The Art Of Political Negotiation To Win In 2024

Winning races by Political negotiation

April 9, 2023

Val Ojeda, Writer

A political Commentary

What's one of the biggest obstructions that we have in the Illinois Republican Party?

It's election interference. I'm not talking about what then Hillary Clinton accused President Trump of working with the Russians to steal the 2016 presidential race. 

It's about the organized effort by the “leaders” of the GOP to remove quality grassroots candidates from running for office.

Case in point:

After two years of campaigning, then gubernatorial candidate Gary Rabine issued a video on social media that the party elders approached him to discuss dropping out of the race to step aside for Mayor Richard Irvin, a Democrat recruited by the Illinois GOP at the direction of political consultant Mike Z former advisor to former Governor Bruce Rauner.

Rabine politely told them to kiss his ass. They leaned on him to leave the race feeling that Irvin was the best choice, and later you saw what happened in the primary even after he spent 50 million dollars. Irvin lost because he was not a true conservative, but a liberal Democrat who promoted abortion and did not fall in line with our Republican principles. Instead, it was a loss so devastating to the Illinois GOP junta that they have yet to ever recover from this loss even after 500 of GOP leaders and elected officials endorsed Irvin. 

What's sad is that after Bailey won the primary all 500 failed to support or endorse him classifying him as "extremist"!

What gives the right to these “party” elders to be in the back of a low lit smoky back room with cigars hanging from their mouths making choices about who is going to run for office then intimidating those they don't like?

In their wisdom, since the Tea Party was created, this is precisely what is happening with the leadership of the GOP from the Chairman down to the county level central committees. I've seen it firsthand. 

Just this week, I had three phone calls from candidates in Illinois requesting my consultation that want to run for Congress. These candidates never met each other, but they had a common question for me. 

One candidate is from western Illinois, the other is in central Illinois, while the other is in Chicago. The question was, if they ran, will there be any obstruction from the party if they declared their candidacy. 

Now remember according to the Constitution they don't need permission from anyone to run. It's their choice!

I reassured them that at a federal level that the RNC, the Republican National Congressional Committee are watching and waiting on who wins the primaries and they are monitoring a qualified contender to win in 2024. 

I spoke to James Zen, the field director for the RNCC Central States, the GOP arm of the Congressional caucus just last week on how they will support candidates. He, on behalf of Speaker McCarthy, will not be cherry-picking candidates.

However, that's what's being done in Illinois by the GOP. Cherry-picking the worst moderate RINO candidates for office. Kathy Salvi is a perfect example. I am convinced they recruited her to run for office to disrupt the GOP primary of quality Republican candidates like Bobby Piton and Peggy Hubbard. Salvi won the primary only to deliver a win to Sen. Tammy Duck Worthless.

We also saw this with Esther Joy King in the 17th Congressional District. Led by the evil Jan Weber, the State Central Committeeman in the 17th District, the party leaders rallied around this RINO establishment candidate recruited by her friend Adam Kinzinger to run for Congress. She was also endorsed by her friend, the chief RINO Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who fought to impeach President Trump.

The 17th had a more qualified candidate who was supported by Trump and the grassroots. But nope, Webber organized an effort to shut out Charlie Helmick, a Marine business owner and Trump supporter, to run. She instructed every GOP organization to lock him out from speaking or even attending events. 

They were ruthless attacking Charlie, even offering endorsements a full year before the primary. Even after all these efforts and then attacking a great man, their choice, King suffered a horrible loss to a newcomer gay media personality who's sitting in Congress right now while King is crying on the shoulders of RINOs Jan Weber and Kinzinger. I predicted her loss a mile away.

Now that Esther has been banished from the Conservative base she is now promoting Vivek Ramswany for President because she is against America First and the grassroots support for Trump.

In a media event she went as far as bashing his policies when she ran for Congress.

I had a face to face with her in East Moline after I gave a speech to several hundred Trump supporters one year ago.

She appeared at the event not get support for her Congressional campaign but to attack me personally for my support of the President right after my speech.

She stomped in the event with her expensive shoes and dress looking like royalty setting her apart from us grassroots conservatives.

In her attack which stunned many that were present she used foul language against me revealing who she really was. I responded in kind true Val fashion using my foul language throwing it back to her calling her out as a fake RINO. Emberrased she walked away trying to damage control.

It was to late. The people discovered who she really was. The RINO elite!

As a supporter of life and who is anti-abortion in any case, I always explained to people in my speeches and writings that how many Albert Einstein's or Aristotle's have we lost to abortion since Roe vs. Wade was ruled on. 50 million abortions later, of these needless deaths could if we had one of the aborted lives give us the cure for cancer or new technologies to better our future.

I adopt that principle to politics. The Illinois GOP is aborting quality grassroots Republicans to promote their new agenda. 

You see, under the direction of Chairman Don Tracy, the Illinois GOP feels it's time to unify with the Democrats to get business done in a “Blue state” even supporting abortion to “win” races. 

The Unity Part working with Democrats. As a matter of fact former Sen. Mark Kirk and former GOP Chairman Dan Brady are negotiating and brokering deals now to do just this. 

Now how stupid is that?

No, we do not bend our Conservative principles and Republican ideologies to win races. As a matter of fact, it's time to do the opposite. 

It's time that the party realizes that 85% of the Republican voters are supporters of the Constitution and Trump. They love their guns, free speech and their individual rights. 

So now it's time to excommunicate the moderates and RINOs from the party. I mean throw them out to the street and let the Democrats have them because they are few in numbers.

As I type this, the wheels are in motion to take out any GOP leaders who even think about "cherry-picking” candidates. The days of “vetting” and talking to candidates into dropping out for the good of the party to make way for one of their own are over. 

I experienced this in 2021 with a county Chairman who in a drunken rage in an early morning phone call to a candidate threatened to run her out of the party if she ran for Illinois Senate in the 49th District. He said that anyone that ran for office needed his permission and blessing in order to run in his county. He was the one making decisions on who was going to run.

Because I was managing this candidate I called him directly after his drunken call to her and shut him down challenging him to threaten me instead. He folded like a wet towel after I spoke to him. I explained to him that we had no intention to quit that campaign to make room for his choice. As a matter of fact we cared less what the party thought.

Instead we continued campaigning and my client Stacey Keagle won her primary against two other GOP backed candidates.

I'm sick and tired of these bullies scaring away quality candidates only for them to promote their RINO kind, only to lose races. 

Last year I came to the defense of many candidates that were primaries by establishment candidates set up by the GOP leadership to defeat patriots such as Connie Cain in the 66th House and Phil Nagel in the 40th Senate. In both cases, the Party dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars to take them out because they supported Darren Bailey for Governor. 

I consulted both of these campaigns. In Nagels case, I investigated and found out the SRO the Senate Republican Majority pick was Kristina Vela who was arrested many times, including for Domestic Battery and was Black Lives Matter. As a matter of fact, I found pictures of her demonstrating with BLM signs against the Police.

Former Senate Minority leader McConchie had a lapdog named Nick McNeely, his legislative director recruited Vela, a DEMOCRAT because, in their wisdom, she aligned best to their ideals. It didn't hurt that Vela dressed like she was an extra in the movie Dirty Dancing revealing her cleavage to buy votes. Oh, by the way, McNeely is a Libertarian and not even a Republican!

They hated the fact Phil was pro-Bailey and Trump. They hated the fact Phil was anti-abortion, and look what happened later.

Later, Phil won the primary by 85% as I predicted. In a sense, it wasn't Phil campaigning against Vela, it was me campaigning against the GOP RINO Moderate establishment being McConchie. 

The same happened when I consulted Connie Cain in the 66th. The House choice, under the leadership of former leader Jim Durkin, was Arin Thrower. They flooded her district with opposition mailers. We hit back with a Cyber campaign and effective strategy and constant email blasting. Instead of mailers, we instituted directed text blasting and marketing and a great ground game. Pure campaign strategy which the House organization had none of.

In a real upset that surprised even Durkin, Connie, the grassroots candidate, won by just 58 votes. Durkin himself congratulated Connie for her hard working winning the primary.

Then came this…..

I received a call from Joshua Alvarado last year, who was running for Illinois Senate against an establishment RINO. He explained to me that the local GOP organization attacked him for his appearance, spreading rumors that he was a Democrat. 

You see Josh as most veterans do wears a beard and longer hair. To them they were put off by it.

After helping him direct a public statement, I went on the warpath defending this veteran of the Iraq war who was so severely wounded he had multiple operations to save him and is disabled. 

Later, the GOP organization and its leaders apologized to this proud Army war veteran. 

Another candidate that I managed, Christine Shanahan McGovern in the 18th Senate District was instructed by the Illinois Senate Republican Organization to campaign as a lefty moderate. She had rules not to support Bailey or Trump. To stay silent on the abortion issue. She was also instructed to not attend any Back the Blue rallies.

She refused and won her primary race.

The time is over for them to negotiate with us. Now we are the negotiators. 

We have learned from the chief negotiator of them all, Trump, who invented the Art of the Deal. So let me help you navigate and negotiate.

Over are the "chosen ones" making decisions for us. It's time that I share with you the art of negotiation. As the mob calls them a "sit-down"

To negotiate political deals and win facing down the establishment leaders and others.

I am a former detective, working on thousands of cases. I've interviewed and solicited confessions from hardened and smart criminals. You have to be good because they know the system. 

I've had the best training the country has offered. It's required in service training. Investigative training from white collar crime to homicides. I've attended federal interview and interrogation training. John Reid and Wiklander Zulawski instructor level interview training. I know all the tricks to the trade to get a confession. It's psychology. 

I've caught many friends lying to me with tell-tale body language signs and the use of neurolinguistics as they are the one best to practice with them unknowingly. Especially the friend who dated a "supermodel"

With suspects, you interview, it's a game of cat and mouse. You gain their trust. Pump them full of soda or coffee and not allow them to use the bathroom. Letting them wait in silence for hours. Then dropping the hammer by leading them into confessing. It's like playing chess, but not checkers. It's a strategy. You always want to win!

In other cases you gain their confidence by being nice and buying them lunch and promising to help them versus locking them up. They open up. 

So, you want to negotiate and come out the winner? Here, let me help you.

BE HUMBLE AND READY TO WIN!

Visit any city like LA or New York and ask someone if they know who you are. 100% of the time they won't. 

You may be “Facebook '' famous with a few thousand friends, but outside of social media, people won't even look your way, let alone compliment your FB posts. Some people are celebrities in their minds. 

Just recently a FaceBook famous candidate ran for office without campaigning depending on her name and likeness to get elected and she lost including her entire slate. 

I have 1.1 million followers in northern Illinois and if I ran for office I would never depend on my name alone. Look what happened to famous celebrities that ran for office and lost. 

When you are ever going to enter negotiations, whether it's in business or politics, don't expect to walk away with a deal because of your “reputation”. Many are unaware you have one. 

So become a billboard and make the sale. Educate people about who you are. Never brag or, God forbid, even lie to build your resume as they will find you out. Focus on your education and life experiences. 

Show people your failures and how you have learned from your failures, making you a better person. Admit everything no matter how dark it is. 

Let them know what you have done to help others, so they can avoid the same mistakes. 

Many leaders can relate as they have failed time and time again only to catch a break and succeed in life and help others. They look down on people who talk great about themselves or are above others. 

To negotiate with a person like that will end up breaking the negotiation. It is always wise to show you are humble and still have a lot to learn.

ENTER PREPARED AND READY

Never enter a negotiation unprepared. 

It’s not brave, or something to show off about. It’s just plain stupid. So, what does going on preparation mean? It means going in without tunnel vision. You need to be aware of and have answers to every objection and scenario that can play out in front of you. 

Materials and “evidence” like statistics, figures, or surveys are game changers at swinging the pendulum back in your favor. 

This approach helped me walk out of a room no one thought I would. My boss called me about the work I generated. I didn’t walk in there ready to lie down and get walked over, but I also didn’t go in there with a chip on my shoulder either. I simply proved I was right, and he was mistaken, to where he couldn’t possibly argue it. I stood my ground. 

This applies to any GOP leader that wants to control or eliminate you. Or worse, have you dropped out of your race. Stay vigilant.

That leads me to my next point, which is knowing the temperament of the people you’re meeting. 

Do your homework. It couldn’t be easier now that most people have LinkedIn profiles and other social media! Find out what makes them tick, and what ticks them off. That way, if your negotiation isn’t going the way you want it to, you can always fall back on an example related to something they love.

For example, if you see they like golf, “it’s like teeing off without a good club…” Instantly, you’ve got them back, listening, and have created a second chance for yourself.

WIN WITH YOUR MIND 

It’s really easy in sit-downs to go in all guns blazing and be desperate to prove your value, or whatever it is, your backing. Most of the time, though, that means you simultaneously wind up chewing their ear off and closing their mind off to working with you further.

I always find it valuable to let the other person talk more than me. Maybe it comes from the “keep your mouth shut” mob mentality. 

In politics, I learned fast that if you listened closely enough, others would always give clues and indications about what they wanted to hear and what they didn’t. It got me out of many sticky situations. 

The business world is no different in that sense! Only, instead of getting you out of things, it should get you into a lot of lucrative things. Just by listening, you can learn to adjust how to position a deal, or not what to mention making your pitch way more appealing. This tactic is an essential part of a bigger strategy called “Mirroring.”

When used correctly, you build trust quickly, and people feel much more inclined to share information that sometimes they’ve never shared with anyone before. In a sit-down, silence is not only golden; it’s smart. Never over-talk to someone, it's rude. It indicates that you're too busy comparing yourself. 

Let them talk until they are tired, then give them your input. Never be rude.

DROP THE ATTITUDE

Again, it’s tempting to show off and present yourself as the best, most qualified person on this planet. But, if you do that, you’re going to get people’s backs up.

In politics, egos get you killed. In business, egos will kill your dreams. Instead, you actually want to be seen as the underdog.

You want the people in the room to underestimate you. You want to avoid coming across as an overt threat (even if you will eventually become one!) Let them believe they’re bigger, better, and smarter than you for long enough to get what you want out of the situation. Then, when it’s time, you can show your cards and win. 

Again, understanding the temperament of the person you’re speaking with is crucial here. You need to know the exact moment to switch gears and pull out the big guns. Go in too early, and you’ll blow it. Go in too late, and you’ll have lost interest. So, put the feelers out first, and test the waters. 9 times out of 10, your instincts will be right. 

Always remember: start out as the student, finish as the teacher, and leave with the spoils.

Open yourself to get help in any form. Don't be shy about revealing your finances and how much help you will need to get off the ground. I know of a political candidate in Illinois that thought he was all that. When meeting with consultants that represented organizations that were helping financing candidates, he bragged of all of his fundraisers and how much he was known and powerful. Mind you, he's never been elected before and already lost another political race before.

So, this team that recruits candidates for office including backing and financing candidates figured he had it all under control, including cash flow. Well, it turns out he lied about raising a lot of money, and they refused to help him later. He later blamed them for his loss but the blame was on himself. Attitude is always your downfall!

NEVER REVEAL ANY WEAKNESSES

In the negotiations, anytime I entered a meeting knowing my argument was a loser going in, I could gain a compromise by having my opponent believe I could hold my own.

As we would say on the street, “sometimes a half loaf of bread is better than none.”

It was the same when I was in law enforcement, dealing with seasoned criminals. Those guys could sniff out any sign of weakness or nervousness from a mile off. If you began your sentence cowering in the corner, you were fair game. But, if you walked in, being confident (NOT arrogant), you’d gain their respect and their time to prove yourself as valuable or useful. 

It’s the same in a business meeting. CEOs and business owners can sniff out weaknesses of a different kind. In business, it’s mostly about how you handle yourself under pressure. The trick is to hold tight to your confidence, and it will breed trust, which is the cornerstone of every negotiation. 

Again, this circles back to going in prepared. You need to walk in the room feeling confident that you’ve turned over every stone you can think of, so nothing can trip you up and cause a chink in your armor of confidence. If you can do that, you’ll look and feel bulletproof.

SHOW RESPECT AND BE RESPECTED BACK

This should go without saying. Any sign of disrespect of any manner in a sit-down could cost you your reputation. In business, it will cost you the deal. 

Many people think politics is some crazy organization with no rules. But, in reality, politics only works because respect is at its core. It might be a different respect and rule set, but its outcome is just the same: Respect and get rewarded. Disrespect and get disciplined. Of course, you won’t get disciplined in business, but you will have the door shut in your face on a deal. 

The challenge is to remain respectful, no matter what gets thrown your way. Try to remember; you’re there to achieve a goal. Don’t let yourself get pulled down a rabbit hole and lose sight of it. People are going to poke, prod, and provoke you to see your true character. They want to know who they'll be dealing with. So, you need to channel and disguise your emotional responses to the person across the table from you. 

If you can do that, any deal and any negotiation is there for the taking.

FIND REAL FRIENDS

Surround yourself with people who help you grow as a person and in your campaign. 

This is something you do outside a negotiation that will help you inside of it. The above steps involve personal development because you are your greatest asset. 

It doesn’t matter whether you’re working on a 5 million dollar deal or pitching a start-up, people invest in people. That’s why you must be continually striving to improve yourself and be the best version of yourself. Don’t know where to start? Let me teach you!

 I learned many things from being in law enforcement, business and politics, but one of the biggest lessons was surrounding yourself with the right network. 

Never underestimate the power of the people you surround yourself with to totally turn your life around. It is proven to be true for me, both within the world of criminality and without it. 

That’s why I’ve cultivated a community inside the Inner Circle that’s focused on getting on the same path, self-improvement, and connection that creates positive action. 

Today is making the promise to yourself that you’re going to continue to do better, be better, and negotiate better in every situation you find yourself in. Remember, you are entering a negotiation to profit in some way. You need something. So make your pitch wisely and don't be a know-it-all fool. Be humble and have a bite at the same time. It works. Trust me!

Always remember to stay away from negative people. Winners focus on winning and losers focus on the winners. They are jealous of you. Do you know why they talk behind your back? Because you are ahead of them. Continue to be productive and win at all costs!

Now apply these same negotiation skills and apply them to the voter. You get it now. That's how easy you negotiate yourself a win in your political race. 

When you are running for office all it really is, is a job interview with the voters of your district. 

Will they hire you? 

Negotiate with them to trust you and your public policy plan so that they can vote for you. 

Like Trump we negotiate to win and not lose.

In 2024 let's win together!

©️Val Ojeda is a Republican Author, Media Personality, Strategist and Consultant. Ojeda manages federal political campaigns also serving as President Trump's Hispanic Coalition Leader. Ojeda is also a businessman, entrepreneur and the founder of FAMA a 501c3 Chamber of Commerce. Ojeda served as law enforcement Veteran Officer/Detective