The Talking Points Presidential Election

I’ve always stressed the importance of talking points to people who reported to me, emphasizing that I would rather they get a 300 word placement with client talking points than a 1000 word placement without talking points. The reason I feel that way should be obvious to anyone in our business – talking points convey the client’s message, and that's what they expect PR agencies to deliver.

Talking points have been used as an integral part of both Vice President Kamala Harris’ and former President Donald Trump’s outreach to the American public, because if they are used effectively, meaning they are constantly repeated, it is believed that the repetition could influence voters. That’s why entities spend millions of dollars repeating the same commercial. Advertisers believe that repetition works.

Some of Ms. Harris’ talking points are helping small businesses, bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S, creating millions of new jobs, blaming Trump for blocking immigration reform, attaching him to Project 2025 and for his part in ending Roe v. Wade, which she says has endangered the life of women and resulted in the death of some.  All credible talk points.

Mr. Trump’s main talking points are that the Democrats are responsible for allowing open borders that permit thugs to enter the U.S. that have devastated our cities, that there has been an increase in violent crime since he left office, that Haitian’s are eating people’s pets, that inflation was under control when he was president, that there were no Russia-Ukraine or Israel-Hamas wars while he was president, and that Democrats favor the "execution" of babies "after birth. Some credible and some not credible talking points.

In our business a major challenge that PR practitioners face is how to use the same talking points using different verbiage, so it appears that journalists are hearing something new when interviewing a client.

What I would do is ask the client to write down, in order, what points are most important. Since 99 times out a 100, a savvy PR practitioner can 

anticipate the questions that a journalist will ask, we would rehearse answers to the anticipated questions. T would advise the client to be very expansive and to include many details in answers, thus making it easier to include the talking points as part of the expansive and detailed answers. (An answer that includes many details permits a reporter to create a story that is different from other journalists.)

Since most reporters only have a general knowledge of the beat they cover, the exception being dedicated financial and business reporters, providing explicit details also provides a way for the client to control the interview, because most reporters expect general answers to their questions, not specific details that they are unaware of. 

My first public relations job was with a political PR firm, where I worked on campaigns ranging from local assembly races to presidential campaigns.

In those long past days and more recent ones, I always used “the top three talking points strategy,” because emphasizing too many talking points might make a reporter say, “Let me put you in touch with our advertising manager,” or as happened to one account exec I knew, after an interview he arranged wasn’t used, the reporter mailed him an advertising rate sheet.

No where has the importance of sticking to talking points been more apparent than during this year’s presidential election, where both candidates are campaigning in broad strokes.

Ms. Harris has been criticized for sticking to her talking points during her interviews and rallies. But the criticism of her is similar to a slap on the wrist compared to the media criticism that Mr. Trump is receiving for his comments, because many of the former president’s talking points are outlandish and are easy for fact checkers to prove they are untrue,

Mr. Trump often beings his media appearances and at rallies with credible talking points about issues that Americans care about – immigration, crime and cost of living. But he is unable to remain on those topics for more than a few minutes before he rants about how unfairly he is being persecuted and how he will retaliate against his enemies when elected, issues like Haitian’s eating people’s pets, Kamala Harris being a communist, immigrants spoiling the blood of Americans, even though his grandfather was an illegal immigrant, and how Jews in America can cost him the election, even though they are only 2 percent of the population and the same thing can be said of other minorities who greatly outnumber Jews. 

Much more than in past presidential elections, where candidates provided more detailed information regarding their positions, thus far this year’s election can be accurately called a “Talking Points Election,” because neither candidate has provided detailed answers to how they would handle situations.

If there’s one important take-a-way from Ms. Harris’ and Mr. Trump’s campaign strategy that PR pros should remember when preparing clients for interviews, it’s that it’s much easier for people to remember several talking points than a detailed explanation of an issue.