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- Paul Tewes
Paul Tewes
Veteran Political Strategist & Organizer Who Ran Barack Obama’s Historic 2008 Iowa Caucus
Biography
Paul Tewes is well known as one the foremost political operatives in the country, having spent two decades developing and implementing successful candidate and issue campaigns across the country.
As the Director of President Obama’s 2008 Iowa Caucus campaign, Paul and his team built and engineered a historic and crucial victory by building the largest grassroots organization the state had ever seen. They wrote a whole new playbook on how to win campaigns and created the template for how Barack Obama would win the subsequent contests and reach the White House.
After Iowa, President Obama asked Paul to direct national party operations on his behalf. In that role, Paul oversaw a multi-million dollar budget and was instrumental in putting together the blueprint for President Obama’s organizational efforts in the General Election—the largest effort of its kind in U.S. history.
In the years before and since his service on the Obama campaign, Paul has been involved with some of the most notable campaigns in the country – building and leading campaigns around climate change, health care, and financial reform. The model for the strategy, design and implementation of these efforts was the successful campaign Paul spearheaded in 2005 to defeat President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. The organization he helped found to wage the Social Security campaign – Americans United for Change – drew enormous momentum from the victory and remains at the forefront of crucial progressive issue fights today.
In 1998 and in 2000, he ran the field campaigns of two of the closest senate races in those years, Senator Feingold’s narrow win and then Senator Cantwell’s 2,300 vote win in 2000. Paul has earned a reputation of winning close races by building unparalleled organizations.
Paul has worked and campaigned in nearly every state in the country. Having served first as the DSCC’s National Coordinated Campaign Director in 2001-02 and then as its Political Director in 2003-04 — in addition to his work during President Obama’s 50-state primary campaign in 2008 — he understands that no two states, no two candidates and no two issues are the same.
Since 2009, Paul has created three successful political consulting businesses and taken the lead on building organizations for organized labor, health care issues and environmental causes to name a few.
Paul is originally from Minnesota, where he got his political start after graduating from Carleton College.
Seminars
“The Art of Organizing”
Organizing has been, is and always will be an art. Whether it’s with a clipboard and a pen, or a sophisticated online platform, the fundamental building blocks of strong and effective organizing are still directly dependent on purely non-technological ideas - empowerment, passion, leadership, respect and others. We will explore this side, the true side, of effective organizing from a practical aspect. How do you build an effective organization?
The rise of “analytics for everything” and “technology as a tactic” are an outgrowth of the Obama campaign. But is that really who we were and how he won? From an organizing standpoint, what are the true lessons of the 2008 Obama campaign?
Special Guest: Mitch Stewart, Founding Partner, 270 Strategies, Battleground States Director for Obama 2012, Iowa Caucus Director & Virginia State Director (Obama 2008)
Good organizing is not just having good tools or a noble cause, it is about people. More importantly, a strong organization demands strong leadership and a culture that allows for creativity, empowerment, and accountability. How do you create and construct and maintain an effective organizing culture?
Special Guest: Rachel Haltom, former Youth Director for President Barack Obama
From the campaign of Harvey Milk to battling the AIDS crisis to legalizing gay marriage, the rise in political power of the LGBT movement has been astounding. How did they organize to get where they are today? What were their organizing goals and principles? What key decisions did their leadership make that led to success? We will explore not only the messaging and narrative around the gay rights movement… but how was it organized? How was it built?
Special Guest: Joe Solmonese, former President of the Human Rights Campaign & Interim President of Planned Parenthood
What is it? How do you do it? Who do you do it to? We will be talking to organizers on the ground right now from Florida to Alaska who are actively working to prepare for GOTV.
Special Guests: Ean Tubbs, Canvasser for The Alaska Center & Juanica Fernandes, Regional Director for Enroll America
What is the difference between campaign organizing and organizing around an issue? Campaign organizing involves an accountable, hard numbered outcome – election day. Issue organizing is about perception – if the political target perceives a political threat, then the threat is real and you might move the dial on the issue. We will explore how perception matters in issue fights. We will also explore the differences between a “yes” campaign for something and a “no” campaign against something.
Special Guests: Ronnie Cho, Campaign Manager to Lauren Underwood, Candidate for United States Representative in Illinois’ 14th District; Amanda Brown Lierman, Political & Organizing Director for the DNC; and Delilah Agho-Otoghile, Field Director for the Democratic Party of Georgia
With such rapid technology advances, campaign entrepreneurs are constantly inventing the next “must have” tools for organizing. From data analytics to online organizing platforms, are these tools making organizations better and more effective, or are they making organizers less intuitive and more robotic. How much does technology help a campaign? How much can it hurt?
We will be joined by Shoren Brown who has managed and run countless Western lands and conservation campaigns, including Stopping the Pebble Mine and drilling in the arctic. We will explore the guiding principles and objectives of issue campaigns and how those are different from electoral campaigns.
Special Guest: Shoren Brown, Issue Campaign Strategist
For nearly 12 years, Joe Paulsen has worked for President Obama at all levels… from the cornfields of Iowa to the Oval Office and still today. Joe has had a front row to history and has traveled the country and the world with his boss. He has seen it all and brings a unique perspective to what it’s like working for the most powerful person on the planet. Joe will share great stories as a campaign worker, a Presidents' right hand and as he continues with him today.
Special Guest: Joe Paulsen, Special Assistant to President Obama