All Work and all Play

Presidential Campaign Speechwriter shows you can have it all

Most college students have accepted that they will have to make sacrifices to be successful, this
is true, but if youre passionate about what you do, they stop feeling so much like sacrifices.
Presidential campaign speechwriter Lindsay Hayes said that she would do her job for free. That
was key to getting her through several month blocks without a full nights sleep. She has written
speeches for Mitt Romney as well as Sarah Palin.
She began her career working in PR for high tech companies. She worked at Motorola, in the
office of the CEO. Hayes says she felt like the job did not reflect her skillset and was miserable
there so she sought out new opportunities.
Hayes said she did not know that a campaign speechwriter was even a job for a long time. A lot
of people dont have speech writers. She got a meeting with a potential employer and brought
samples of her work. Hayes said People dont know you exist. Speech writing is not a highly
publicized job; she had to seek out her own opportunities when she was first starting out. As
she became more highly classified people would come looking for her to work for them.
Hayes said she does not ever feel like she is missing out on more free time or a more extensive
social life while dealing with the demands of being on the campaign trail. Hayes says that she
really likes her job. Hayes said Find a job that you would do for free and then dont tell anyone
that you would do it for free. Both she and her husband own their own businesses, so they are
able to be flexible. Hayes business is RedPath writing firm, where she writes for a variety of
different clients, not only politicians.
Working in politics is on and off, depending on the election cycle. After her candidate has lost,
Hayes says she can sit in her pajamas for two weeks straight and relax. She sometimes
wonders why her friends don;t have time to hang out at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday.
She makes a point to stay out of the spotlight so the politician can be the focus. She has no
presence on social media and never has.
Late Beginnings
Hayes was 25 when she began her first speech related internship. She was described as the
oldest living intern.

On her first day the staff forgot she was coming, but that was before she accidentally got to see
the VP and the political consultant that was her hero, Mary Matilan.
She was doing research for speech writers for the Bush administration. She learned a lot about
being thorough and making sure everything was factual.
While doing the internship she was also teaching, and taking the latest night class in pursuit of
her PhD in rhetoric and political culture. She later worked as a speechwriter on Capitol Hill for
Alaskan senator for four and a half years.
She eventually became the senior speech writer for the Republican National Convention. It was
there that the chief speechwriter for the McCain Palin campaign asked her if she would like to sit
behind the stage for McCains speech. After Palin electrified the convention the chief
speechwriter asked How would you like to get on a plane with Sarah Palin?

After a few days she did get on that plane.

When asked about her stances compared with the politicians Hayes said Im not going to agree
100 percent on all things all the time.
She looks to work with candidates that she can agree with about 85 percent of the time. She
has sought out certain politicians herself that she wanted to write for.
She tries to work out middle ground with the client and if they cant come to an agreement on a
particular stance she will recommend someone else.
Hayes says that the best speeches can come out of the speechwriter and the politician not
agreeing, I am the skeptical audience.

She did not even plan to work on the 2012 presidential election, she was working on her
doctorate and then the call came. Romney campaign spokesperson RIck Gorka told ABC News
in a statement, Were very happy to have her on board and she will be a tremendous asset to
our campaign team.

Romney wasnt built in a day

Hayes says traveling with candidates is exhausting. The primary election is particularly draining
because the staff is skeletal and she may be the only speechwriter. She is able to get to know
the client very well and is able to write for him or her. The process is very collaborative with the
politician, where they have a lot of input.
The general election is very unpredictable where anything can happen. She does not know the
fate of the candidate, and unexpected crises can come up that she has to be able to adapt to

and respond accordingly.

Her process she says is messy. It starts with eating, doing laundry, and scrubbing already
clean pots. She has many notebooks with different ideas as well. Hayes spends a lot of time
thinking through the approach before she begins to write.
Not having a blank page is crucial to beginning the speech writing process. Having an outline
helps her to have a sense of flow. She reads her speeches out loud many times to make sure
those things that sound good on paper also translate well when spoken.

Quit While Youre Ahead

Though Hayes has a very successful speech writing career she says I dont think Ill be a
speech writer forever. In 2014 Hayes decided to move on from speech writing, she helped Ron
Paul with his new book The Way Forward which was released last August. I want to be
writing, work that matters. Hayes is currently working on her own book about the impact of
women in politics.
If you dont have anything to say theres a problem. She has spent a lot of time learning how
other people think and conveying their messages but now she is working on forming her own
voice.

###

Kayla Tarrant
COMM231
June 30, 2015

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