Introduction
Days after the Iowa caucus, the world eagerly awaits the much-anticipated results of that messy night. In Iowa, Andrew Frawley and co-worker reflect on the journey that they’ve shared and the campaign’s best moments.
Frawley recounts some of the most remarkable marketing successes and the magnitude of the Yang Gang’s impact on the 2020 presidential election. Frawley contrasts these grand memories with the campaign’s humble beginning — a few clueless people in Yang’s mom’s apartment.
Everyone in politics has spent the last year wondering: how did Andrew Yang break out?
Frawley reflects on the idea of movements — their mysteries, and what makes them so alluring. The stage is set for all the questions that will be answered throughout the book, and establishes expectations for the reader — this will not a be juicy tell-all, or a how-to book for becoming president, but rather a memoir from a mostly ordinary guy, who joins a team of other mostly ordinary people, and together build something that was, undoubtedly, extraordinary.
PART 1: The Imposter
From suburban origins with a videogame addiction and 100 pounds overweight, a young Andrew Frawley doesn’t look like much of a revolutionary. At 23 years old and 100 pounds lighter, Frawley is an ex-fraternity president living in a 50 person hacker house when he faces his first existential crisis. When he meets Andrew Yang, who recruits him to be employee #2 on what the New York Times called a “longer-than-longshot” run for president, his life changes forever. The two Andrews, along with Katie Bloom and Muhan Zhang, set up shop in Yang’s mother’s apartment, work from the floor, eat gigantic cookies, and try to create a massive political movement out of thin air.
Chapter 1: The Other Andrew
Frawley grows up in the suburbs of Alexandria, VA. From a young age, Frawley is politically disaffected and swears he’ll never care about politics. Through the years, Frawley develops insecurities about his intelligence, his prospects in life, and ultimately, his worth as a human being. These lead Frawley to become consumed by video games, as he comes to reject what he calls the “Suburban Checklist.” He vanishes from the social scene, puts on 100 pounds, and becomes a creature of the internet.
Now 16 years old and weighing 300 pounds, Frawley has no friends, a bad academic record. That summer, Frawley loses 100 pounds and teaches himself how to be confident by faking it. Despite feeling like an imposter inside the body of a popular, confident person, Frawley becomes an inspirational “underdog” at his high school and is voted prom king.
At Virginia Commonwealth University, Frawley joins a fraternity, seeking social validation to heal his lingering insecurities. As a sophomore, he is elected president of the fraternity, and once again feels like an imposter. He spends the first two years of college partying and coming up with schemes to sell t-shirts.
Chapter 2: The Andrews Collide
Frawley discovers and is inspired by the world of startups. Seeking an entry point, he applies to Venture for America, (a non-profit that places recent college graduates in startups around the country) founded by none other than Andrew Yang. In hopes of boosting his chances of admission, Frawley travels to New York City to tour the VFA office. In a brief encounter, Frawley meets Yang and finds himself completely starstruck. Frawley is so nervous that he misspeaks, embarrassing himself beyond belief and sending him home with his tail between his legs. When he is denied entry into VFA, he is not surprised, but his ego is wounded nonetheless.
This humiliating episode does not hamper Frawley’s infatuation with startups. After college, Frawley moves to San Francisco with little savings and no job. He finds refuge in a 50-person hacker house, 49 of whom seemed to be tech geniuses. Frawley once again feels like an imposter among them. Frawley gets a boring marketing job. Out of his comfort zone, Frawley discovers he’s lived a life driven by his insecurities and begins to question everything. This painful journey results in a change of perspective for Frawley, now 23 years old, leading him to focus on big societal problems.
On a fateful visit to New York City, Frawley and Andrew Yang cross paths again, this time by chance. The two hit it off, and Yang lets Frawley in on his next venture — running for president of the United States. Yang invites Frawley to join the campaign as a marketing lead. Frawley, who has hated politics his whole life, can’t help but feel intrigued by the proposition. Contemplating the offer, Frawley travels the nation talking to professors, seeking wisdom and direction before making a decision. When the two Andrews meet again a few weeks later, Frawley has his answer: “I’m in.”
Chapter 3: What is the zip code for?
One month into the campaign, Frawley and Yang lie on the floor of Yang’s mother’s apartment, prototyping a new signature. Muhan Zhang, the campaign’s first employee and Frawley’s eventual confidante is both living and working there, keeping all the campaign’s operations functional and eating everybody’s leftovers. Katie Bloom, a contractor, pops in and out and contributes significantly to the campaign’s launch as well as Frawley’s initiation to the team.
Frawley, who climbed aboard as a “marketing lead” is performing the job functions of Yang’s personal assistant, a role for which he has neither interest nor aptitude. Jumping from mistake to mistake, Frawley’s imposter syndrome is heightened on a daily basis.
The rag-tag team of political newbies sets the initial vision and strategy of the campaign. The gang narrowly avoids the catastrophic mistake of branding the campaign as “UBI2020.” Yang stress-eats an entire tin of cookies before asking friends for money to fund the campaign. The equally inexperienced Muhan and Frawley build a website, blindly copying the layout from berniesanders.com, deciding to implement now, ask questions (like, why do campaigns collect zip codes?) later.
The small team has a great deal of fun preparing the campaign for launch. Yang takes them to lunch every day, and they share laughs and often dance around the office. Muhan and Frawley become best friends as they share the responsibilities of many pre-launch projects and stay up late most nights talking about their shared values and worldviews.
These early “golden days”, when no one was paying much attention to the campaign, are brought to a swift end when the New York Times sets a date to publicly announce the launch of Yang2020. The team scrambles to legitimize their operation, if only as a charade, to give the NYT a professional-looking photo shoot for the piece, involving a rent-a-room office, fake staff, and carefully curated trash bins.
The day before they launch, the team sets a “realistic” goal: raising $500,000 by March 31st, 2018.
PART 2: Random Man Runs for President
February 2018 to August 2018. When you announce that you’re running for president of the United States, and the United States announces that it doesn’t care, it’s hard to keep morale high on a team that is understaffed, underprepared, and underperforming on almost every metric. February through August of 2018 is a period marked by a thematic and tonal shift from cheerful and optimistic to sober and somewhat grave as Frawley realizes that running for president is a lot like throwing a party — impossible to do when you’re massively unpopular. With an ever increasing cast of characters, including campaign manager Zach Graumann and Chief of Staff Matt Shinners, the motley crew attempts to take Yang2020 from obscurity to national relevance, setting the foundation for what became the hallmark strategies of the movement.
Chapter 4: Wait, You're Actually Trying to Win?
Yang throws his hat into the ring to little fanfare. The team tries, and fails, several times over to generate positive momentum, including an unsuccessful attempt to make Yang’s book a bestseller, a measly $18,000 fundraising haul after launch, and an event in Philadelphia with atrociously bad turnout — 12 people in attendance. A representative from an advocacy group asks “Wait, you’re actually trying to win?” when the campaign reaches out for an endorsement. Frawley continues to struggle with his role as Yang’s personal assistant, with little time spent on the marketing work he was hired to do.
Zach Graummann joins and ushers in an era of increasingly sophisticated strategy and structure. Frawley is somewhat suspicious of Zach at first (due to Zach’s professional history as a banker) but Zach's presence on the team is quickly proven to be invaluable. Matt Shinners, a brilliant Harvard Law graduate (perfect score on his LSAT, brilliant) joins as the team’s Chief of Staff.
Frawley discusses the two new strategic frameworks and systems introduced by Zach — the Time & Credibility Matrix, and Zach’s four campaign objectives.
Chapter 5: The Message is the Movement
Frawley and Yang make their trip to New Hampshire, and host an event with an audience of one. Later, they meet the Chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Ray Buckley, who gives Yang some advice on being an effective candidate: “have lots of fun.” The two-man tour of embarrassments makes a pit stop in the nation’s capital, where Frawley causes Yang to be late to a meeting with the DNC. Later, the two Andrews meet with a D.C. insider who tells Yang to “leave this town and bring a wave crashing down on our heads,” a message that comes to define the campaign’s strategy.
Frawley, who usually enjoys being on the road, feels overwhelmed by the pressures involved in traveling alone with his boss (and the man who was steadily becoming his personal hero). Frawley’s insecurities mount while he continues to fumble the logistics as he and Yang meet with increasingly high profile people, among whom Frawley feels like a fish out of water. Frawley is eager to return back to New York where he can hide behind a computer screen, focus on marketing work, and feel less like an imposter.
Frawley discusses how in marketing, you must have a good product in order to succeed, and how in politics, the product is the candidate and their message. Frawley talks extensively about how Yang, as the product, is great, citing Yang’s idiosyncrasies, his ridiculously fast reading speed, and strong moral compass as marketable virtues.
The months of traveling and improving Yang’s campaign message pay off after Yang appears on Sam Harris’ podcast, sharing his vision with a large audience for the first time. The campaign has a much-needed spike in fundraising and voter support.
Chapter 6: Fake It Til’ You Make It
The Sam Harris fundraising bump was a vital, but short-lived, success. Finally relieved of his scheduling and traveling duties, Frawley reflects on the failed marketing attempts of the campaign thus far. Frawley is hopeful that, with his focus on marketing full time, he can turn the tide for the better.
Frawley creates the campaign’s marketing strategy on the bedrock of six principles — Trading Up the Chain, Small Things, Emotions that Pop, Fake it Til’ You Make It, Steal Like an Artist, and Say Exactly What You Think. Frawley launches the campaign’s Facebook group and subreddit, both critical in organizing supporters. The origins of the popular slogan “Google Andrew Yang” are revealed.
Despite a few small victories and a colossal self-imposed workload, Frawley finds that nothing he has done is working. Burnt out and frustrated, Frawley wonders if VFA was right in rejecting him. Out of desperation, Frawley tries astroturfing to falsify support for the campaign.
Frawley realizes there’s only one thing that has made a measurable difference in the campaign’s success so far. With his back against the wall, nearly defeated, he finally sees a path forward.
PART 3: Dreaming of Joe
August 2018 to February 2019. Nothing is working, and the campaign needs a major breakout moment to stay alive. The team realizes that Andrew Yang needs to make an appearance in front of a major audience — like Sam Harris, but bigger. They pin their hopes on the idea of getting Yang on the Joe Rogan Experience. The JRE pipedream becomes a team-wide obsession, as the strategy shifts to focus on manifesting this aspiration and preparing the campaign’s infrastructure for massive growth should that day come.
Chapter 7: Please Pay Attention to Us
Yang gets invited to speak at two of the largest political events in Iowa — the Wing Ding and the State Fair. The team prepares for the trip like it’s the Super Bowl, hoping it will provide Yang’s big break. Knowing nothing about the crucial and quirky universe of Iowa politics, Frawley and the gang task interns with researching and explaining Iowa politics to them. Due to Zach being out of town, Frawley is recruited to accompany Yang in Iowa and is tasked with managing the schedule for the entire week-long excursion. Frawley’s checkered history with travel and logistics gets in his head and rattles his nerves leading up to the trip. Luckily, boy-genius-political-strategist Liam deClive-Lowe arrives on the scene in the nick of time to accompany Yang and Frawley and help prepare them for what awaits in Iowa.
At Wing Ding, Frawley is stunned by the theatrics and hob-knobbing of Iowa politics. There, Yang delivers an awe-inspiring speech that is met with a standing ovation. Yang, Frawley, and Liam meet Michael Avenatti and drink cheap beer with Congressman Tim Ryan. The Iowa trip continues without a hitch, a much-needed boost to Frawley’s confidence and the gang’s overall morale.
Expecting their breakout moment, the team is shocked when the media does mention Yang’s attendance in their coverage of the Iowa events — the first, but certainly not the last time they experienced this confusion and disappointment. The high spirits of the Iowa trip are lost as morale dips to an all-time low.
With the campaign in desperate need of attention, the team is in the right mindset to hear out Frawley’s pipedream — getting Yang on the Joe Rogan Experience. After several months of 70 hour work weeks and a seemingly endless list of failed attempts to move the needle, the team had considered crazier ideas (including accepting cryptocurrency donations, giving away money, and even selling weed) and an appearance on JRE went from pipe-dream, to viable option, to inevitable necessity.
Chapter 8: The Master Plan
The talented and ceaselessly energetic Carly Reilly joins the team to help manage events, freeing Frawley of handling travel and logistics for good. Despite the campaign’s severe lack of funds, Frawley sees an opportunity to ask Zach and Yang for a raise — beginning to take his salary, now the lowest on the team, personally. Frawley gets the raise on the condition that he steps up as a leader with a more clear vision for the marketing department.
Frawley works to deliver on Zach and Yang’s request, and after a laborious few weeks, Frawley concocts a master plan for the infrastructure of the marketing department, one that ultimately took the campaign’s fundraising from $25,000 a month to $4,000,000 a month.
The master plan is a three-step vision: build a rock-solid marketing funnel, weaponize the funnel for credibility, and become a sensation. The core principle, “Bring the Content to the People”, seeks to blanket the internet with information about Andrew Yang. Of course, none of this would be possible without the campaign’s most powerful weapon: the Yang Gang.
What does it mean to “weaponize the funnel?” The vision is to utilize supporters as an active army that can be mobilized to accomplish a number of different missions on behalf of the campaign.
Campaigns, like religions, send members of their tribes knocking on doors with a message of hope. The power of Yang’s message to foster tribalism is clear, and broken into five key characteristics: First, Yang’s message is radical. Second, Yang is honest. Third, Yang’s message fills a meaning gap. Fourth, Yang is the underdog. Fifth, Yang has an invisible enemy (the system).
Yang Gangs are built in three phases — 1. Raising the Beast, 2. Releasing the Beast, 3. A Beast of Its Own. In this first phase, when the movement is fetal and impressionable, Frawley takes great care in setting the tone and laying the groundwork of the mission. The Yang Gang’s task is to blanket the internet with all things Yang. Frawley arms early supporters with exclusive content to use for memes and long lists of websites, forums, and subreddits to take over. Frawley then teams up with a volunteer to build a “meme factory”, ready to cover the internet with memes when the time is right.
Shortly thereafter, the moment everyone had been praying and preparing for had arrived. A text from Sam Harris to Andrew Yang reads “I think I got you on Joe Rogan.”
Chapter 9: Roe Jogan Would Like to See You
By December 2018, Frawley is managing two full-time staffers, dressing like an adult, and starting to believe in himself. The good news about Joe Rogan and the increasing staff size keep the mood optimistic, despite the fact that the organization is nearly bankrupt, and is currently being funded by credit card debt, Muhan confides in Frawley.
The team finds themselves scrambling to prepare for Joe Rogan. Working late hours, often getting goofy, Yang and the team find themselves referring to Joe Rogan as “Roe Jogan” which becomes one of their longest-lasting inside jokes.
As the team is getting ready for Joe, Yang gets 0% in a poll — good news, as this was the first time Yang was even included in a poll. With the year coming to a close and JRE on the horizon, the team is in high spirits, and decides to throw a New Year’s Eve fundraiser. It’s a disaster — the team struggles to sell even half the tickets, and the “fundraiser” ends up losing money.
Frawley gets promoted to the position of “Digital Director” — the result of his work on the “master plan.” The “Meant to Be Checklist” — Frawley’s irrational, internal index of markers on the path to Yang’s inevitable victory — is introduced.
PART 4: Yangmentum
February 2019 to August 2019. The campaign has a series of victories — fundraising, name recognition, and media buzz all skyrocket. Frawley and the marketing department grow, and Yang rides a wave of memes and MATH hats into the first democratic debates.
Everything comes crashing down when Yang has a terrible debate performance. As the team nears 50 people, the staff begins to crumble under the pressures of a rapidly scaling organization. Frawley wastes a million dollars on advertising and the organization nearly goes bankrupt.
The team recalibrates. Adding new processes, structure, and leadership. Frawley is burning out. The campaign recovers from the catastrophe of the first debate, and by the end of the summer, the campaign is firing on all cylinders. Then Frawley gets demoted.
Chapter 10: All Aboard the Yang Yacht
The team anxiously sees Yang off to Joe Rogan. They watch the interview live on YouTube, and then observe the campaign subsequently explode into an online sensation. The campaign begins to raise millions of dollars.
The DNC announces the criteria of getting into the first debate, and Yang becomes the 4th candidate to qualify. The team is awestruck — Yang takes everyone for steak and karaoke.
The inertia of catching fire launches the campaign into a phase of tremendous growth. Dozens of new staffers are brought aboard — including a graphic designer, videographer, and advertising agency, all hired by Frawley.
The dream turns into a nightmare when the alt-right shows up to the party. Confounding everyone, the alt-right begins declaring their love for Andrew Yang all over the internet, ushering in a wave of anti-semitic memes, doxing, threats of gun and sexual violence, love letters to Andrew Yang, and an obsession with Carly Reilly. Frawley is tasked with handling the alt-right problem online, which sends him into the darkest corners of the internet. Fortunately, after the campaign formally denounces the alt-right support, the alt-right loses interest in the campaign, and the media loses interest in the alt-right-Yang-2020 angle.
The team launches a national tour and begins drawing crowds 5,000 strong. Yang is a media sensation, appearing on Don Lemon, Chris Hayes, Joy Reid, Good Morning America, Pod Save America, and Ben Shapiro. CNN gives him a town Town Hall. Frawley and the gang are all stunned, ecstatic and certain Yang will become president.
As the organization continues to scale, things get messy as 25 people are working in a single, one-room office.
Chapter 11: Release the Beast
Frawley launches the famed MATH Hat — it sells out in 22 minutes.
With the wind now at his back, Frawley is able to leverage the network of influence he has built with the Yang Gang to blanket the internet with Yang memes, take over polls, and email journalists — AKA Yang Gang Phase 2: Release the Beast. Using a fake social media account, Frawley instigates the viral spread of campaign memes, including the popular “Yang Claw.” Frawley keeps these online victories to himself, now believing more in his marketing abilities and feeling less like an imposter.
With 20/20 hindsight, Frawley’s insecurities during the campaign’s inception grow small in the rearview, his eyes are fixed on the bright horizon ahead. Everything is going according to the master plan — the beast has been released.
Externally, the campaign is riding high, but by May, the inner workings come crashing down. The team, having grown 600% in 3 months, is entirely underprepared for the pace at which it is growing.
Frawley, suddenly in the position of power he had always wanted, realizes he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. Burning the candle at both ends, Frawley finds himself working 100 hours a week, and underdelivering on the overwhelming number of projects he has taken on. He laments the days full of wins he kept to himself as such wins become few and far between.
Frawley is directed to spend millions of dollars on an advertising campaign that he doesn’t believe will work. However, due to the reappearance of his imposter syndrome Frawley doesn’t speak up and does as he’s told.
As a result, members of the executive team begin looking to replace Frawley in his role as Digital Director. Frawley is torn, understanding their motivation but crushed nonetheless, journaling: “[removing me] is probably what it should be .... at the same time, I still want to oversee everything and call shots.”
Frawley remains in his role, but is removed from executive meetings. The organization restructures its hierarchy, strategies, budgets, and goals. Despite his uncertainty of where he stands in this new normal, Frawley feels optimistic.
Chapter 12: Figuring it Out
Despite the organization's internal growing pains, Andrew Yang finds himself in CNN’s list of “Top 10 most likely to win the Democratic nomination for president”, beating out over a dozen sitting representatives and household name candidates. Yang is invited on every talk show. Frawley, still somewhat shaken from the trials and tribulations of the spring, can’t believe he runs the marketing team on a campaign for a who truly might be elected president.
In HQ, there are now 15 interns who take on obscenely senior tasks, including running social media accounts. The campaign is doing better than ever — the abundance of snacks in HQ becomes a symbol of the campaign’s prosperity and optimism.
As the first debate approaches, Yang and staff are plagued with a case of hubris. On the debate stage, Yang bombs.
The pity party is brought to an abrupt end during an all-staff meeting a few days later, where changes in leadership are announced and a promise to do better in the July debates is issued by Yang. Yang enters a rocky mode level of training with the campaign on the line — perform well in July or send everybody home.
Leading up to the July debates, Frawley is tasked with sending the tweet that accompanies Yang’s announcement of the Freedom Dividend Giveaway on Colbert, the campaign’s biggest publicity stunt to date.
During the July debate, Frawley runs the campaign media war room of nearly 40 staffers to cover the debates — it proves to be one of his biggest and most validating moments of his career.
Yang crushes the July debate, saving the campaign. The campaign raises $3.5 million in August, and has a seemingly clear path to victory. Frawley reflects on the ‘Meant to Be Checklist’, and everything is going according to plan.
With a series of incredible victories behind them, Frawley and Muhan reflect on the magnitude of the campaign's success in the last few months. From the vision they set in Yang’s mom’s apartment, their early idealism and naivete, Zach’s four campaign objectives, and the goal to build a movement — everything is going better than they could have dreamed.
Now that Frawley understands what is expected of him as a manager, he outlines the next radical phase of the marketing department. Before any of those plans can become a reality, though Frawley receives some tough news: he is being replaced.
Despite the devastating blow to his ego, Frawley is surprisingly optimistic about the new Digital Director, hoping he might learn and grow under the leadership of his new, more professional replacement. Frawley takes the whole situation less personally when he learns that he is not the only one set to get replaced, and that a handful of political consultants are on their way to usher in a new era for Yang2020.
PART 5: A Serious Contender for President of the United States
September 2019 to December 2019. The campaign tries to professionalize to the level expected by the political establishment. The team grows fivefold from 60 to 300, as the organization invests in a major field team, a new ads strategy, and a whole new approach to the campaign.
Frawley begins his new role as Merchandising Director. Frawley struggles with the discomfort of no longer making decisions for the marketing team. Frawley’s distaste for the nature of politics becomes a major point of conflict. Frawley attempts to retain the original spirit of the campaign.
Chapter 13: A Real Political Campaign
The organization has taken on a radically new form, with political consultants everywhere. Frawley remains optimistic that the “swamp monsters” will actually help the campaign. Frawley reflects on the organization’s new strategy, and how it differs from the “Time and Credibility Matrix” introduced in Chapter Four.
As a part of this new strategy, the campaign begins a series of theatrical stunts in an effort to get the media’s attention, a crusade dubbed by Frawley as the “Swampy Scorecard of Political Relevancy.”
Caught between the original vision of an outsider campaign and the new wave of traditional political practice, the campaign faces an identity crisis.
September debate approaches and becomes a symbol for the new direction that the team is heading. Frawley, per custom, runs the media war room of now 60 staff members. Yang performs well, and the campaign is riding high that fall.
Chapter 14: The Disgruntled Mad Hatter of Yang2020
Remembering the story of Steve Jobs being ousted by Apple (only to later be reacquired by Apple), Frawley becomes determined to show the senior staff that their decision to demote him was a mistake. He begins selling so much merchandise that he single-handedly raises millions of dollars for the campaign each month.
Talking to a new co-worker, Frawley reflects on the principles that got the organization’s merchandise to where it is. Frawley tells the stories behind some of the biggest Yang merch hits, including the Retro “Yang 1992” Shirt, Marijuana “MATH” Hat, and the Gold “MATH” Hat. Frawley shares the matrix he used to measure the efficacy of the products he made.
Frawley’s efforts to build a jaw-dropping merchandising program result in his one-man department raising a near third of the campaign’s total revenue, previously unheard of in political merchandising. Much like the underdog period following his metamorphosis in high school, Frawley becomes a hero on the campaign’s staff, resulting in a flattering press release and a confusing, sideways promotion. Though unsure of what it all means, Frawley begins to feel optimistic and secure in his place on the team once again.
Frawley, no longer managing the Yang Gang he built, bemoans the political consultants’ disregard for the tribe. Frawley is distraught, unable to provide the Yang Gang with the direction from HQ that he believes they need.
As a result, the Yang Gang becomes entirely autonomous, creating their own strategies, activities, and movements. Despite his initial concerns, Frawley realizes that the work the Yang Gang is doing on its own is better than anything the HQ team could have directed. In fact, he realizes, this autonomy is a manifestation of the last phase of his own initial vision for the Yang Gang — A Beast of its Own.
Through interviews with former Yang Gang leaders, Frawley shares what these volunteers built during this time. One example is the master group chats they used to make anything trend on Twitter.
Chapter 15: It’s Not Working
With the total transformation of the campaign’s identity nearly complete, one thing becomes clear — it isn’t working. By winter of 2019, the campaign is struggling to stay afloat, and bets big on the biggest political event of the election cycle — the LJ Dinner in Iowa. With over 15,000 Iowans projected to attend, this was the event — it was go big or go home. The senior staff recruits Frawley to “make magic.” With the stakes higher than ever, Frawley is glad to be included.
In Iowa, Frawley can’t help but once again feel like a tourist within the political machine. The weekend in Iowa is a flurry of larger than life experiences for Frawley, who attends a giant rally headlined by Weezer, witnesses Beto O’Rourke drop out of the race, chugs wine with Amy Klobuchar, physically bumps into Elizabeth Warren, accidentally gets stuck at a Kamala Harris staff event, talks deadlifts with John Delaney, waves at Julian Castro, dodges a fuming Michael Bennett, and meets Joe Biden.
Yang delivers a powerful speech which is met with a standing ovation, but just like the 2018 Wing Ding, the media ignores him. The weekend in Iowa is phenomenal, but the campaign’s big bet did not pay off.
Back at HQ, Frawley talks with Muhan about the organization’s failures to meet goals, grow, and move in the polls. The two discuss the confusing lack of coverage of Yang in the media. Frawley confides in Muhan that he doesn’t know what to do anymore — at this point, they’ve tried everything: alternative media, mainstream media, big stunts, advertising — and nothing is working. Muhan, always the truest believer, remains optimistic. This does not soothe Frawley’s concerns, as he refers back to his Meant to Be Checklist, and sees that unequivocally, they are falling behind.
The team knows times are desperate when the campaign stops stocking snacks. The staff copes with the gloom by going to Karaoke in Koreatown obsessively. Frawley, who hates karaoke, goes for moral support.
When two high points — Donald Glover’s very public endorsement and Yang’s successful December debate performance prove to be insufficient in moving the needle, senior staff makes an unpopular announcement: everyone is moving to Iowa. The team bemoans, and Frawley is told that he’ll be first to go.
PART 6: The Last Stand
December 2019 to February 2020. 100+ staffers are moved to Iowa where they work 80 hour weeks from an Airbnb in a sleepy suburb. The two Andrews, having come full circle, travel together in a final tour of Iowa. On caucus night, Frawley takes part in an actual caucus, and finds the whole thing incredibly bizarre. The book concludes with a discussion of next steps, and the tying up of loose ends.
Chapter 16: All In on Iowa
On New Year’s Eve, Frawley finds himself at a lousy karaoke bar in Des Moines. Frawley reflects on how he ended up here, transplanted in Iowa with no direction as to what he was supposed to do besides, “help the Iowa team win.”
At Iowa HQ, Frawley spends the first week wandering around, annoying people with questions in an attempt to understand what state political teams actually do. With his bearings now straight, Frawley plots out a plan to “help them win.” Frawley is recruited to drive a 14-person passenger van for Yang’s tour of Southeast Iowa. Over the course of the five-day trip, Yang gives the same speech over 30 times, much to the amusement of the van’s passengers, who can now recite the full thing in unison.
As more staff arrive in Iowa the office becomes a whirlwind of chaos, with 100+ people working long days, sitting on the floor in a grungy office park. The campaign plans another tour, this one a 17-Day bus tour through Iowa leading into the Iowa caucus as their heroic final stand. Much to Frawley’s delight, the tour bus is wrapped with a photograph Frawley had taken. Frawley joins the bus tour for four days and shares intimate moments with Zach and Yang, the three reflecting on their near 800-day journey leading to this point. They’re all burnt out to the core, but the moment is full of warmth and love nonetheless.
Back at Iowa HQ, Frawley takes steps to finish executing on his plan to “help Iowa win.” Frawley and company find themselves working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. They subsist on an exclusive Jimmy Johns diet, covet a stuffed sloth, meet celebrities, and everyone, I mean everyone, gets the flu.
Heading into caucus night, Frawley confides in a coworker that he has thrown out his “meant to be checklist” and lost his conviction — Yang is not going to be president. Having made his peace with the reality of the situation, Frawley finds himself rejuvenated by the sheer excitement of being in the trenches for the last stand.
Chapter 17: Caucus Night & a Familiar Way Forward
Caucus night. With over 800 days on the campaign behind him, Frawley attends a caucus, and is given one minute to make a speech in an effort to win the support of undecided voters in attendance. This one minute is the culmination of countless hours spent devoted to this one man, this one movement, and on the brink of exhaustion, nearly overwhelmed by the weight of this task, Frawley delivers a final, emotional tribute to Yang in a high school cafeteria. In a disappointing finish, Yang earns only 5% of the votes.
Frawley drives back to Des Moines for the campaign’s caucus night party and is greeted by a dire situation — no one has shown up. Senior staff had chosen to not promote or market the party, and the result was an impossibly sad event. In this tragic moment, Frawley receives immense clarity — that his contributions to the campaign had mattered the whole time. In a fateful combination of circumstances, as perfect as a controlled experiment, Frawley clearly sees the value of his efforts, and how without them, it didn’t matter if Donald Glover showed up, or how Andrew Yang cut his hair, or who was Digital Director — there was no party if his marketing work wasn’t at play. With his imposter syndrome cured, Frawley enjoys the disastrous after-party and the delicious irony that, at the bitter end of a brutal war, he had won a battle he never expected...
Andrew Yang performs terribly in Iowa. Two days later, the team is dismissed, and on the night of the New Hampshire primary, Yang announces the suspension of his campaign. In the blink of an eye, it’s all over.
Reunited in New York, Frawley and Muhan reflect for hours on the entirety of the campaign experience. Frawley reviews Zach’s campaign goals and discusses the future of the movement. He recounts many of the discussed marketing ideologies and strategies in a section about building and scaling movements.
Frawley shares advice for the aspiring disengaged world builder and how to best approach launching a movement. Frawley shares his final, cynical thoughts on his miseducation in politics — it all comes down to a few swing voters in a few swing districts in a few swing states. No one else really matters.
However, his experience has provided him a better understanding of political operatives. He discusses his increased appreciation for them and their work, as he now understands how elections are won, and how movements aren’t actually consequential in that system.
Frawley closes with final thoughts on his own personal growth and his future.