Lobbyists are fanning out across the country this weekend and taking vacation Monday and Tuesday to knock on doors for favored candidates. | Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images ELECTIONS Lobbyists hit campaign trail to help old bosses, earn 'a little bit of currency' Knocking on doors is one way to strengthen a bond with elected officials. Some lobbyists also want to dabble in politics.

Members of Congress are getting help before Election Day from a tiny but influential subset of on-the-ground volunteers: Washington lobbyists eager to help their old bosses — and perhaps their own careers.

Lobbyists are fanning out across the country this weekend and taking vacation Monday and Tuesday to knock on doors for favored candidates, nearly a dozen of them said in interviews and emails.


Building relationships with lawmakers and their staffs is crucial to success on K Street, and spending a couple of days knocking on doors is one way to strengthen that bond. Some in the industry also remain close to old bosses on Capitol Hill or just want to get out of Washington and dabble in campaigning for a few days.

Some lobbyists are heading to competitive states and districts to help members of Congress who are facing close races. Others are hitting the road to canvass for Democratic challengers in districts that are an easy drive from Washington.

POLITICO Influence Intelligence and analysis on lobbying — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Karissa Willhite, a former deputy chief of staff to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) who’s now a lobbyist at Ogilvy Government Relations for clients including AT&T, Pfizer, Verizon and Wells Fargo, said she is heading to New Jersey this weekend with her husband, who’s also a lobbyist. The couple will help turn out voters for Menendez, who’s facing a stronger-than-expected challenge from pharmaceutical executive Bob Hugin. Ivan Zapien, a former Menendez former chief of staff who’s now a lobbyist at Hogan Lovells for Walmart and other clients, is heading to New Jersey, too.

“It just felt like a natural thing to go back and help him out,” said Willhite, who said she volunteered on Menendez’s last two campaigns as well.

Justin Rzepka, a lobbyist at BGR Group who represents clients including the Motion Picture Association of America and Samsung, is heading to Nevada to help GOP Sen. Dean Heller, who’s facing the toughest reelection fight of any Senate Republican. Brian McGuire, a former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who decamped for K Street last year, is going to Tennessee to help GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn campaign for an open Senate seat targeted by Democrats. And Izzy Klein, a lobbyist and former aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) before he became majority leader, will head to New Jersey to campaign for Mikie Sherrill, who’s running for an open House seat.

Lobbyists are well-known as avid fundraisers for members of Congress, but raising money becomes much less crucial in the final days of the campaign than making sure voters get to the polls. So, lobbyists who want to help have to head beyond the Beltway and into battleground states and districts.

Lobbyists privately admit that helping a member of Congress in the final days of the campaign can help maintain a valuable relationship.

“At heart, people who come downtown still are tied to their old jobs” on Capitol Hill, said one Democratic lobbyist. Campaigning with an old boss “does give you a little bit of currency — it refreshes you a little bit.”

Others came to Washington because they wanted to work in politics, and they now see campaigning as a way to stay involved — if only for a few days each cycle.

One longtime Republican lobbyist, who said half his firm would be out campaigning in the final days of the race, likened lobbyists’ motivation to hit the campaign trail to the reason people go to Red Sox or Yankees games in the playoffs.

“You want to be there on election night for the win,” the Republican lobbyist said. “It’s exciting.”

Longtime senators and congressmen often have former aides working on K Street who form a sort of extended family — and like a family, members try to help each other out when one of them is under threat. “I don’t want to say you’re expected to go back [and campaign], but it’s your family,” the Republican lobbyist said. “You help your family.”

Lobbyists can be particularly eager to hit the campaign trail when one of their party’s leaders is in trouble. When McConnell faced a tough reelection fight in 2014, lobbyists who consider themselves part of the “Mc-family” descended on Kentucky sporting “Team Mitch” T-shirts to help get out the vote.

On occasion, lobbyists go to greater lengths to aid their favorite candidates. Susie Wiles, a top lobbyist at Ballard Partners who managed President Donald Trump’s Florida campaign in 2016, took a leave of absence in September to head up GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaign in Florida. Brian Ballard, the firm’s president, has been closely involved in fundraising for DeSantis and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who’s running for Senate.

Paul Weiss, a lobbyist with Prime Policy Group, sent an email Wednesday to friends and family urging them to vote for Menendez, even though he’s never worked for the senator.

“Senator Menendez is sharp and industrious,” Weiss wrote. “He makes me even more proud to be from the great State of New Jersey! He deserves your support. Spread the word. Participate now through next Tuesday. Vote.”

While lobbyists often head to their home states to campaign if there’s a competitive race, others pick a destination closer to home.

Two lobbyists, Jesse Barba of Cassidy & Associates and John Sonsalla of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, started Electing a Democratic Generation after the 2016 election to encourage millennials on K Street and elsewhere to support Democratic candidates.

The group has been running a get-out-the-vote program for the past few weeks in House districts within easy driving distance of Washington. Barba and Sonsalla estimate their volunteers have knocked on more than 7,000 doors in support of Andy Kim, who’s challenging Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.); Abigail Spanberger, who’s running against Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.); and Susan Wild, who’s running for an open seat in Pennsylvania.

More than two dozen K Street types have signed up to help, according to the group, including some who work at top lobbying firms such as Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Holland & Knight and in the Washington offices of companies such as Amazon, Geico, IBM and National Grid.

Kevin Brennan, a lobbyist at Faegre Baker Daniels who once worked for Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), said his old boss’ campaign was going well enough that he’d decided to go to Virginia to volunteer for Spanberger instead.

“I did for his last re-election and was planning to go out this weekend too,” Brennan wrote in an email to POLITICO. “But since he looks good, I’m taking my 10-year-old twins to canvass for Abigail Spanberger.”

One longtime lobbyist was succinct in an email about why the Spanberger race appears to be particularly popular with Democratic lobbyists: “Attractive candidate, serious chance to win, did not require a flight.”

