Harper Reed Quotes

I've got a really hard election. If you had a really hard election and it was after Labor Day would you go to North Carolina to a bunch of parties and glad-handing or would you stay home and work as hard as you know how to convince Missourians they should rehire you?

I always start my campaigns early, and I run hard. Maybe it comes from the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco politics, where it's not even a contact sport - it's a blood sport. This is how I am as a candidate. This is how I run campaigns.

When you're putting together a campaign for president, like I've been, that entails a lot of time. It's not like I've been at the beach sipping a pina colada.

If you can’t run against a political candidate, run against his campaign manager.

A political campaign is a movement. It's built around a single candidate. It will evaporate when he or she gets elected.

I've had to step up when I was Al Gore's campaign manager. I had to make significant changes as we moved from Washington, D.C. to Tennessee.

Campaigns are about adjustments.

I would love to be a mentor to many people who want to go into the political arena, teach them the art of winning elections.

I have never run campaigns based on an ethnic coalition.

I know how to run a nationally paced campaign.

Governing is one thing, campaigning is another - and the latter becomes far more pronounced in an election-year State of the Union.

There are three opportunities that you have during a general election campaign where you can substantially move the needle of public opinion. One, is your convention speech; two, are the base; three, is the selection of your vice president.

To succeed in big-city politics requires a powerful, motivating vision of a better world, a plan to get there, a willingness to meet constituents on their terms, and a tough political skin.

There are as many jobs for younger Americans as there are for other Americans of every age group in political campaigns. Campaigns are very labor intensive and volunteer dependent.

It's tough campaigning, kissing hands and shaking babies.

I think I know a lot about campaigns.

The hardest thing about a presidential election is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.

I lost my first run for office, but I developed a great love for grassroots politics.

You don't win elections on Election Day. You win them by what you do all year round, by the day-to-day good will you generate in each precinct.

When you run a campaign the idea is not to appeal to pundits but to appeal to people.

It’s the [political] consultants’ job to take who the person is—their fixed characteristics—and leverage it.

Politics is a messy business, but campaigning prepares you for governing. It prepares you to get hit, stand strong, and, if necessary, hit back.

I love covering politics at that early stage where you can walk up to Mike Huckabee, who gets out of his car by himself. A car that he drove, who just walks up and talks to you because that's the only way he can get his message out.

There's a lot of work to be done if you're going to run for president or if you're going to run for re-election in a state as big as Florida.

I've been through several of his campaigns, and I can tell you nobody can out-campaign Rick Perry.