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PRAISE FOR
RUNNING AGAINST THE DEVIL
Packed with the same punchy, straight-to-the-jugular humour that has made [Rick Wilson] a sought-after television guest and columnist in the Trump eraWilson explains it all. Chapter by chapter, he debunks the myths, wishes, and pipe dreams which have led previous Democratic presidential nominees down the garden path to the runner-ups position in November.
The Independent
Running Against the Devil is pugnacious and profaneblunt and funnyrelentlessly irreverent and breathtakingly brutal.
The Guardian
A caustically funny, outraged, and deadly serious analysisPolitical consultant Wilsonintensifies his strident excoriation of Trump with a hard-hitting assessment of Democrats chances of winning the next presidential electiona victory that is crucial for saving the country.
Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Democratswould do well to consider the books fundamental warning that winning in 2020 will require put[ting] electoral realities ahead of progressive fantasies.
Publishers Weekly
If you believe Americas future depends on Donald Trumps political machine being crushed at the polls next year, then Rick Wilsons Running Against the Devil is a must-read. Wilson brilliantly explains how Democrats could lose to Trumps racist and blisteringly stupid campaign message yet again unless they change course now. Drawing upon Wilsons insights, Americans can take back their government and send the reality TV host back to Mar-a-Lago once and for all.
Joe Scarborough, MSNBC
Rick Wilson is one of the best political strategists of our times. He knows the calculus of how to win better than a mathematician. This book is going to give some old-school Democrats a little heartburn. But if we want to win in 2020, Wilsons analysis is a full stop. Period. Read and get to work.
Donna Brazile, former interim chair, Democratic National Committee
Florida Man Chooses Country Over Party! It appears the Democratic Partys 2020 Election briefing book has been written by a lifelong Republican strategist, and youre looking at it.
Brian Williams, MSNBC
No one understands the nature of Trumpism better than Rick Wilson. He also knows how the Democrats can blow this election. This may be a hard book for some of them to read, but it is a message they absolutely need to hear if they want to beat Donald Trump.
Charles Sykes, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind
Copyright 2020 by Rick Wilson
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Forum, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
CROWN FORUM with colophon is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Originally published, in slightly different form, in hardcover in the United States by Crown Forum, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, in 2020.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wilson, Rick, author. Title: Running against the devil / Rick Wilson. Description: First Edition. | New York : Crown Forum, 2020. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019042005 (print) | LCCN 2019042006 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593137581 (Hardcover) | ISBN 978059313704 (Paperback) | ISBN 9780593137598 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Trump, Donald, 1946Influence. | PresidentsUnited StatesElection2020. | United StatesPolitics and government2017Classification: LCC E915 .W55 2020 (print) | LCC E915 (ebook) | DDC 973.933092dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019042005
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019042006
Ebook ISBN9780593137598
crownforum.com
Cover images: Bloomberg/Getty Images
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Contents
A NOTE TO READERS
When I wrote Everything Trump Touches Dies, I had no idea the slightly flippant title would become an iron law of American politics, but here we are. The reaction to ETTD was beyond my wildest expectations, and I am honored that folks have found it a source of encouragement and inspiration. Every day, the damage mounts and Trumps curse adds to the political body count.
ETTD changed my life. In it I found a voice I didnt know I had, and Running Against the Devil is the next step on a very unexpected journey.
Running Against the Devil isnt simply a sequel; its also a warning to take the 2020 election with the deadly seriousness it merits. As we understand more clearly each day the dangers Trump poses for Americas future, everything legal should be on the table. (And if you do something illegal, dont tell me. Im in enough trouble already.) This book is a window into how I fought and won campaigns for decades, and if sometimes the tough love seems a little more tough than love, I hope youll understand thats exactly why. This is the fight of our lives, and we cant afford to fuck it up.
The creation of ETTD took place in late 2017 and early 2018, and then as now the belief that any book would be overcome by events drove me to write faster. If anything, the sense of rising danger from Donald Trump made the writing of Running Against the Devil even more urgent. Books take time, and by the time this is in the hands of readers, a thousand new crazy moments that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, or a month ago, mean that new information and new realities will intrude into even my best-laid plans. Stick with me, though. Theres a quiz at the end.
INTRODUCTION TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION
A FEW NOTES FROM THE SUMMER OF 2020
When the hardcover version of Running Against the Devil went on sale in January 2020, it shot to number 4 on the New York Times bestseller list. I was immersed in the usual tasks of promoting the booktraveling, doing signings and interviews, and hitting the TV circuit with my usual vigor. My new posse, the Lincoln Projecta band of ex-Republican strategists, consultants, and heavy hitters opposed to Trumpwas off the ground and plotting to make the next ten months as long and painful as possible for Donald Trump.
Considering the umber shitlord in the White House, life was, on the whole, pretty good. I was on the road at the end of February when the world took a sharp turn off the exit ramp to COVID.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a titanic force that has altered the trajectory of the country, the Trump presidency, and the 2020 election. But there was another force that had an enormous impact on the country and our politics: the breakdown of the Trump campaigns massive investment in making Bernie Sanders the Democratic presidential nominee. From the moment Sanders entered the race in February 2019, the Trump campaign worked tirelessly to push him into the lead, from presidential tweets to the campaigns paid social-media efforts seeking to make Sanders the pick. By December, it looked like Bernie was building a head of steam, and he began to be seen as inevitably sliding toward victory in the Democratic primary. It is only by some unknown providence that the Trump campaign failed.
In retrospect, the brief window in December 2019 and early January 2020 when Bernie Sanders seemed to be on track to take the Democratic nomination was the best moment of the entire presidency for the Trump team. Mitch McConnell had done what Mitch does; by breaking the will and souls of enough Republican senators, he had stopped the Ukraine impeachment trial in its tracks. The Federal Reserve kept pumping liquidity into the system to keep the markets booming. The campaign and its grifter archipelago of MAGA super PACs was sucking up the Social Security payments of boomer rubes like an industrial vacuum. Hell, Brad Parscale even leveraged his role as campaign manager into a $2.5 million waterfront home in Ft. Lauderdale, two condos worth almost a million each, a new Ferrari, and a new Range Rover.