Pete Maysmith has been doing this work for over 30 years — from Rocky Flats protests in fifth grade to leading one of the country’s most powerful environmental electoral organizations. As President of the League of Conservation Voters, he oversees hundreds of millions of dollars in electoral and advocacy spending across a 30-state affiliate network.

In this conversation, we don’t spend much time on the doom. We spend it on the strategy.

**What you’ll hear in this episode:**

- Why energy affordability — not carbon policy — is the entry point for reaching persuadable voters right now

- How LCV is running AI-assisted, neighbor-to-neighbor video ads in a Michigan congressional district to hold Republicans accountable for higher utility bills

- Why the movement needs to think culturally, not just politically, to break through a fragmented media landscape

- How public lands became a rare piece of genuine bipartisan common ground — with MAGA hats showing up at LCV rallies

- What it means to defend democracy as a prerequisite for environmental progress

- And why the goal after Trump can’t just be to restore what existed before

Pete’s closing piece of advice, passed on to him early in his career, stayed with me: ”Everybody needs hope and heroes . . . We have to believe and we have to give people belief. And if we do that, people will show up.”

This is exactly the kind of conversation The Campaign Strategist exists to have — candid, strategic, and focused on what it actually takes to build power and win.

If you find these conversations useful, please share this with someone who’d benefit. It’s the best way to help the show grow.

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Kristen Grimm, founder of Spitfire Strategies, joins Pete to discuss what it really takes to win advocacy campaigns in today’s fractured media environment. Drawing from her updated campaign planning guide, Planning to Win, Kristen explains why campaigns must define concrete victories instead of defaulting to “raising awareness,” and why declining public trust is one of the biggest threats to public interest work. She argues that hope is not the same as optimism — hope requires agency and a clear path forward. The conversation explores how to balance blocking harmful policies with building toward affirmative solutions, how to choose the right moment to act, and how campaign leadership and frontline voices shape outcomes. For advocates navigating turbulent political times, this episode offers both discipline and encouragement.

Get the planning guide here: https://spitfirestrategies.com/tools/planning-to-win/

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In this episode, Pete talks with Dr. Jiggy Geronimo, a neuroscientist-turned-strategist and founder of JG Insights, about building powerful progressive narratives. Jiggy shares why poll-tested messaging often fails—and how an “emotions first, content first” strategy can drive real resistance and mobilization. 

From confronting fascism to channeling public anger into action, this conversation is a guide to narrative power in dangerous times. "Narrative is about the words, but it's also about the visuals," says Jiggy. "It's also about the stories. It's also about the feelings. And we don't...on the left, take that holistic approach to narrative."

Subscribe to Jiggy's newsletter here. 

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In this episode of The Campaign Strategist, Pete talks with Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist at Way to Win, and co-host of Charting the Way Forward, about how progressives can thrive in a radically transformed media environment.

Jenifer shares how she went from journalist to movement strategist — and how that journey shaped her understanding of what it takes to compete in an attention economy dominated by emotion, culture, and decentralized media. She explains why campaigns must merge organizing and media instead of treating them as separate worlds, and how creators, storytelling, and cultural authenticity can move people in ways policy briefs never will.

If you care about how progressives can break through the noise — and build real narrative power — don’t miss this one. 

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In this episode, Pete Altman talks with media strategist and Counter Stream Media founder Shilpi Chhotray, who makes a powerful case for rethinking how we build power for climate justice. Shilpi shares why she’s stepped back from the mainstream climate movement—and why philanthropy’s failure to fund narrative work and frontline leadership is holding the movement back. From global organizing to launching a frontline-led media outlet, she outlines how narrative strategy, not just comms, can shift hearts, policy, and power. “We’re not winning the narrative war,” she warns, “because we’re not investing where it counts.” 

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Tara Buss, Senior Director of Research at the Research Collaborative, joins The Campaign Strategist to unpack what she calls "competitive authoritarianism" in the U.S.—a state that mimics democracy while systematically undermining it. She and Pete explore why mass non-compliance is critical, how narrative strategy can shape resistance, and why polling shouldn’t lead progressive strategy. “The rules of the game have changed,” she warns. “We can’t wait until 2026—we have to act now.” This is a compelling, clear-eyed look at the fight to preserve democracy. 

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What can Sun Tzu teach us about winning political power in 2025?

In this new episode of The Campaign Strategist, I talk with Eric Hensal—veteran progressive strategist, author of A Progressive Art of War and host of the podcast Progressive Conjecture—about applying timeless military strategy to modern political challenges.

We explore:

• Why progressives often lose not because of the opposition, but because of strategic missteps
• How to think like an organizer and a general
• The importance of deception, clarity, and preparation in narrative and coalition work
• Why “knowing the ground” matters more than moral certainty
• What Biden, rural outreach, and “melting ICE” can teach us about smart campaigns

Eric’s approach is provocative, practical, and rooted in decades of experience across labor, government, and political campaigns.

#PoliticalStrategy #CampaignStrategy #Advocacy #ProgressivePolitics #NarrativeStrategy #MovementBuilding #TheCampaignStrategist

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Messaging maven and strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio joins Pete to unpack the mechanics of narrative, the seductive power of repetition, and why too much progressive messaging sounds like it came from a law school textbook. From “Florida fascism facilities” to “start how you want to finish,” Anat brings clarity and conviction to the question of how we talk about political danger—and what we should say instead. This is a sharp, funny, and necessary conversation about how to build power through language. 

Follow Anat's Substack Words to Win by and check out her firm's work: ASO Communications.

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Durrell Johnson helped lead the campaign to stop Mark Robinson’s run for governor in North Carolina—and in doing so, created a roadmap for defeating far-right extremism. 

In this episode, he explains how local groups built trust, centered impacted communities, and reached even conservative voters who felt the danger. “This wasn’t just about what Robinson said—it was about what would happen if he held power.” A must-listen for campaigners and communicators heading into 2026. 

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Liz Kazal of the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy joins The Campaign Strategist to talk about why Republican members of Congress are starting to feel real political risk over their support for Trump’s tax and budget bill—and how her team is keeping the pressure on. From Medicaid cuts to economic messaging, Liz shares how organizers can turn pain into power—and why being “relentless” is the only path forward in today’s political climate. 

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