How a Democratic ad maker's viral videos are rewriting the rules of launching long-shot candidacies.

[DonViejo]

‘A Little Errol Morris. And a Little Roger Ailes’

How a Democratic ad maker’s viral videos are rewriting the rules of launching long-shot candidacies.

By MICHAEL KRUSE July 08, 2018

Mary Jennings “MJ” Hegar, a 42-year-old mother and Republican turned “independent Democrat” running for Congress in Texas, is an Air Force veteran and retired Air National Guard helicopter pilot who didn’t let an abusive biological father, knee injuries, and sexual bias, harassment and assault stop her from doing three tours in Afghanistan that climaxed with a rescue mission gone awry in which she strapped herself to the skids of a chopper and fired at the Taliban. Her service earned her a Purple Heart. Back stateside, she successfully sued the Secretary of Defense (Hegar, et al. v. Panetta) to get the Pentagon to end the policy that officially barred women from combat, was named by Newsweek as one of 125 “Women of Impact” of 2012 and wrote a bestselling book called Shoot Like a Girl that came out last year and is now set to be turned into a movie with Angelina Jolie reportedly in talks to play the lead role.

“She’s a badass,” Democratic ad maker Cayce McCabe told me last week. McCabe’s biggest concern heading into the shooting and editing of the 3½-minute biographical spot released last month was whether or not he could “do her story justice.”

He did. The ad immediately began to ricochet around the internet, Hegar’s fundraising and name recognition turbocharged by millions of YouTube views and Facebook shares. It earned her coverage in news outlets as varied as USA Today, Adweek and People. It got her on CNN and MSNBC. And it has made her a Democratic candidate to watch in Texas’ 31st Congressional District, which is composed of suburban and rural areas north of Austin, includes Fort Hood in Killeen and has voted for nobody but GOP Rep. “Judge” John Carter since it was created more than a decade and a half ago.

It also was the third Putnam Partners ad in the past two years that made a Democratic military veteran go viral. In 2016, it was Jason Kander, his blindfold and his AR-15. In 2017, it was Amy McGrath, the first female Marine to fly an F/A-18 fighter jet in combat, launching her upstart candidacy in Kentucky’s 6th District. This year, it’s Hegar.

In what is shaping up to be a year defined by record numbers of women running for office, and a surge in veterans, too, the McGrath and Hegar spots arguably have been the two best examples of intrinsically compelling characters using an emerging medium (“long-form” political ads) and tapping into the cultural zeitgeist (fervor on the left plus bipartisan disgust with a feckless Congress) to alter the trajectories of candidacies. It likely will be a key piece of the puzzle if Democrats are able to flip the 24 seats they need to take back control of the House of Representatives come November.

Veterans have emerged as an effective voice to channel Democratic voters’ frustration and anger, Putnam Partners boss Mark Putnam said in an interview in his office in Washington. “They have the toughness, strength and idealism needed to fix a broken system.” Putnam, 54, is known best for his exacting work for red-state Democrats and his half-hour prime-time special for Barack Obama in 2008. “Activist Democrats,” he said, “are often looking for progressive candidates who can make an argument but also have a profile with bipartisan appeal. We see this with Amy, we see this with MJ—they want somebody that makes them say, ‘Yes, that’s how we can win campaigns.’”

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https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/07/08/a-little-errol-morris-and-a-little-roger-ailes-218956

[Wwcd]

1. What's an Independent democrat?