Andrew Gall: An 'Uphill' Battle to Fight the War

Andrew Gall, the 27-year-old UMd. graduate student who ran for Maryland's 5th congressional seat, didn't expect to win against Steny Hoyer, the 71- year-old incumbent. When the polls closed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, he wasn't in a bar surrounded by campaign staff or in the viewfinder of TBD's cameras. In fact, he was in class.

"My professor said 'good luck' and that was about it," he said. "I tried not to draw unnecessary attention to myself."

But Gall didn't run for Congress for the fame or glory, or even, really, to win. He ran because he didn't want to support Hoyer, who voted in favor of the war in Iraq, and wanted to provide others who felt similarly with at least one other option.

"Democracy is a process, and you have to work at it," he said. You have to present people with the opportunity to go in another direction. I wanted to put myself out there and offer people an alternative."

Gall's approach to campaigning was the embodiment of "grassroots." With a budget that topped out around $3700 – compared to Hoyer's roughly $3 million – and a campaign staff that consisted only of part time volunteers helping out between work and school, Gall's strategy involved no "fancy marketing schemes" – just a lot of time knocking on doors.  

In general, Gall said, people reacted favorably to the idealistic congressional candidate they found standing on their doorsteps. One woman whose door he knocked on was the widow of a soldier killed in Iraq.

"She thanked me for doing what I was doing," he said "The most memorable part of this experience was the one-on-one interaction with voters."

All told, Gall received just over 10 percent of the votes, which is about what he had hoped for. He said that as campaigning went on, he realized that in spite of his efforts, his lack of resources would not realistically be enough to beat Hoyer. Nevertheless, he's proud of what he did, and doesn't feel he has much reason to dwell on the negative.

"I feel like I put in a good effort, considering the uphill battle," he said. I don't want to relive any particular mistakes. As long as you put in a good effort, you should be proud of what you've done. So I'm feeling good."

Gall will be returning to a more routine hum of grad student life, and will also be starting a paid internship at the Department of the Interior next week. Though he would not rule out the possibility of running for elected office again, he said for now, he is going to pursue other avenues of affecting change.

"I have this sort of philosophy that I want to create as much positive change as possible," he said. "I can do that in a number of different ways. But I really enjoyed the experience."