I personally do understand how political careers work in Berlin where I’m living, but I don’t think you can easily transfer that to the US.
In a political system where the local political party controls the list of candidates, it’s indeed central to interact with the local party.
In the US you frequently have situations where there are primaries that determine the candidates of a given party which produces different incentives. That dramatically reduces the political power of the actual political parties.
One example is that it was advantageous for Obama to end Dean’s 50 state strategy that provided local funding all over the US because Obama didn’t have direct control over the party. Obama campaign created their own campaign structures independent from the democratic party that could then be used more directly to mobilize for the interests of the Obama administration.
I personally do understand how political careers work in Berlin where I’m living, but I don’t think you can easily transfer that to the US.
In a political system where the local political party controls the list of candidates, it’s indeed central to interact with the local party.
In the US you frequently have situations where there are primaries that determine the candidates of a given party which produces different incentives. That dramatically reduces the political power of the actual political parties.
One example is that it was advantageous for Obama to end Dean’s 50 state strategy that provided local funding all over the US because Obama didn’t have direct control over the party. Obama campaign created their own campaign structures independent from the democratic party that could then be used more directly to mobilize for the interests of the Obama administration.