With the primary elections behind us, many folks are moving forward and only keeping those that won their elections in mind.  However, I want to take a moment to share an example of how a candidate that did not prevail used the loss as an opportunity to show his true character.  He can serve as a model for all of us when we face defeat.

This legislator, an incumbent that was expected to handily win his primary race, experienced a completely surprising loss.  It caught not only political pundits off guard, but the candidate himself.  It happened in a county that was experiencing software glitches while trying to tabulate votes, which added another layer of questions to the overall sentiment of “did this really just happen?” On top of that, because it was so surprising, he had to continually endure attention grabbing headlines describing the loss.  He also had to constantly read statistics about the last time in history when such an upset took place.  That’s a lot for anyone to handle and could certainly lead to understandable hard feelings.  However, this incumbent took a different path.

He accepted the results of the election.  He personally called every consultant at MLC and individually thanked us for all the work that we had done together over the years.  He also shared how much he enjoyed working with our clients and appreciated all of the support that was extended to him.  He talked about a bright future and mentioned that he was looking forward to new opportunities – without knowing exactly what those could be yet.  He never spoke ill of his competition, never once blamed anyone, and didn’t even mention the voting tabulation glitch.  He handled defeat with honor and integrity.

Michigan Legislative Consultants is a bipartisan lobbying firm based in Lansing, Michigan. Our team of lobbyists and procurement specialists provide a wide range of services for some of the most respected companies in America. For more on MLC, visit www.mlcmi.com or connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.