are school boards important, then? They can put a stop to the predation. School boards hire the superintendent, approve budgets, negotiate with teachers’ unions, allocate classroom resources, and set curriculums.
Because conservatives believe that parents—not the state—are the primary educators of their children, a conservative presence at school board meetings ensures that parental rights are respected and that leftist indoctrination stays out of the classroom.
A conservative presence at school board meetings ensures that parental rights are respected and that leftist indoctrination stays out of the classroom.
You don’t need to have kids in school to attend or speak at school board meetings. You don’t even need to have kids. It’s common for recent high-school grads to run for their board since they have personal experience with the situation in schools and fronted the impact of their school board’s policies.
Leadership Institute, a non-profit conservative organization, offers free-to-low-cost school board campaign training online.
3. Volunteer.
The Left does not have to work as hard to recruit volunteers as me and you. Historically, it has relied on a guaranteed source of free labor: unions.
Even though the midterms ended, you and I still have work to do.
In little over a month, 2023 will arrive, and the local races will begin. The Democrats are already preparing. Hence, it’s crucial to get ahead of them. The Stark GOP headquarters still needs volunteers to prepare mail, run events, and fundraise.
If there aren’t projects at headquarters that energize you, identify what the party needs and take initiative.
Consider this webpage. In mid-October, 2022, a volunteer noticed that the Stark GOP website needed some work. He had experience in web development, so he offered to renovate starkgop.org. Web traffic increased by a factor of ten. Take a look at where the site started, and compare it to now:
starkgop.org before October 15, 2022
Are you a photography hobbyist? Ask to take pictures of Stark GOP's events. Can you decorate? Headquarters needs it. Want to write content for the blog? You won't be turned away. Have a fun personality? You'll be a star for social media videos.
Whatever talents you have, offer them.
2. Join a local party club.
Organizing wins elections. Clubs help organize. Therefore, clubs help win elections.
Clubs inform you about the dynamics of your local politics and connect you with like-minded conservatives. They tell you who holds office, when offices are up for grabs, and how to do activism relevant to your area.
Clubs also shift culture. When clubs are active—hosting fundraisers, meetings, and outings—they signal to their communities that it’s okay to be an involved conservative. The more visual club participation, the more others in the community feel comfortable sharing their conservative views and becoming involved.
Here are the clubs within Stark borders:
Western Stark GOP
Young Republicans
North Canton GOP
Don't see one that fits your niche? Reach out to headquarters to start a new club.
1. Donate—locally.
I work remotely. Sometimes I do work at the Stark GOP headquarters because Tom Lapas, the Executive Director there, is a cool guy to hang out with. When folks stop in, he reminds them to donate.
Many times, they say they already donated online. But the donation portal is as empty as Nancy Pelosi’s liquor bottles.
These folks tell the truth; they did donate, just not to the Stark County Republican Party. Likely, they donated to the Republican National Convention, the national party, or the Ohio Republican Party, the state party.
But not all Republican parties are the same. The Stark County Republican Party does not see a cent of what’s in the national and state parties’ pockets.
The Stark County Republican Party does not see a cent of what’s in the national and state parties’ pockets.
Your donations will stay local only if you donate local. And you’ll see that money come back to you. By donating directly to the Stark County Republican Party, you'll ensure that your gift stays in Stark County to elect conservatives to office, run party operations, put on events for Stark Republicans like yourself, and energize community members to engage in local politics.
Donating is the single most effective way to put up a defense against the Stark Democrats and their radical agenda. You can donate online on Stark GOP’s website.
Own the Dems
However you stay involved, take pictures and videos. Sharing your involvement on social media amplifies the scope of your impact and encourages others to join you.
Make sure to tag the Stark County Republican Party on Facebook so that the Stark County Democrats have to see how well you and I own them at civic engagement.