About that District 7 race
Jesse Vogel's campaign manger, Eden McKissick-Hawley, sat down with The Rooster to speak about the historic race, establishment criticism about the campaign, and what comes next for his new army.
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I was proud to support immigration attorney Jesse Vogel in the bitterly contested race to represent Columbus City Council District 7.
On its face, it was a race for one seat on a nine-seat legislative body. And I understand any Cincinnati or Cleveland Democrat who looked upon the most expensive local race in Columbus history as something bizarrely quaint.
But what makes Columbus unique is the way the Franklin County Democratic Party, through its insider endorsement process and almighty Sample Ballot, has successfully incubated city council from any outsider challenge.
Even after city voters approved tepid reforms that took effect in 2023, the system has always been designed to protect institutional candidates. It’s a tradition that dates back to 1914, when Columbus introduced the at-large council system in response to Rev. Dr. James Preston Poindexter becoming the first Black man in city history to win a council seat under the original ward system.
That at-large council system worked as designed—with a Black person not being elected to council—for the next 50 years.
Columbus’ current system, which State Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) succinctly described to The Rooster as a ward system “in name only,” operates in much the same way to prevent what the ruling party deems as unsavory characters from winning a foothold of power.
Institutional candidates also have another advantage, thanks to a little-known campaign financing loophole.
Single donors are capped at $16,615.67, which is already an absurd number for something as low-stakes as a city council seat.
But anyone with an active campaign committee (read: incumbent politicians) can underwrite an ally’s campaign with “in-kind” donations in any amount their current bottom line can cover.
We saw the power of that in the election, where four city councilmen and the city attorney “donated” over $150,000 to Tiara Ross, with that number almost assuredly set to climb higher in the yet-to-come final campaign finance report.
To have a chance to win a seat on council—which, again, is one vote on a nine-member council—you have to do what Vogel did, which is raise roughly $600,000 and marshal that mountain of money into an effective campaign apparatus, with everything coming from outside the traditional party infrastructure.
And as we saw two Tuesdays ago, even if a candidate climbs that mountain, they will still only have a puncher’s chance at victory, even if they win their home district by 27 points, as Vogel did with District 7.
Given the excruciating nature of the loss—and how it’s always easier to gloat about a win than examine the wreckage of a defeat—I was grateful that Vogel’s campaign manager, Eden McKissick-Hawley, came to the Statehouse last week for an exclusive interview.
We discussed her point of personal pride, the institutional disadvantages facing any outsider challenge, the decision to go negative against Ross, the establishment criticism that the campaign failed to persuade Black voters, and what might come next for Vogel and his newfound army.
This conversation has been edited for length, clarity, and syntax.
My questions and commentary are in the larger, bolder font, while McKissick-Hawley’s responses are in standard text.
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Looking back on the campaign, what are you most proud of?
So, I’ve been conducting one-on-ones with volunteers and donors, including people we know and those we don’t, who have provided feedback about the campaign.
And this morning, I had a one-on-one with this older woman, and I asked her, ‘What was your favorite thing about the campaign?’ And she said the connection, the sense of intimacy, of us getting to know one another, caring about the volunteers and supporters who were part of the operation.
She said it felt truly intergenerational, interracial. She was in her 60s, and she said she’s never felt so welcome in an organizing space with young people.
And so I think we truly built a community. … We empowered people. And we took people really seriously.
What’s the biggest hurdle facing anyone interested in undertaking an outside campaign?
It’s certainly a financial hurdle.
And this is where, if I were to wave my magic wand and say this is what I want reform to look like, it would absolutely include finance reform.
Campaign finance reform in Columbus is desperately needed. So, backing up, in general, the biggest barrier to entry in politics is financial, right?
In order to win an election, you need to communicate with voters. It requires advertising. It requires hiring field staff and paying them a living wage, right?
We paid people $30 an hour on this campaign. And I think that’s an important value that we uphold that costs money.
What do you make of the racial dynamics in the results?
The establishment criticism is that, like a lot of progressive campaigns nationwide, Vogel failed to break through with Black or poor people.
One friendly contact relayed that Vogel lost because there were no Black people at his Election Night party.
Oh, that’s not true.
This is where I think it’s really unacceptable. Ignore all of the Black people who supported Jesse, who were excited about Jesse.
We saw Amelia Robinson, the editor of the Dispatch, had a scathing review of this district system. She is a Black woman.
Scott Woods has had a scathing review of this entire situation. He is a Black man.
Christopher Scott is a Black man.
I think it’s unacceptable to overlook Black voices who’ve been supporting Jesse and who have objectively said that this is wrong, and it dilutes Black power.
[…]
Because this was not the win that [the Franklin Democratic Party leadership] wanted.
Everyone that I have talked to inside the party has admitted that, at the very least, Vogel’s campaign had them shook.
And shame on them. Shame on them. The writing was on the wall. They’re not out in the field and in the community.
We knew it was going to be close. I said this publicly.
If we were going to win, it was going to be like three to five points. You know, clearly our theory of the case is just so resoundingly sound.
If we were going to lose, I said it was going to be within one point.
Okay, 1.46 percent—I was a tiny bit off. I knew that. I knew that in my gut because we were out there and we were knocking on doors.
And, you know, I think one thing that I want to make sure that people know is like... We do not live in a system. The Democrats in Columbus are not upholding a system that makes it easier for Black women to run for office. Shame on them.
They have created a system where Ms. Adrienne Hood had to compete with Emmanuel Remy in fundraising, when he can access unlimited amounts of money, and he can afford to run a citywide campaign.
Whereas she would have a lot better shot if she just had to fundraise to compete with him in one district.
And it’s a majority Black district. It’s the one majority black district, and the party backed a white, often-drunk realtor.
The system disincentivizes people from running for office who are going to ask hard questions, such as, ‘Why is this neighborhood not getting as many resources as this neighborhood?’ Right?
Like, we ran to challenge the status quo. [Ross] ran to uphold it. And those are two very different ways to run a campaign and to message.
It means you’ll see different kinds of leadership.
But I wish her the best. I hope she does well in City Hall, truly and genuinely. It almost makes me want to tear up like I do. I hope she gets in there and crushes it because the people need her to step up and lead right now.
People are suffering in our city, and I want to see a Black woman step in there and kick ass.
Is there anything you could have done better to reduce the margins among Black voters? The knock has been that you took the stance they weren’t persuadable voters.
There would be things I would do differently, which would be campaign for longer than a year, because it takes longer than a year to do the work that we have not been doing as a party.
As a party, my criticism of the Ohio Democratic Party for so long has been that we don’t do the work of engaging Black voters outside of right before an election.
You know, I’m proud of the fact that we worked side-by-side with many of our Black supporters. We did the work early on of starting to knock doors and start to do that.
Jesse Vogel ran in a city of 900,000 people with a no-name ID. If I could, I would go back and start earlier, and I would be able to hire staff earlier who could go do that.
[…]
But, look, at the end of the day, I’m really proud of the fact that we considered Black people as persuadable voters. We did show up. And we want to keep showing up. I also think that’s kind of the party gaslighting progressives a little bit. I think that’s the establishment saying the party shouldn’t move to the left.
And I want to be very clear.
[City Council President] Shannon Hardin—what he says and what he does—it exists within a white power structure controlled by white Democrats at the end of the day.
And I think it’s really problematic that we are being told this is the one district where Black women belong.
Why not Ms. Hood in Emanuel Remy’s district? Adrienne Hood ran an amazing campaign against Emanuel Remy and was not taken seriously by the party.
And I think that’s unacceptable. I wanna see a world where there’s abundance, where multiple Black women are running in multiple races.
Do you have any regrets about going negative on Ross and the framing of her 42 unpaid parking tickets, $3,795 debt to the city and driving on a suspended license for over a year?
I’m a campaign manager. I’m here to win, right? Like, my job is to deliver a win for my candidate.
And what we should have done is go negative a week earlier than we did.
We got great feedback about the negative ad. People were like, ‘This is thoughtful.’
I intentionally used a beautiful picture of [Ross] and tried to keep it objective.
This is someone with 42 parking tickets. A lot of people have a problem with that. She moved into the district one day before the deadline to run. Actually, that’s when the lease was signed. That’s something that voters care about.
And we knew coming into this that voters had a problem with that. And we felt like we owed it to voters to communicate to them about the choice that they had in this election.
And we did.
We saw that it did move people. It did impact people. We had people—white, Black, and brown—from all over telling us, ‘You did a good job at this. You did what you had to do.’
It would have been malpractice as a campaign manager not to let voters know about this. And I think part of the problem is that I’m one of the only consultants in the state of Ohio who does primary races.
These people— living in Delululand— don’t understand that you have to campaign, you have to fight for it, and you’re gonna have to have an answer if you’re gonna put up a candidate that’s this flawed.
Grow up, you know, you’re gonna take a hit.
What do you say to the criticism that you engaged in the same behavior you blasted the Ohio Democratic Party for, when they went negative against your client [then-Dayton commission candidate] Shenise-Turner Ross?
So, a huge difference.
The Shenise Turner-Sloss [hit] was a mail piece that had like gunshots and bullet shots through glass. It said that Shenise makes us less safe.
Shenise is a mother of three, and an AFGE union worker with a clean background. Okay? That was an unacceptable attack that the party approved through their mail program.
We did not go negative through the party’s mail program. We did that on our own jacket. On our own dime. On our own two legs, okay?
Transparently and clearly with citations at the bottom. There’s a huge difference. Are you kidding me? One of these is based on substance.
In fact, [Ross] looked pretty in the mailer.
But this is the reality: [FCDP] could have put up a Black woman who didn’t have all of this baggage. They chose not to. They had to live with that.
And I understand that they didn’t like it. They would have done the exact same thing if they were in our position.
Can you offer any insight into the campaign’s efforts to block the sweaty insider endorsement vote that occurred over the summer?
Like, there were a lot of things that went down that I thought were interesting. You know, we had Jamie Shumaker get up there, and they all endorsed Tiara.
And this establishment thing, you could just see it going. And then Jamie gets appointed to the Board of Elections at that same meeting. And you’re just like, okay.
I’ll never forget Gretchen James, who works with Ross at the city attorney’s office, not disclosing that fact when she recommended endorsing Ross as chairwoman of the Screening Committee.
And, you know, you see all the people sitting there who are going to be voting, and then you see, like, their bosses standing over them, watching them over their shoulder.
And you’re like, ‘Okay, I see what’s happening here. This is tough. This is really tough.’
There’s a lot of public pressure. They’ve pulled a lot of little levers here to try to make this as controlled an environment as they can make it. So they tried to make it a very controlled environment.
Unfortunately for them, a lot of the room wanted to have a discussion about this, which they tried to shut down.
So, what happened is that we thought we might not be able to block the endorsement. We knew it was probably unlikely, but we wanted to go for it anyway.
We wanted to work through that list [of central committee members] and identify our people. And we wanted to make it as politically hard for them as possible.
“We wanted to make them bleed.” - Eden McKissick-Hawley on the Vogel campaign’s strategy entering a pivotal party endorsement vote over the summer.
“We wanted to make them bleed.”
If they were going to win this endorsement, we wanted it to be not the win they wanted, right? We wanted [Councilman] Rob Dorans to have to use all of his political capital.
We wanted them to have to be on the phones going back and forth with people they’re not used to having to talk to, right?
So Jesse’s working the phones. He made over 1,000 phone calls, well over. And me too. I don’t think I made 1,000, but I probably made 400, getting people on the phone, getting things scheduled.
And what happened is we went into that meeting with a lot of people knowing what was going on. We told them, ‘This is what the deal is. Here’s the vote before you.’
And I knew the number of people we needed to block to prevent the endorsement. I knew the number of people we needed to stage a walkout. I knew we didn’t have the votes when the meeting started.
I knew we’d have to persuade like 11 people on the floor who are standing right by their boss.
I knew it wasn’t going to happen.
Adrienne Hood, to her credit, gave the best speech [against an endorsement].
So this is what we can’t let people forget. What we did was orchestrate people giving speeches.
We said, ‘If we’re going to lose, we need to force a floor fight and a conversation and a discussion and a true debate on the floor.’
And so I orchestrated, like, who can throw their hand up and say that they want to have a motion for a discussion that they can’t ignore? That it will look bad publicly if they disrespect this person?
And I came up with State Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio (D-Gahanna), the House Minority Whip. Well-respected.
She’s a shooter!
She’s a shooter. Her parents have been in the party. And I just thought, she’s a leader. Like, she’s someone who people will respect.
And she’s so small. She threw up her hand. And like, no one was seeing her.
And I’m like, ‘Get up. Like, throw your hand up.’ And she stands up. And they’re trying to— they’re not listening to her.
And she just stands her hand up. And she finally gets the floor. And she gives a speech that says, ‘This is what the future of the party should look like. My kids aren’t excited about voting. We need to give people options. And non-endorsement for two talented candidates is what makes sense.’
And she created a permission structure for people to take that argument seriously.
Who got up next? It was State Rep. Munira Abdullahi (D-Westerville). Abdullahi raised her hand, and Burrell created a permission structure for other elected officials to speak. So then goes Munira.
It’s going to make me cry. Then Munira spoke. She created a permission structure for other Black women to speak in that room. And suddenly you had a room where you could hear a pin drop.
And there was not a single word in which people were going to interrupt Ms. Adrienne Hood.
And that was powerful right there because shame on them for now coming back and trying to say this was white versus Black.
What’s next for Vogel? He’s proven that a lot of voters bought what he was selling. Is this the last we have heard of him?
I’m sure this is not the last you’ve heard of Jesse Vogel.
What comes next with this infrastructure we’ve created? I want to be clear: this took a really surgical effort.
We used the voter file to carefully track the responses of our neighbors when we knocked on their door. And so we have this rich dataset of people who we know are engaged and care about issues in Columbus.
And I’m sure that at some point, a lot of those people will wanna be a part of a reform effort.
I think right now we’re getting caught up on sleep and debriefing with people. We’re listening.
What’s next for Eden McKissick-Hawley? You are basically the only person in Columbus outside of the party infrastructure with a proven history of raising the eye-popping money required to have a chance at toppling the system?
I know, but here’s the thing: Mom is tired.
Are you done with races in Columbus?
No, it’s that I need to step back and train people.
We need five more Edens.
There were three staff on Jesse’s race. And they were wonderful. And those are now people who are more trained, more powerful, who can go out there and keep organizing.
And I want to do more of that. And so if people want to follow my next venture of training staff and training candidates, it’s not even so much candidates.
There are talented people who can step up and run. There is no one to staff those campaigns. This is a very difficult industry where we don’t take care of staff.
If you’re a young staffer and you’re willing to work on races like the ones I do or work for people like Jesse, you’re going to be ostracized [by the local party], and that needs to change.
I’m trying to create an ecosystem where it’s like, ‘Hey, it’s going to have to start small and then get bigger.’
But next year, I could do quarterly trainings where I train staff and we figure out how to place them on different races, right?
I hope to God that [Ohio Democratic Secretary of State candidates] Brian Hambley and State Rep. Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) are both looking at what happened here in this race and looking at or 52,000 voters, who aren’t really sure about the Democratic Party right now, and thinking, ‘How can I get those people?’
What do you want Columbus residents to remember most about the Vogel campaign?
That Columbus can do better and people know it. Columbus can do better, and people know it.
Team Jesse’s not just sitting around feeling bad for ourselves. We’re feeling inspired, like, what comes next?
We’re not sitting here thinking this city is so segregated it can’t be overcome. We’re sitting here thinking there’s a new world in front of us that we can have.
We’ve taken a really good crack at it. Let’s keep breaking it open and see, like, what can come.
The next Democratic Administration needs to put people in prison
When I was a youth in Marion City Schools, I had a Social Studies teacher that had a whole spiel about how in America, unlike third-world countries, it was not kosher to prosecute political enemies working within the previous administration.
But I saw the problem with that thinking when Barack Obama refused to prosecute any of the nefarious actors involved in pushing the Iraq War scam, which resulted in a million people killed and trillions of dollars put on the country’s credit card.
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