Movers and Shakers: Nick Ayers

At 26 years old, Nick Ayers is hoping to lead a revolution at the RGA in time for 2010...

Politics:You got your start in Georgia on a campaign that most people thought would fail. How did that bring you to the Republican Governors Association?  
Ayers: Well, in 2001 most of the professionals didn’t think Sonny Perdue had a chance in his race for governor, so he put together a campaign team that was more like the Bad News Bears. It was made up of a bunch of hungry young folks who really were in it for the right reasons. I think he and I clocked over 300 hours in his small airplane, flying around the state campaigning. When he was elected, I helped lead the political efforts during his first term, and it was after his reelection that Sonny asked me to come to the RGA. He was taking over as chairman. I really had nothing to lose in the sense that I thought I was only going to be there for a year, so I wrote this four-year plan. I recommended that we spend the first two years focusing more on 2009 and 2010. I wanted to grow our donor base and stop investing in every race every year and only invest in the competitive races.

Politics: Was your age ever an issue?
Ayers: For me, personally, age has never been a factor. I managed my first campaign at 23, and I was executive director of the RGA at 24. What I recognize, though, is that because I’m young it’s all the more reason to base my recommendations and decisions on facts. I’ve been blessed to work for a group of governors who have always been more concerned about the work product as opposed to my age. I think when I became executive director of RGA it might have turned some heads, but over the past few years I’ve developed a good rapport with the Republican vendors and consultants. And oftentimes I lean on their expertise. You have to know when to be deferential to the folks who have been there and done that.

Politics: What resources has the RGA poured into Virginia and New Jersey?
Ayers: These are two incredibly tough states with Democratic governors so it’s a challenge. But I’m proud of the fact that the RGA has put our candidates in a position to win based on our early investments. We sent $2 million to Bob McDonnell in April, and in New Jersey our ads were the only ones up on TV besides Jon Corzine’s for most of the summer. Since Chris Christie’s on public fi nancing, we knew he wasn’t going to be able to go up on TV with a significant buy right away. We didn’t want Christie to be exposed to Corzine redefining himself and defining him throughout the summer.
 
Politics: How is that different than previous cycles?
Ayers: We used to spend all of our money every year, irrespective of how good the opportunity was. So we are in an unusually strong position this year, being able to make an unprecedented early investment in both states while going into 2010 with a significant amount of resources still in the bank. After spending $5 million in those two states, we still had over $25 million cash on hand. In the past, we weren’t planning for the next cycle and just spending with no regard for what came next. That was because we changed chairmen, executive directors and senior staff each year. You can’t run a committee that has a four year political cycle on an eleven-month operational period.
 
Politics: Given the current landscape, is it a failure if Republicans don’t win in New Jersey and Virginia?
Ayers: No, that’s crazy. I would make the opposite case—these are two must wins for Democrats. Here we have two governor’s races in two states that President Obama just won. Both states have sitting Democratic governors, one of whom is the current DNC chair. So I think it’s the Democrats who have a tough time explaining how they lose either one of these states. If we can steal one, the impact would be similar to 1993 when we won them both. Candidate recruitment for congressional races would be helped; so would party momentum and fundraising.

Politics: What have you done to keep the political staff at the RGA intact?
Ayers: It has been wholesale change by not having any change. The governors have built a relationship with our team and after watching what we’ve done over the past two and a half years, they had enough confidence to entrust us with the all-important next 16 months. And that’s never happened. Our finance team has had much more continuity than in previous years, but it wasn’t a specific goal of mine to try to keep everyone. It was a specific goal of mine and the governors in December of 2006 to create a longer term plan for the RGA that was bigger than any one personality.

Politics: What’s the goal in terms of number of victories next year?
Ayers: Our goal is a simple one—getting our majority of Republican governors back. We’re going to be as aggressive as we possibly can in every competitive race in 2010. That may get us to 26 and achieve our goal; that could put us at 29 or 30. But anything beyond 26 is icing on the cake. Think about what would happen if we picked up Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio and Colorado. That has huge implications for the presidential race in 2012. There’s also a big impact on redistricting.

Politics: Looking at the 2010 map, where are the best opportunities?
Ayers: When you look at areas where we can go on offense because of the quality of our candidates, it’s places like Massachusetts where we have Charlie Baker, the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, running. He’s a bonafide expert on one of the biggest issues facing our country right now. Another place is Oklahoma where Mary Fallin, a two-term lieutenant governor, gives us an outstanding chance to pick up that state. In Pennsylvania we’ve got three extremely strong candidates. So because of the quality of our candidates we’re going to be able to go on offense in some areas that Republicans haven’t been able to compete in for a while—the Northeast, the Great Lakes, even the Midwest.
 
Politics: Did elevating Gov. Tim Pawlenty to vice chair have something to do with a desire for a non-Southern national figure?
Ayers: I think maybe geography played into some of it. But it was mostly relational in the sense that all of the Republican governors think very highly of Gov. Pawlenty and his leadership ability. They do think he will bring some geographical diversity too. And with us going on the offense in the Great Lakes—I think we can win Wisconsin and Michigan in 2010—it’s great to have a vice chair who has been elected and reelected from that region.

Nick Ayers is executive director of the Republican Governors Association. Prior to joining the RGA, Ayers worked on Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue’s campaigns and in the governor’s office.