Adrianne Marsh on leadership, listening, and what's changed since Obama's 2008 campaign

Photo: Barack Obama CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Altum Insight CEO Adrianne Marsh joined host Collette Williams and friends on Black Women Speak, by Intentional Talk Radio Network, to discuss the challenges of navigating the current political landscape and how Democrats can, and must, become better listeners if they want to win more elections.

Marsh reflects on what it was like to be a strategist for President Obama's 2008 campaign in Florida, as well as working to re-elect Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri in 2012 and helping to elect Democrats throughout the country as a media consultant.

"I did communications. When Barack Obama walked in the room, it was straight to business. He knew what he was there to talk about. He had questions for you that were beyond the briefing memo.

He took his job of running for president so seriously, and so when he came out, he knew the material so well, it seemed conversational and natural, but he worked hard and studied hard to ensure that he he gave the material the kind of respect it was due. So it seemed so natural, but he put in so much effort and took every single interview that he did with us very seriously. And Florida was no joke."

Collette and the group consider what has changed since the Obama era, explore some of the challenges faced by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020, and look at what Democrats will need to do to win in 2026 and beyond.

With examples from Altum's research, Marsh describes why having deeper conversations with voters can be crucial to rebuilding trust and, ultimately, engaging people in a way that most current political communications do not. Marsh identifies the need for more human-centered approaches to research and campaign strategy, and she shares some of the unique experiments her team has undertaken using AI-informed deep qualitative techniques.

Don't miss this lively conversation on Spotify:

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