Q&A With Massachusetts Republican Party National Committeeman Brad Wyatt

In a recent conversation with State House News Service, Wyatt honed in on how he plans to use his national-facing role locally and statewide, what he thinks the MassGOP is missing, and how he plans to meet the challenge of building Republican support across a state dominated by officeholders who are Democrats. Wyatt might best be described with an image:  During his State House News Serviceinterview, the committeeman shared his screen, pulled up sheets of voter data, and explained line-by-line exactly how he’s using voter trends to help inform GOP campaigning.

Our interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Question:  You began as Republican National Committeeman in mid-July, representing Massachusetts Republicans at the national level. Why did you want to serve the party in this capacity and what brought you here in the first place?

Answer:  I’ve been helping grassroots conservative [and] grassroots Republican candidates for 10-plus years, and I’m tired of losing. I’m a tech guy, I think there’s a lot of things we can do better in campaigns to actually win. I don’t think it’s really so much about the issues, I just think we have to run better campaigns if we want to try to bring some balance to Beacon Hill. And so I threw my name in the ring. 

Question:  Can you elaborate a little bit on the tech side of things? We hear a lot about incorporating tech into elections, but how do you see that fitting in here? 

Answer:  Back when I was like 10 years old, I wanted an Atari 2600 and my dad bought me a Radio Shack computer, and nobody knew how to use it so I had to teach myself. And ever since then, I’ve been playing with [computers], programming them. My hobby is chess — I just like games. I got into data after college, working at a manufacturing company and writing accounting systems and software systems and sales systems, and I really think we need to treat our MassGOP more as a business of connecting with the voters and really tracking like a customer relationship management. And so there are some technologies out there that we’re exploring to see if we could do that better, which will make things easier for candidates to have the right thing to talk about when they’re talking to a voter, make sure that Facebook ads go to the right eyeballs, that YouTube ads are actually watched, stuff like that.

Qyestion:  What about the modeling and the data really makes you tick? Why does that piece of the process speak to you?

Answer:  Because I know it works. I’ve won so many races because we’ve targeted the right voters in elections. And I feel so many people get tied up into a 12-point policy position when they should actually just be talking to voters. They work on a web site for weeks, trying to figure it out and make it perfect, when really they just needed to get out there, talk to the voters, listen to what’s going on out there, and then come back and just have two or three issues [they] want to talk about on [their] website. I get frustrated when I see consultants come in and invest or waste money — however you look at it — on really complex web sites with position papers and everything, when really, I just want to get the candidate out there talking to the right voters about the issues that matter to them. So that’s my passion. I like to win. I’m a chess player, I’ve beaten a couple masters.

Question:  You’re a little over a month with boots on the ground. What has your experience been like compared to what you expected?

Answer:  I think it’s been excellent. RNC Member Services has been terrific, they’ve connected me with their technology team down at state party strategies in D.C.. They’ve given me access to their database on SQL Server, so I can go in and grab the files and I can do my modeling and my targeting. They said I was the only RNC guy that’s ever asked for that, but I really do like the data side of it, and they’ve been excellent to work with. I’ve made some great friends. There’s a North Dakota National Committee guy I really get along with, and another one in Missouri — even though he’s Patrick Mahomes guy, we’ll make it work. I’m just having a great time getting all these guys and just knowing we have a common thread to try to encourage more grassroots activism in the Republican Party and win some races.

Question:  You’re coming into this position following Ron Kaufman, who held this position for 38 years. Where are you specifically helping to move or grow the party? Were you at all intimidated coming into this role after it was held by one person for so long?

Answer:  It’s interesting, I’m excited [to be] working with so many people. I’ve worked with a ton of the grassroots people for the last 10 years, so I know most of the people in the organization, the MassGOP. I have an expression — I choose data over drama, and I just try to help candidates win. Now I have a title behind myself, which allows me to accomplish a little more, perhaps with donors, perhaps with getting data from the secretary of state, perhaps with working with the RNC to improve our campaign tools and technology. 

Intimidation is an interesting word. Before I did this, I ran a manufacturing company and we had 119 employees, and we were losing money, and we were able to turn it around. But that was a scary time, back around 2007-2008, the downturn, and I made it through that. So I’m not really intimidated by much anymore. 

Question:  How did you get into grassroots organizing? 

Answer:  Back around 2007, when I sold my business, I was very upset with the high cost of energy in Massachusetts, the high cost of health care, the property taxes were crazy. When you have 14 trucks on the road and your energy costs go up, what do you do? You pull them back and there goes your sales force. You just can’t afford to send them out on the road. I was very frustrated with the state of manufacturing in this country and everything, so I decided to get involved. I found Ron Paul speaking my language, I liked what he had to say back in 2007, and so I got involved in campaigning, and I realized very quickly that very few people in campaigns have a business mindset, have a technology mindset, have a database mindset. I did pretty well organizing [for] Ron Paul, and then organizing for Rand Paul, and then getting involved with a bunch of other grassroots groups, like Mass. Fiscal Alliance and helping found them.

Question:  What are some priorities you’re focused on in the short- and long-term, nationally and statewide? 

Answer:  Short term, we have an election in November, and we’ve got to try to elect as many Republicans as possible. There are a couple state rep races that I’m really interested in to see how well they perform, so I’m really focused on that. The other side is, presidential campaigns are the best time to harness new grassroots activists. They get involved because they’re tired of the direction of this country, and they watch their Fox News or CNBC, and we have to be able to accept those new volunteers, those new grassroots activists, bring them into our funnel and see if they actually want to work on campaigns, maybe they even want to run for office. I’m hoping we can roll out a bunch of Republicans running for local office, municipal office, to really make a difference on the issues that matter to people:  their schools, their streets, their public safety, good jobs locally. I think if we can get back to basics and try and hit some of those local offices we’ll make an impact in the state. 

Question:  You mentioned you’ve got your eyes on certain races this election. Which ones?

Answer:  There’s a supermajority of Democrats up there, which I’m sure you realize, and you probably also realize it’s been over 10 years since a Democrat incumbent lost to a Republican in November. Ten years of constant losing, not one win. The way I look at it, if I were an incumbent Democrat, I’d probably be more worried about a challenge from the left than a Republican challenge. So I’m really hoping we can pick up a couple seats this cycle. And if we’re able to do that, then hopefully we can start bringing the balance and the pendulum a little bit more back to the middle up on Beacon Hill, so that way, Beacon Hill will hear more of what voters are trying to talk about — to bring good jobs and good schools and local aid, instead of just running off to the extreme left, which we’ve seen happen in this state.

Question:  Massachusetts is a leader when it comes to Democratic voices and ideals, but MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale has been open about how state Republicans are trying to shift recruiting and fundraising strategies to combat that. Where do you see the greatest pockets of opportunity here when it comes to growing that support? 

Answer:  Well, my mind [goes to] a bunch of different local issues that are floundering up from the grassroots right now. I can’t tell you how many towns have had an override lately. Whether the override is voted up or down, what the override really signals to me is a poor job of Beacon Hill administering local aid and their priorities in the state budget … We should be [putting] an eye on Beacon Hill and pointing out the fact they’ve done a terrible job prioritizing a refugee crisis over making sure that our citizens, our Massachusetts residents, those children, are getting the resources they need so that they can learn. We have zoning laws where a lot of towns feel like, again, Beacon Hill is coming in and overriding what is best for that town. It’s very hard for somebody in Boston to say what’s proper for my town, which is 40 miles away, but yet they’re trying to do it. And the same thing applies when they increase the minimum wage to a ridiculous rate. That may work in Boston, but it’s very hard out in the suburbs, in Western Mass., to handle those types of rates. I think the overreach of Beacon Hill is a really good thing to run against, and I’m hoping we can round up some great candidates next cycle for local office and then legislative office.

I’m very much a strategist of trying to [figure out] who votes, who doesn’t vote, who’s getting mail-in ballots, who’s not getting mail-in ballots, making sure that text messages go out at the right time to the right people, that you exclude text messages from people that have already voted, the same with digital ads. There’s a lot you can do on the campaign tech side that has zero to do with policy that can really help you win. That’s one of the areas where I’m focused. And the other area is policy, you know, picking the right issues that the voters want to hear about.

Question:  Are those strategies in play right now?

Answer:  We’re executing right now. We’ve finally got early ballot lists from the secretary of state, we’re tuning our lists up so we can target those people properly. I’m testing a new software package in one of the state rep races to see how well it works. We’re doing the work on the ground level, and I’m excited to see what happens in November. I’m predicting we finally get a win after 10 years of losses.

Question:  What’s it like being a Massachusetts Republican while former President Donald Trump is running for president?

Answer:  I went door-knocking with one of the state rep candidates last week, and we went around and there were a couple people that weren’t really pleased with Donald Trump, and I understand that. You never win a political game 100-0. It’s like basketball, you’re going to win 52-48, some people are going to score on you, but it is what it is. I think you’ve just got to connect with the voters, with the issues that matter with them, and talk to them face-to-face.

I’ve seen more passion for Donald Trump among the Republican grassroots than I think I’ve seen from any candidate — much more than Mitt Romney. People are really passionate, I mean, they want to go out and do standouts — though I’d rather them make phone calls — but they’re really passionate about Donald Trump. It’s really great to see that people care about this country.

Question:  You talk a lot about small business. Do you think Massachusetts is missing the mark in any way? 

Answer:  For small business, there’s a small group of Republicans up there [on Beacon Hill] and they try to do their best to push back on overreach of regulations and taxes and all that, but it’s very hard when we don’t have a balanced state, and their voices can easily be ignored. That’s why we really need to bring up more people from the Legislature and hopefully get enough to have some debates on what the best policies are. You know that “millionaires tax” that went through, I can’t tell you how many people I know that are moving to Florida with large amounts of money. That’s not a good thing for our state, in the short term or long run. We need those people investing capital here, and I’ve always been a fan that we don’t create special programs, but yet we make it flat across the board — like we have a sales tax holiday, it’s $500 a year to have an LLC in Massachusetts, why not have the first year free, or something like that? Little, simple things to encourage people to just start out when they’re already strapped for money. 

Question:  Is there anything else you think is important to talk about related to your role or the direction of MassGOP?

Answer:  I’m a big believer in professional development. When I was on my school committee, we would have professional development for our teachers, I liked that. When I was running my business, I was one of those crazy people that read self-help books and [watched] Dale Carnegie seminars. I really think training is super important. People just think you can watch Fox News and then run for office — it’s not like that. You need to understand the ins and outs before you dive into the arena, and I really think our party lost its way on training. We need to have a pipeline of people and train them:  how to be great activists, how to be effective activists, how to be a good candidate, how to talk to voters, how to speak the language of the voters, how not to scare voters. Right now, I don’t want to name names, but there are some people running for office that are really doing a terrible job at representing the Republican brand. We like small government, we like small business, we want everybody to prosper — and if we can find those common threads that everybody really agrees on, those would probably be more of the issues we want to talk about than divisive things.

As I said in my speech when I ran for this office, my top issue is winning. I think I know what it takes to win. I’ve helped other candidates in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, all over the country win. I just hope that we can find great candidates that are willing to listen, be trained, and actually win some races in November. If we do that, I think we can start reversing the swings to the left up on Beacon Hill, and maybe just bring it back to the center a little bit more so we can start talking about the issues that matter to 80 percent of the undecided voters in the state, instead of just the 20 percent of the hard left that have an outsized voice … The independents decide everything in this state, it’s just, we have to provide a compelling message so they pull the “R” lever.