When I wrote Everything Trump Touches Dies, I had no idea the slightly flippant title would become an iron law of American politics, but here we are. The reaction to ETTD was beyond my wildest expectations, and I am honored that folks have found it a source of encouragement and inspiration. Every day, the damage mounts and Trump’s curse adds to the political body count.
ETTD changed my life. In it I found a voice I didn’t know I had, and Running Against the Devil is the next step on a very unexpected journey.
Running Against the Devil isn’t simply a sequel; it’s also a warning to take the 2020 election with the deadly seriousness it merits. As we understand more clearly each day the dangers Trump poses for America’s future, everything legal should be on the table. (And if you do something illegal, don’t tell me. I’m in enough trouble already.) This book is a window into how I fought and won campaigns for decades, and if sometimes the tough love seems a little more tough than love, I hope you’ll understand that’s exactly why. This is the fight of our lives, and we can’t afford to fuck it up.
The creation of ETTD took place in late 2017 and early 2018, and then as now the belief that any book would be overcome by events drove me to write faster. If anything, the sense of rising danger from Donald Trump made the writing of Running Against the Devil even more urgent. Books take time, and by the time this is in the hands of readers, a thousand new crazy moments that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, or a month ago, mean that new information and new realities will intrude into even my best-laid plans. Stick with me, though. There’s a quiz at the end.