Bob Young officially announced his bid for U.S. Senate in Michigan today, and it’s left Republicans scratching their heads.
The rollout makes him appear extremely weak, vulnerable, and unsure how to run a campaign effectively. It’s opened the door for more establishment candidates like Fred Upton and John James to enter the race.
His official announcement was anticlimactic, since it’s been well known for weeks he would be running. And rather than announcing in an interesting way, he did it on Facebook live, and failed to grab the attention of key activists and media outlets.
MIRS News did pick up on the announcement, and said,
“His public announcement, streamed via Facebook Live, was a bit haphazard. The 11-minute video began well after the 2 p.m. start time, with Young mid-sentence.
He is standing in an empty plot of land in Detroit, and talking to the camera, saying “which is all that’s left of my childhood home.”
Shortly after, a municipal bus drives by, briefly drowning out his voice.
What followed was an audacious statement, blaming Stabenow and her ilk for Detroit’s decline.”
Poor planning and advertising, a questionable location with visual and audible distractions, and horrendous video quality was a recipe for disaster.
The 11 minute video felt like it lasted an eternity. It would be a mistake to allow even the most skilled public speaker to ramble on for 11 minutes announcing their run for office. Young is far from a skilled public speaker.
And although it didn’t generate much buzz and excitement to kick off his campaign, you might want to bookmark it and press play when you’re having a difficult time falling asleep.
Those who managed to keep their eyes open the whole time, experienced no shortage of cringeworthy moments.
The digital side of Young’s campaign doesn’t fare much better.
The logo he’s posted as his Facebook cover photo looks like it was created in Microsoft Paint by a 6th grader running for class president.
A section on his website asks visitors to “Clean the Swamp!” The button is a link to his donation page, and it appears as though “Clean the Swamp” will be a campaign slogan.
It’s a play on “Drain the Swamp” made popular by Donald Trump’s campaign and used historically in other political campaigns as well.
Somebody might want to inform Young that “Drain the Swamp” alludes to the historical practice of actually draining a swamp to keep mosquito populations down and combat malaria.
We’re not entirely sure how one might clean a swamp, or what purpose this might serve other than destroying the environment.
But as a political slogan, it makes him sound weak and unwilling to make real, meaningful changes in Washington D.C.
The botched campaign rollout is already causing Republicans to turn on him. It’s evidence that he’s not capable of taking on incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow. Unfortunately, the waters could soon become even muddier, since this dramatically increases the odds establishment candidates like Fred Upton and John James run for U.S. Senate in Michigan.
