NATHAN JOHNSON —
A Misfit Democrat Finds His Unapologetically Rational,
Thoughtful Voice
How do you help a Democrat, who refuses to toe the party line, beat a well-known opponent in his first-ever run for Texas State Senate? By refusing to let him stoop low like the other guy or soften his stance. Johnson didn’t trust the advice of the party flacks who wanted to run his campaign and asked us to help him position himself effectively without compromising his principles. We counseled. He listened. And the primary election result? A landslide. Not 54%. Or 60%. But 71% of the vote.
We didn’t make Johnson a misfit. He already was one—a lawyer with a B.S. in Physics and an IMDb resume as music composer for the anime series Dragon Ball Z, Johnson has a different pedigree than your purebred political animal.
So we did everything you’re “not supposed to do” on a political campaign. We used non-traditional colors and fonts, rendered his name in all lower case letters, and wrote copy for his website and campaign literature that was crisp, conversational, and candid. Even his controversial yard signs bucked tradition: “Another rational, thoughtful voter for…
Our assignment was to get this campaign through the very contentious primary election. And the campaign we developed did so with flying colors.