Although my campaign for Congress was unsuccessful, we aren’t finished. In fact, many of our wonderful volunteers are leveraging their work on the campaign to launch political careers. I have their backs, 100%. Here is a letter of recommendation I wrote for our campaign manager, shared with permission.

September 3, 2020

To whom it may concern,

Emily Humphrey was the Campaign Manager, Web designer, and lead graphics designer for the Richard Thripp for Congress Democratic campaign from March to August 2020 in Florida’s 6th congressional district. She was our campaign’s first major volunteer and became a dear friend.

Emily is an experienced, top-notch user experience (UX) designer for a New York City ad agency (working remotely) and a computer programmer with experience in Python, HTML/CSS, MySQL, PHP, JavaScript, and other languages, as well was Web hosting and administration. She found me, first contacting me on March 7, 2020. She put her skills to full use in our campaign, for which I am in her debt.

Emily designed, planned, and implemented a consistent theme and brand messaging across our Web operations and printed promotional materials, using Adobe Illustrator, WordPress, and other platforms. She executed the design, printing, and ordering of our yard signs and nearly all other promotional materials (see below for a few). She executed all aspects of our Facebook ads and email marketing campaigns. She spearheaded our text messaging campaigns. Although we did not do mass mailers, she has expertise and experience to do these, as well.

Designers of Emily’s caliber do not typically get involved in political campaigns. Emily’s designs are superior. They were pivotal in our campaign’s success and in securing a groundswell of grassroots enthusiasm. We went with eye-catching yellow for our theme, at her suggestion. People still think we had thousands of yard signs. We only had 600. I keep getting calls from people wanting to hire our designer. Her name is Emily Humphrey of Edgewater, Florida.

Emily is a newcomer to politics, like me and dozens of other campaign volunteers. We were disappointed to lose the August 18th, 2020 Democratic primary with 28,661 votes (48.5%), but at the same time we are immensely proud of what we accomplished for Democratic values and progressivism in this district and throughout the United States of America.

Like me, Emily looks forward to working on other campaigns that are making a difference and that she can believe in. Presently, she is already assisting the Jim Kennedy for Congress campaign for Florida’s 8th congressional district and the Patrick Henry campaign for District 26 in the Florida House of Representatives. I highly recommend Ms. Humphrey for paid positions in future campaigns. To be frank, any campaign would be lucky to have her. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Richard Thripp, PhD
Former Democratic Candidate for United States Representative
Florida’s 6th Congressional District