What is it like giving your first political speech?
About a month ago, the day after one of the worst blizzards in memory, I created an account with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to start my run for State Representative.
About two hours later, I got a call from Jack Perenick, chair of the Somerville Democratic committee, inviting me to join the other candidates at their caucus on March 1.
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First off, well done to Jack for keeping an eye on filings for races in the city and being so quick to act.
But I hadn’t given a speech before, so that call immediately had me scrambling to prepare.
Here’s what happened and what I learned.
What was the point of the speech?
My primary concern was the audience and intent for the speech. Was I going to be doing a detailed policy address or a 20-second “hey I’m Chris?”
It’s not something we usually have to think about in everyday situations. Whenever I have a work meeting, I go in knowing who it is that I’m meeting, the purpose of the call, and what I hope to get out of it. In fact, one of the worst parts of any meeting-that-should-have-been-an-email is when those expectations aren’t there and it’s a boss rambling for no reason.
But political speeches are often rambling by design. Three unstructured minutes to talk about anything you want without a concrete goal, other than for people to like you and one day vote for you, is quicksand for conciseness.
I spoke to Jack again later that week to get a sense of what I would be doing, who I’d be speaking to, and what others usually do. I was very grateful for the guidance - which, to be clear, was not for me exclusively and I’m sure Jack told this to all candidates who needed it.
I found out that:
It would be around 100-150 members of the city Democratic committee, a mix of elected officials, advocates, and active citizens.
Most candidates gave a little bit of background and a couple of their priorities.
The goal most candidates went in with was to give a good impression as the campaign season started. Many candidates also attended to collect signatures to appear on the ballot.
Outlining the speech
I’ve done a fair amount of public speaking in my career. I was a DJ at 95.5-FM WBRU in college. I taught workshops and classes on political risk. I’ve been on panel discussions and hosted weekly videos for my old job. I testified at the State House for Ranked Choice Voting. I’ve been interviewed on the BBC a few times for my analysis on US politics.
In all of those experiences, I found that writing things out in full was a waste of time. Invariably, trying to regurgitate whole sentences distracted me from the specific question that was being asked, and the focus spent on remembering was taking away from responding to the audience in the moment.
I much prefer to outline the big points only and ensure that I have a general road map to stick to. My notes were simple and here they are in full:
Intro
Grew up in Mass
Political Risk
RCV
Startup
Dad - why I’m running
Frustrated at pace of change
Quick hits of policy.
Urgency
We run state and if we don’t push ourselves, no one will.
Least competitive state.
182,000 people left
I want to represent district. More than that. I want to bring the energy we have here into Beacon Hill and get them moving so we can have the commonwealth we deserve
With the basic roadmap, I then spent a good chunk of the next few days practicing a speech. I tested out how long each section took. What phrases seemed to provide the best transitions. Where I found myself wandering.
I had three minutes down pat.
Then, after a trip to CVS to get some water, I showed up to the caucus and discovered that we only had two minutes each.
One of my only photos from the day. Took it at CVS beforehand. No relevance to the speech but it breaks up the text of the article. Still curious about what the story with Will and Kate was.
Delivering the speech
I won’t lie. I was pretty nervous before I went up before a crowd of some of my most knowledgeable neighbors and the people whose opinions could determine whether this campaign is successful or Quixotic.
The heart was thumping fast as I stood off to the side and watched Sen. Ed Markey ignore the alarm clock the organizers had set up to buzz when two minutes were up, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll talk about all the successes the Administration has had, State Senate candidates introduce themselves, and then the other two candidates in my race go up.
I was the last to go, which actually helped a lot. I hope it doesn’t offend any of the other candidates to say that there was no Obama 2004 DNC moment here. Many of the speeches were relatively subdued: an introduction to one’s peers, not rallying of the troops. I figured that a straightforward run through my bullet points and I’d be fine.
And, lo and behold, it was largely fine.
I got some laughs with a joke about growing up in the town now famous for the Karen Reed trial. I spoke about the specific policies I cared about. I touched on the meta-issue that motivated me (lack of urgency on Beacon Hill). I mentioned having a 4-year old. I was done before the timer went off.
Lessons learned
My primary goal was to introduce myself. My secondary goal was to figure out how to give a stump speech.
Overall, my speech went well. It could have been tighter. I could have been less nervous. But I did what I wanted to do without any disaster. I’ll give it a 5 out of 10.
I learned that not having a prepared text was best, so I could make eye contact with members of the audience and elaborate on points that got a lot of heads nodding. Definitely having enough water so my throat wasn’t dry but not too much so that I had to go to the bathroom was necessary. Cutting down on the biographical section as much as possible so that I had as much time as I could to talk about what I want to see out of the actual job is critical. Candidates tend to focus too much on themselves, which I want to avoid (I acknowledge the irony of saying this in a newsletter about my own experiences).
Most of all, the event gave me confidence.
First-time candidates usually run because they’re good at one part of the job. For me, that was the policy side. But since being an elected official is such a unique amalgamation of skills - fundraising, small talk, shaping economic incentives - you’re never going to have experience in all of them.
I went into this event pretty sure I could do this part of the job, but not 100%. I don’t think anyone feels completely confident the first time they do something. Coming out of it having held my own or done better than people who have been in elected office for years (I’ll leave that for others to judge) gave me that assurance.
The next week, I went to the Medford Democratic caucus and did the same thing again. I tweaked the speech. Was a bit less nervous. Made a bit more eye contact with the audience.
As with anything, there’s a learning curve. If you’re thinking about running for office, or doing anything new really, it’s about starting early and sticking with it.
