Why Drew Knight did not win the Presidency
Last night the results of the election were revealed and Donald Trump has won the presidency.
Yesterday the Bells endorsed write-in candidate Drew Knight. Drew Knight's campaign fought hard to win the position of President of the United States. Unfortunately Drew Knight garnered less than 1% of the votes nationwide. Here are a few reasons why we think he lost the presidency
1. Drew Knight did not push hard enough to discredit major party candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump
Knight focused his energy on fighting against fellow write-in candidate Zac Alsens as opposed to taking on Clinton and Trump. This was a crucial error. Trump garnered in 47% of the popular vote, while Clinton garnered 48%. If Knight had gone after our two political powerhouses, he may have gained an uperhand. His campaign manager, Merry Moline, really dropped the ball on this, advising him to take on a candidate on the same playing field as himself, instead of focussing on the major candidates.
2. Knight's running mate, Cassie Roberts, did not represent the same values as Knight
Knight made his passion for trees very apparent throughout his campaign. When it came to the choice of a running mate, he made a crucial error in selecting Roberts, who discouraged his love of trees.
3. Controversies surrounding his viewing of 'Sausage Party'
The Alsthearn campaign seemed to gain an advantage over Knight. Alsens released a scathing attack ad, proving that Knight had watched R-rated movie 'Sausage Party.' This was problematic for the Knight/Roberts campaign because Knight had claimed in his presidential ad that he had never seen an R-rated movie. You can watch the attack ad here.
To make matters worse, Knight never addressed the issue publicly which was a huge mistake. According to reports, Moline strongly advised Knight to come forward to the public and explain himself. Unfortunately Knight was convinced the issue would blow over and only responded to the issue on his personal Facebook account. In response to the controversy Knight wrote, "I thought it was a children's film."
4. Ultimately Knight's campaign team did not successfully garner attention for his candidacy
The fatal error for the Knight/Roberts team was a failure to get their name out there. A recent poll conducted by the Bells shows that less than 1% of voters knew of Knight's candidacy.
We at the Bells tried to push for a Drew Knight presidency but unfortunately he lost. Although our candidate may have lost, we will continue to fight for the values and ideals that he stood for.
