Shaker
Schools
10 SPRING 2022 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
How a Shaker Heights High School Junior
Helped Elect the Cleveland Mayor
Justin Bibb’s journey from longshot
candidate to Cleveland mayor was
aided in large part by a cadre of high
school students who used their social
media and texting skills to propel the
underdog into City Hall.
“Students for Bibb” was a coalition
led by 14-and 15-year-old volunteers
that eventually grew to more than 100
teenagers, college students, and young
professionals from across the region, says
campaign manager Ryan Puente. One of
those teens who was key to that effort was
Hazel Smith, now a Shaker Heights High
School junior.
“Over the course of the year, their
operation distributed over 150,000 highly
tailored messages targeted to our universe
of likely voters,” Puente wrote in a local
op-ed piece following the election. “When
the negative attacks that originally had
Dennis Kucinich in their crosshairs shifted
their sights to Bibb, our near-daily texting
program helped inoculate us and cut
through all the noise by communicating
our message directly to voters.”
We asked Hazel about how she
became involved in the Bibb campaign,
and how she and other young people
overcame long odds to put their candidate
in the mayor’s seat.
How did you get involved in the Bibb campaign?
In the last few months of 2020 I began to follow the mayoral race in the news. The
predicted candidates came out of the woodwork, but most weren't willing to announce
their candidacy until the incumbent, Frank Jackson, said he wasn't going to run.
However, in early January, Justin Bibb declared his candidacy. Justin, at 34, already
had a wealth of experience in the nonprofit, government, and business sectors, but he
was practically unknown in the City of Cleveland.
As soon as I started reading about him I had a gut feeling that Justin was the right
leader at the right time, even if at that point I didn't think he could win. I reached out to
Justin through email asking to intern with his campaign. He responded within minutes
and connected me with his deputy campaign manager. Soon I was canvassing weekly
through Cleveland neighborhoods, participating in campaign phone banking, texting,
writing postcards, and helping with events like meet-and-greets and fundraisers.
During the summer, I was a full-time intern and was privileged to watch and learn from
some of Cleveland's great political minds.
How was it that you came to focus on the texting piece?
As we neared the September primary election, our campaign manager, Ryan Puente,
invested in a political texting platform. Through this platform, we could contact
thousands of Cleveland residents and voters to inform them about Justin's race and
announcements like new endorsements. Zoe Toscos, Justin's West Side field director,
and I set up the texting program and began sending frequent texts to voters.
By the end, I was pulling lists of voters for us to target and writing the messages
to send out. Because I am particularly interested in political messaging, this was an
amazing learning experience. Similarly, I worked on the campaign's email program,
which grew from zero contacts in September of 2020 to over 15,000 by the transition,
representing the huge movement we had created.
Is politics something you’d like to stay involved with?
My passion is politics, especially political messaging and communications. My goal is
to become a campaign manager and political strategist. Although I originally wanted
to work in national politics, through this campaign I learned how powerful and direct
local politics can be, which inspired me to work in local and state races as well as
nationally.
Any other thoughts about your experience?
The best way to get involved in politics is through a political campaign, especially
a local campaign. Campaigns force you to learn at a million miles a minute and can
completely transform your outlook on life. For example, even though I've lived in
Shaker Heights my entire life, I really had never understood what the city of Cleveland
looked like outside of downtown until I started doing field work for the campaign. I
grew to love Cleveland despite it being just a 20-minute drive away.
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