A gratitude reflection from the election 

By Reba Hull Campbell

While settling in at home on election night to watch returns, I got a little nostalgic. I thought back on the friends, experiences, long days and life lessons from campaigns I’ve worked on over the many years since I stood at Mays Park as a teenager on election day holding a sign to re-elect T. Eston Marchant as adjutant general.

I pulled out old photo albums to look at pictures from past campaigns and happily recalled the names and faces of friends I’d worked with on elections early in my career. I realized how many of the people in those photos are still in my life in one way or another… even if it’s as simple as an annual party invitation, Christmas card or an occasional Facebook post.

Friendships forged from campaign work are unique. These are people you see at their best and their worst, at their most confident and most doubting, with sugar induced highs and sleep deprived lows. Because of the intensity of the work, these are the people who can teach you so much, and they probably never even know it.

In seeking something good out of this ugly campaign season, I realized these photos reminded me of how grateful I am for the life lessons and friendships gained from these campaign experiences. I’m thankful for my early exposure to elected politics before things got so ugly and personal. I learned some of my most important career and life lessons from these experiences, the candidates I worked for and the people who surrounded them.

This gratitude list includes

• Getting a chance to prove myself in several campaign jobs when, on paper, I probably didn’t have the experience.
• Witnessing and participating in the inner workings of campaigns that were based on well-researched policy rather than political opportunism.
• Observing candidates up close who ran for the public good not personal gain.
• Learning it’s possible to master the balancing act between running for an office and actually governing.
• Being part of both winning and losing election night speeches and the subsequent back-room staff meetings where the candidates were equally gracious regardless of whether they won or lost.
• Witnessing that partisan politics can fall away after an election.
• Gaining a love for the dance of politics and strange bedfellows, an appreciation for well-executed political strategy, and a respect for honest and accurate reporters.
• Discovering it’s possible to disagree vehemently over a political or policy decision and still maintain respect for the other person.
• Participating in the hard decisions made in the back rooms of a campaign office – decisions that were separated by the thin wire of doing what’s right versus doing what might bring down the other guy. In every case I witnessed, doing right won out over political opportunism.