Political Nobody Who Took Andrew Yang National Shares How in New Playbook
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In Longshot: How Political Nobodies Took Andrew Yang National—and the New Playbook That Let Us Build a Movement, Andrew Yang’s campaign manager Zach Graumann, takes you on a tour through the ups, the downs, and the math of Yang’s 2020 campaign for president, and shares the playbook his team used to navigate the attention economy.
As the youngest and most inexperienced major presidential campaign manager in US political history, Zach’s marketing strategy took the unknown Andrew Yang from being called “longer than long shot” (The New York Times, 2018), to polling in the top five nationwide, having “hacked the primary” (Business Insider, 2020) in less than a year. Raising nearly $40 million dollars in an average of $35 increments, his leadership saw Andrew Yang qualify for seven Democratic primary debates, outlasting four senators, four governors, seven members of Congress, two mayors, and one cabinet secretary.
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Graumann’s new book, Longshot: How Political Nobodies Took Andrew Yang National—and the New Playbook That Let Us Build a Movement, is not only the story of the campaign’s shocking rise, but also a tool for all aspiring candidates and staffers looking to compete in today’s political arena.
Andrew Yang did not win the 2020 Democratic primary, let alone the presidency of the United States. But chances are you know who Andrew Yang is, and you may well be part of the 75 percent of Americans who now support Universal Basic Income—both facts that would have seemed beyond unlikely at the start of Yang’s campaign. That campaign was helmed by Zach Graumann: entrepreneur, marketing expert, and, at the time, political nonentity. In fact, when Graumann joined Yang 2020, no one on the team was an expert in campaigning, but they all shared a fervent desire to change the future.
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Yet, despite that inexperience, by the time Yang dropped out of the race in early 2020, he’d not only outlasted six senators, four governors, and three members of Congress, he’d become one of the most recognizable, popular political figures in the country.
Graumann tells the story of how Yang went from nobody to national presence, breathing life into the behind-the-scenes antics of the unusual campaign that started a movement. In the process, he demystifies the world of political campaigns and provides takeaways that will help not only the next generation of campaign managers, but anyone who wants to break into a new industry—or stand out in their current one.
Yang says of the book: “My campaign would have never reached millions without Zach’s leadership and strategies… Anyone who wants to make a change in the world—or who simply loves an incredible story—should read this book.”
While Liz Smith, Senior Communications Director, Pete Buttigieg adds, “Zach took an unknown candidate and made him into the most improbable of household names. The Yang campaign created a die-hard group of supporters, leveraged alternative media, and built a movement. Longshot is a candid, entertaining, and informative look behind the scenes at how they were able to accomplish that.”
The book is available for pre-order today, and will be released May 24, 2022.
On Background
Zach Graumann is an entrepreneur, political operative, author, podcast host, marketing expert, and recovering Wall Street Executive. Most notably, he was the Campaign Manager for Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign, which under his leadership, according to CNN, “didn’t just make history… [it] unquestionably put a sizable dent in the future as well.”
Zach is also the Co-Founder of two non-profit organizations: Humanity Forward, which has given millions of dollars in direct cash relief to Americans throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and SuitUp, which brings companies into classrooms to increase career awareness and marketable skills for low-income students. Prior to entering politics, Zach was the Head of Client Philanthropy Solutions at UBS Wealth Management Americas. He and his work have been featured in The New York Times, Business Insider, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, POLITICO, CNN The Daily Beast, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Zach is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, Duke University, receiving a B.A. in Public Policy and a certificate in Markets and Management. He regularly speaks as an expert in innovative marketing, entrepreneurship, political strategy, impact investing, and strategic philanthropy, and co-hosts the Forward podcast with Andrew Yang every week. He currently resides in Manhattan and is passionate about education, entrepreneurship, corporate volunteering, woodworking, a cappella and the Buffalo Bills.
