Getting Crowded

If we met in the early years of this century, you may wonder how an establishment Republican major donor fundraiser became a Tea Party conservative.

I was tired of staying in my lane while our candidates put up loss after loss, despite record fundraising. I was tired of Republicans saying they wanted limited government, and then voting for a lot more government. I was tired of being told “we only hire our friends” or “we don’t play in primaries” when all that got us was a lot more cookie cutter and a lot less authentic emotion.

So when I heard JennyBeth Martin for the first time in 2009, shortly after Rick Santelli’s CNBC rant, I knew this was the moment I’d been waiting for. (Not just a conservative, not just a fire breather, but a woman. Someone who looked like me.)

Nicole Schlinger Tea Party

It was time to play full court press. Play like every day is the last play of the game. Let’s push people on their principles, even in primary campaigns, especially in primary campaigns.

At that particular moment, few people wanted to play in that niche. It seemed like a passing trend, and maybe a little dangerous.

Well, I wanted it. So CampaignHQ would be the Best Conservative Call Center in America.

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2010 was a transition year for CHQ. Several key players who would build the foundation for what was to come joined us that year. Marlys De Witt Popma, Trevor Dodds, and Staci Shepard.

Marlys had been the Campaign Manager for a candidate for Governor who left the race shortly after Terry Branstad announced he was in. A key person on our staff had just quit and we were looking to fill the gap. But the notion that THE Marlys Popma would fill that gap (and more) #CHQ seemed outlandish.

Chad Foster and I giggled like little girls when I told him my big idea and read him the script of what I’d say when I called. But lo and behold in January 2010, she showed up for work and a new chapter began. When we hired Marlys, we didn’t have a place for her desk. So I moved out of my office into the vending machine closet, and my office was split in two so she’d have a space.

Trevor and Staci started on the call floor with amazing talent. We didn’t have assigned seats for everyone, and the day Trevor got a desk of his own (actually a $29.99 coffee cart from Wal-Mart) was a milestone. It was … as we like to call it… “Toilet Adjacent.”

Nicole Schlinger Nicole Schlinger employees

#700EastPleasant was getting overcrowded.

Barnstorming Romney

In the winter of 2007, Romney was barnstorming Iowa like no other candidate. We were taking RSVPs for dozens of “Ask Mitt Anything” events all over the state.

But he wasn’t the only one. We were still raising money for Congressman Latham and now Congressman Steve King. We were still setting appointments for State Legislators.

So how do you handle RSVP’s for many candidates coming into a single toll free number?

You change your name.

No matter which event or which candidate you were calling for … if you were greeted with a cheery “Campaign Headquarters” … you called the right place.

So that’s how the name Capitol Resources got chucked out the window and replaced with CampaignHQ.

When the Romney campaign ended in early 2008, it would have been easy to go back to the same old grind. House parties. Appointments. But once David Kochel makes you see something, you can’t unsee it. We kept on doing what we’d always done, but on the side we were building the new business.

2008 was a rough year. I stopped taking paychecks again. Barack Obama was elected President, and the Tea Party movement was about to begin.