How to REALLY support a candidate

Ever wondered how you can make a real impact in your community during an election? This episode provides a complete guide on how to support a local political campaign, transforming your interest into meaningful action. Whether you have five minutes or five hours, five dollars or a specific professional skill, there are effective ways you can help a candidate you believe in. We're joined by Derek Lewis, who has run two successful races for Greenville County School Board, to break down the exact steps you can take. He shares specific, actionable tips that pay big dividends for candidates, especially in crucial local elections where every single vote and voice matters.

From simple and free actions to more significant investments of time and money, this episode is your playbook for getting involved in local politics. Derek Lewis explains why simple actions are great ways to support a candidate without money, such as placing a yard sign or a car sticker to build name recognition. We dive deep into the power of social media, where a simple "like" or "share" can act as a powerful endorsement and signal to algorithms that a candidate's message is resonating. Derek emphasizes that you don't have to agree with every post; even liking a photo of a candidate's dog at a festival helps boost their visibility.

For those ready to take the next step, we explore the significant impact of donating to a local campaign. Derek reveals how a small donation of $50 or $100 can be a game-changer for a school board or city council candidate, potentially funding an entire mailer or a crucial social media push. These campaigns often run on budgets under $8,000, so every dollar truly counts. Beyond finances, sending a personal email to your friends vouching for a candidate can bridge a critical trust gap. If you're fully committed, Derek outlines exactly how to host a meet and greet for a candidate. He demystifies the process, explaining it can be as simple as a one-hour drop-in with boiled peanuts and drinks, providing an invaluable opportunity for voters to connect with a candidate face-to-face. We also cover one of the most important first steps: how to find local candidates. Derek suggests listening to podcasts that interview all candidates with the same questions, reviewing their social media pages to see their priorities, and even looking at who is liking and sharing their content to find candidates who align with people you respect. Finally, we discuss how you can volunteer your unique professional skills—like photography, writing, or web design—to provide support that a campaign could never afford on its own.

Election Resources:

• Check Your Voter Registration Status

• View Your Sample Ballot

• Look Up Who Represents You

Introduction

Katy Smith: Early voting opens on October 20th, 2025 for city council seats within Greenville County and election day is November 5th. Next week, we'll begin introducing the candidates for city council in Fountain Inn, Greenville, Greer, Mauldin, Simpsonville, and Traveler's Rest. Each city has at least one contested council seat.

Katy Smith: If you live in one of our cities, of course we want you to vote. But some of you might like to really get involved in shaping the future of your city by supporting a candidate. I'm Katy Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and this episode of Simple Civics Greenville County is a repost of one of our most popular.

Katy Smith: You'll get specific, actionable tips on how to get involved in a campaign. Some are simple and free, and others require a bigger investment of money or time, but all pay big dividends for candidates and the issues they support, especially in a local election. Our producer Nathaniel DeSantis, founder of Podcast Studio X interviews Derek Lewis, who has run two successful races for Greenville County School Board, so he knows what it takes. Derek is also Executive Director of Greenville First Steps and Board Chair of Greater Good Greenville. And if you live within city limits, please don't forget to vote.

Nathaniel DeSantis: I'm excited to be here today with Derek Lewis to talk about campaigns. And let's just jump right into it.

Easy, Low-Cost Ways to Support a Local Candidate

Nathaniel DeSantis: Now, let's say I want to casually get involved with a campaign and with a candidate. It's my first campaign I'd ever wanted to get involved in. And I just want to dip my toes into the water, see what it's like. What do I do?

Derek Lewis: So I think one is to find the right candidate, somebody that you are actually happy to see running. The very first campaign I got involved with was a friend of mine who happened to also have worked at YMCA Camp Greenville with me and was running for the Senate. And I was just thrilled that somebody I knew was running for office.

Derek Lewis: And so just finding the right people, I think, is a really important first step. And I think the podcasts that you guys have helped to put on are a great way for people to meet candidates, at least virtually, and hear which candidates really stand for the issues that are important. So the first thing is to find those people who are a good fit for you.

Derek Lewis: I think once you find them, signs don't vote is one of the most common phrases that campaign managers will tell you. Just because a sign's out in somebody's yard doesn't mean that that person is going to win that street, 50 signs to one sign. But signs make a difference. And as you drive up and down a street, if you see 50 of one campaign's sign and one of the other campaign's sign, it does give the impression to people who may not live on that street that that person is favored significantly over the other candidate.

Derek Lewis: And so just putting a sign in your yard is a really important way to tell the candidate and to tell your neighbors, this person is important enough to me that I'm willing to devote part of my yard space to celebrating that campaign. But the other thing that really makes a difference is social media. Most candidates can't afford to buy a mailer. They're not going to get covered on the front page of the newspaper. They're not getting interviewed by major media outlets. They're really trusting on word of mouth to get them across that finish line.

Derek Lewis: And so if you see a candidate put something on social media and you agree with it, just liking it or just sharing it is a really great way to say, I value what this person is saying enough to just agree with them. And it makes a big difference. People look at those likes and shares almost as if you're vouching for that person. So it's just a great way that you can just get a little bit involved. And you don't have to like everything they say, but you can like just some of it.

Nathaniel DeSantis: And to add on top of that, it also helps with the algorithm. So it helps share it beyond just your network and who you're liking it. But yes, the infamous algorithms will pick up on the fact that more people are liking that. And I want to just add on top of your yard signs is another really easy way is stickers on your car. If your candidates have a sticker, that's another really easy thing you can do.

Nathaniel DeSantis: I've worked for a few campaigns and that was a strategy where we would hand out car stickers, the waterproof ones. And it's another really easy non-committal way to just support a candidate and get their name out.

Derek Lewis: The especially back to the algorithms too, the really smart candidates are the ones who figure out how to say 20 things a week and only five of them are political. But five are pictures of my dog and five are pictures of me and my family. And so even if those are the ones you like, you don't have to necessarily like their position on millage rate increases. But if you just like the picture of them at the fall festival with their dog, those things also make a difference.

Making a Bigger Impact: The Power of Donations and Personal Endorsements

Nathaniel DeSantis: Exactly. So now let's say I'm a step up and I'm a little bit more committed to a candidate and their campaign. What do I do in that situation?

Derek Lewis: So I would say the most important thing you can do is donate money to a candidate because right now the candidates are going to be at a place where if they have an extra $4,000 in the bank, which would be 50 people given a little bit of money, they could buy a mailer that maybe they weren't thinking about buying, or they could buy $4,000 worth of sponsored posts on social media. They could do a lot with $4,000 that maybe wasn't on their budget list of things they thought they could afford.

Derek Lewis: So a $50, $100 donation to a candidate makes a huge difference. Also it makes a difference because that candidate can tell people if you give them permission, these are the people who are supporting my campaign. And those donations really help people understand, oh, these 25 people supported Derek Lewis therefore if I like these 25 people I would also want to support Derek. So it really just shows that you're putting your money where your mouth is. And again, fifty dollars, a hundred dollars makes a huge difference to a candidate.

Derek Lewis: The other thing, though, is it's a numbers game. And so a candidate's got to get in front of people that they don't know and trust them to build a relationship enough with you that you would go out and vote for them and remember their name and go out and vote for them. So if a candidate can't knock on 11,000 doors and can't get 11,000 people to come to the front door and shake their hand, then you can help make that bridge happen by just sending out an email to 20 of your friends that says, "Hey, I just want you to know that this person is running for city council and I think they're an all right dude."

Derek Lewis: And you may not have met them yet but I've met them and I vouched for them. And those 20 people may never get to meet you but they've heard from somebody who can vouch for you.

Nathaniel DeSantis: It's the same idea where someone's more likely to buy a product if a friend recommends it. Just sharing it and vouching for them to your friend group. Do you have anything else to add to that?

Derek Lewis: No, just the weirdest thing for me when I was running my first campaign was we would start paying attention to things you never paid attention to before, like who has signs in their yards and who has your signs in their yard. And it's so weird, one, to see your name on a sign in someone's yard. It's super weird to see your name on a sign in someone's yard of a person you don't know.

Derek Lewis: And so you drive down the street and you're like, where did that person get a sign from? I don't even know who lives there. And you look it up and you're like, I don't even know these people. But somebody told somebody that this person is a good person and they went and found a sign and are supporting you even though you've never met them before.

Going All-In: How to Host a Meet and Greet for a Candidate

Nathaniel DeSantis: Yeah, that's cool. All right. So let's say I am fully 100 percent committed to a candidate and I really want to help out their campaign. What do I do in that situation?

Derek Lewis: You want to throw a party at your house. That's the number one thing you want to do. You want to send out an email to 20 of your friends and say, "Hey, at 4 p.m. this Friday, come by my house for a glass of wine and meet so-and-so who's running for county council." Because, again, they may never come to the party, but being invited to that party may be that final thing they need to make that link. And so just being able to stick your neck out to throw a party or being able to just drive around and put out signs in people's yards or being willing to go door-to-door and talk to your neighbors, those are all important, but that party is really the thing that will get people to step across that line to meet that candidate.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Explain if you wanted to have a party, what is that like when you're actually there?

Derek Lewis: So the first party we ever threw was actually a peanut party and so we just put out boiled peanuts and beer and wine and soft drinks and people dropped in and they stayed for 15 minutes and they shook the candidate's hand and they left and most people didn't stay for very long. So the whole party lasted an hour. And so it's not really a party. It's really more of a meet and greet.

Derek Lewis: But it just needs to be long enough that people can just plan the time to just drop in, say hi, maybe grab a yard sign, maybe make a donation and head out. Now, some people have put on some really large scale events this year that I've seen where people have spent multiple hours. But I think it's just it's really just about providing that opportunity.

Nathaniel DeSantis: So let's say I want to host a party for a candidate and I want to invite 20 of my friends. How do I go about explaining to them how this party goes?

Derek Lewis: So I think that the really important thing is it's the link between you and the candidate that's really helping to open doors for people. One of the things they used to tell me was you actually want to invite 100 people and hope that only five of them show up. Because then you're planning a party for five to 10 people, but 100 people heard that you cared so much about this candidate that you were going to have people over at your house or at the park down the street.

Derek Lewis: So it is actually a great way for people to learn about candidates because you can come and just hear what this candidate has to say that's important. You can ask them questions that maybe they haven't posted on their Facebook or on their social media or on their website. And you can make a decision whether this person is a good fit for you.

Derek Lewis: In fact, we on our street, we have a couple of folks who are endorsing a different candidate than I would throw a party for. But we invited them to our house for the party because I want them to meet this person and to decide, did you choose to endorse one person because they were fine? Or did you get to meet both candidates and really make a decision about which one is best for you? I want people to have more information than have less information. And so I think people should be encouraged to come, even if they're not certain they're going to support that person or not.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Absolutely. And I'll say that from my experience doing this podcast with Katy, what I've noticed is that there's a way that candidates are presented to us online and through the media and through just rumors and word of mouth. And then there's the way that the candidates actually present themselves and unless you get that personal face-to-face you don't really get to see that. So inviting your friends over to actually get to see them and discuss with them and hear their thoughts and their ideas for whatever position they're running for is a really powerful way to humanize the candidate and especially if you're really fully committed to them.

Finding Your Candidate: How to Research Local Politicians

Nathaniel DeSantis: And then the last question is, how do I find a candidate? Very simple question, but there are lots of ways to do it. So if you could elaborate on that for everyone listening.

Derek Lewis: So the first thing I would say, if you're looking for candidates is to go back and listen to the podcasts that we've recorded over the last nine months, because I just think they are really exceptional. And the one thing I appreciate about the podcast is they asked all the candidates running for the races, the same questions. And so you can trust that there weren't gotcha questions. There weren't hidden questions. You knew coming into it, what difference do you want to make in our community and how are you going to do it?

Derek Lewis: And to me, if a candidate can't clearly articulate those things, they probably need to be a little bit more thoughtful about why it is they're running. So it really helps to filter out candidates. From there, I think you can go and find their websites. Most candidates, though, don't have formal, flashy, fancy websites. They may just have a Facebook page.

Derek Lewis: But you can go back into their Facebook page or their political page that they've created and really see what are their priorities, where have they been to talk about their priorities, who are they spending time with as they're campaigning, and really just find people that are a good fit. But the other thing is to look at those candidates' pages and see who's liking and commenting on their stuff because you'll find, oh, I didn't even know who was running for probate judge, but I know that I like these 12 people and they all seem to resonate to this candidate. And so even though you may not have met a candidate, you may be able to look through likes and comments, shares to see which candidate seems more likely to resonate with people you respect.

Nathaniel DeSantis: And then I'll add on top of that, because I have to get all the websites for the podcast description in the show. Sometimes you can't find a Facebook or a website. The last resort, check on LinkedIn. It's not formal in the sense that they're advertising their campaign there, but you can generally find all the candidates there, see their experience, their educational background. What are they up to now? And that's good to supplement in addition to the other ones if you can't find them. And I agree wholeheartedly. Listen to the podcast.

Derek Lewis: The thing that I think most people don't understand is that most of the candidates running for local races didn't raise a million dollars. Maybe if you get into a county council race or you get into a state house or Senate race, maybe those people are raising six figures to run a campaign. School board members are running a campaign off of $3,000, $5,000. If you've got $8,000, you're running a well-funded campaign.

Derek Lewis: And so they may not have $3,000 to pay somebody to build a website and to do that because they may have chosen to use all that money to send out one mailer that's going to go out one time, and they're hoping that that's going to get it. They may not have good advice coming from their campaign managers about how to get a presence out. And so, I think the podcast really do provide an opportunity for people to hear from candidates that maybe don't have as well-funded a campaign or as well-formulated a campaign strategy.

Beyond Financial Support: Using Your Professional Skills to Help a Campaign

Nathaniel DeSantis: And to add on to those who are fully committed to a campaign, I'd say even look at what is your area of expertise. So going off what you said, if you know how to make a website and you really care for a candidate and they don't have a website, well, that's something you can do for them. You can help them out with that with your area of expertise. Instead of if you don't want to put money down or donate, you can help their campaign. If you are a phenomenal writer, you can help draft coffee to put on social media for them or on their Facebook or their website. So there are other ways to use what knowledge you have to potentially help candidates as well.

Derek Lewis: That's a really good example. When we ran our campaign, we needed a photographer to take some pictures of our family. We had people that volunteered to do that for us because they knew how to make them look better than us just using our iPhone to take pictures. We had people who worked for a printing company that printed napkins for us with our logo on it. Things that we would never put in our budget of things we'd want to spend. So you're right, there are things that can really help boost someone's campaign that may be within your wheelhouse of ways to help them.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Well, Derek, thank you very much, as always, for coming on to the podcast. And if you have anything else to add, now is the time to add that.

Derek Lewis: No, I just thank you guys for doing the podcast. I think it's been such a great way to ensure that all candidates get the same opportunity for equal exposure. And I just think it's such a great thing that we've offered to the community.

Nathaniel DeSantis: Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you again for coming on.