Important advice to candidates for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is Sunday.  What activities do you have planned for your campaign?

The answer better be a resounding NOTHING!

Mother’s Day is considered an unofficial holiday in the United States.  Candidates who actively campaign on Mother’s Day come off as un-American and worse – they appear not to love their mothers.

A candidate that doesn’t appear to care for their mom engenders bad feelings and ill will amongst the voters.  They instinctively believe there’s something wrong with you.  It leads to distrust.

Voters don’t elect candidates to office that they distrust.  

That’s why you never ever ever actively campaign on unofficial holidays.

For a full list of unofficial holidays and why you should never actively campaign on them, read this article.

Now if you’ve been paying close attention, you noticed that I’ve placed the adverb “actively” before verb “campaign.”

That’s right you never actively campaign on Mother’s Day.

You don’t walk precincts.  You don’t make phone calls.  You don’t send emails.

You let Mother’s Day be a day only about mom and resume your campaign full throttle on Monday.

But just because you’re not actively campaigning on Mother’s Day, that doesn’t mean you’re not campaigning at all.

Once upon a time it did, but now with Social Media there is a campaign component to Mother’s Day.

It’s very subtle and it’s very important.

Just as you can turn off voters and get them to distrust you by soliciting their votes on Mother’s Day, you can also build trust and connection with them on this unofficial holiday.

Mother’s Day is probably the most important and emotional unofficial holiday we have.

When I was in college I worked as a waiter at Red Lobster.  Yes I know how many calories come in those tasty cheese biscuits and advise never having more than one with your meal if that!  But I digress.

Mother’s Day was one of our three busiest days.  New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day were the other two.

On Mother’s Day people would wait for hours to get a table.  I mean hours.  And they’d be there lined up at the front doors before the doors even opened.  That’s how important taking mom out to Mother’s Day is for a vast majority of Americans.

Years later I was reminded of this when Facebook exploded across our country and our planet.

On Mother’s Day my news feed filled up with pictures of mom.  The political sniping, cat memes, and Star Wars spoilers vanished for a day.  The Power of Mom overcame all other social media interactions.

And on this Mother’s Day, you need to put the Power of Mom to work for you.

You need to post something about your mom on Mother’s Day on all of your social media accounts, personal and campaign related?

Why?  It’s not just to follow the crowd and ride the Mother’s Day wave.  It’s to show you’re someone who cares for their mom and understands how special she and this day is.

If you’re spending time with your mom on Mother’s Day, take a picture or video with her and post it to your accounts.

If you’re not with your mom, post a picture of her (or you and her at some point in your life) and post a picture or video about how important your mother is to you.

If your mother is no longer with us, Mother’s Day may be a more emotional day with that void in your life.  I understand that and recommend that you post a picture of your mom (or you with your mom) and state how much she meant to you and influenced your life.

Also, if you’re a man and your wife is also a mother, it’s great to give her a shout out on social media as well.  The same goes for your sisters and sisters in law that might be mom’s too.

Showing your care for moms on Mother’s Day is a good way to emotionally connect with voters.

It’s also a good way for you to take a well-deserved day off of your campaign and realize that as important as running for office may be, there are some things that will be always be more important and can’t be replaced.

Like mom.