By Kurt Kuhn

People often ask me what it’s really like to campaign. Every week is different, but looking back on this last, hectic week before the Thanksgiving break gives a good flavor of what it is that we do when we run for office.

Last week the campaign trail started with a blowout. On Sunday afternoon, Anna and I took the kids to watch the men’s Longhorns basketball team dismantle the UC Irvine Anteaters. You may have correctly deduced that this was not really a campaign event. However, part of running for office is learning how to balance family time with campaigning. So, midway through the second half, I left for the week’s first real campaign event, a potluck dinner with the North Shore Democrats in Lago Vista.

Here is an insider’s tip: despite all the jokes about the “rubber chicken circuit,” I have learned that Democrats have a lot of potlucks, and a lot of Democrats are great cooks. This was certainly true at the Lago Vista event. After an enjoyable evening discussing my campaign and the importance of the Third Court, I got home just in time to tuck the kids in bed.

Monday morning, I was faced with my new reality—namely, trying to juggle my legal practice and my campaign. One way I do that is by scheduling almost all of my time every day. Well, actually, my campaign manager does the scheduling, which has worked out well since I explained to her that there does have to be time scheduled every week for me to work on my current job as chair of the appellate practice group at Brown McCarroll.

The most common entry on the campaign part of the calendar is “call time.” A big chunk of a candidate’s time is spent on the phone reaching out to existing and potential supporters. I enjoy speaking to people about the campaign, although having to ask them for financial support is not my favorite part of the campaign. But in the end, no candidate can be successful without putting in the time to make those calls.

Aside from “call time” and “work time,” every day of my calendar last week was filled with multiple events. Part of campaigning is trying to figure out what to attend and where to go when there is more than one event at the same time. Take, for instance, last Thursday evening, when there were six different events on the calendar. That night, I did two, my campaign staff attended two more, and we will be sure to catch up with the other groups another time. All told, I attended twelve separate campaign events during last week.

Fortunately, the events are always a lot of fun. The bookends of this work week for me were two really great fundraisers held by different groups supporters. On Monday night, we had a good time at Norwood Towers, and then Friday was our wine and jazz event. Besides raising money for the campaign, these events gave me a chance to share my campaign message, meet new people and catch up with old friends. In the middle of the week, I spoke to the Central Labor Council and to the Texas State University Democrats. Regardless of the setting, the main point of all of these events is to spread my message and build the campaign.

We ended the week on Saturday where we started it—at a UT athletic event. One of my supporters has had a regular tailgate at home football games for more than ten years. He invited Anna and me to attend this week’s tailgate and meet his friends and regular crew, before we headed to our sky-high seats in DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium. The Horns won big again, another successful week of campaigning was behind us, and I’m thankful for all of it.

I wish all of you a very happy─and restful—Thanksgiving.