Forging America: My Campaign Manager is Roosevelt-Chapter 89 - 64: Frontal Attack

"Excellent." Sanders’s voice was tinged with exhaustion. "On your behalf, I’ve pissed off quite a few people on Capitol Hill. That old sly fox Montoya was ready to go to war with me."

"Thank you, Senator."

"Don’t thank me yet. I’ve only cleared the junk out of the boxing ring for you," Sanders said. "Washington has already given me their word. The Democratic National Committee has promised to remain strictly neutral in the upcoming primary. In other words, they won’t be giving that fool Carter Wright any more extra funding, data, or administrative assistance."

"They’ve pulled back, Leo."

Sanders paused, his tone becoming exceptionally grave.

"Now, it’s just you and him in the cage."

"I may have shielded you from the sneak attacks from above, but whether or not you can win this ground fight is up to you. Carter Wright might be an incompetent bureaucrat, but he’s been in that seat for eight years. His local roots run much deeper than yours."

"Tell me, can you take him down?"

Leo’s hand tightened around his phone.

"Senator, without a biased referee in the ring, no one can stop me," Leo replied. "I’ll hand him a defeat he can’t argue with."

"Good. I’m looking forward to the show."

The call ended.

「At the same time, in Pittsburgh City Hall.」

Martin Carter Wright held the phone in his hand, his face as pale as a sheet of paper.

On the other end of the line was a senior aide from the House Democratic Leader’s office.

"Mr. Mayor, I believe I’ve made myself perfectly clear on this call."

The aide’s voice was cold and distant, completely devoid of its usual warmth.

"Washington is very disappointed with the recent series of chaotic events in Pittsburgh, especially the farce regarding the data blockade. It has caused a great deal of trouble for the party’s top leadership."

"But... the higher-ups hinted that I should..." Carter Wright tried to explain.

"There were no hints, Mr. Mayor. There were never any hints," the other party cut him off harshly. "It was all a misunderstanding. The party leadership’s position is now very clear: the Pittsburgh primary must be a clean and fair contest."

"Starting today, the National Committee will cease its special funding for your campaign. You are also forbidden from using any irregular administrative means to interfere with your opponent. If you cause any more trouble, give the Republicans an opening, or once again provoke *that person* in the Senate..."

The person on the other end didn’t finish the sentence, but the meaning couldn’t have been clearer.

"You’re on your own, Mr. Mayor."

A dial tone buzzed from the receiver.

Carter Wright slowly lowered the phone, his entire body slumping into his chair.

He felt as if his spine had been ripped out.

Morganfield had declared neutrality. Washington had pulled its support.

He had gone from an incumbent mayor with powerful backing and infinite resources to an outcast abandoned by all.

All his connections to the top had been severed.

Now, he had to go into battle bare-fisted, to face the young man he had once completely dismissed.

"Damn it!"

Carter Wright violently swept the documents on his desk to the floor.

...

Back at the campaign headquarters, the atmosphere had undergone a subtle shift.

Ethan Hawke watched Leo walk back after finishing his call, his eyes filled with awe.

As an elite who had navigated Washington for many years, he knew better than anyone how much political capital was required to make the Democratic National Committee retract its decision and force a Whip of Montoya’s level to bow his head and cooperate.

And yet, this young man before him, who had barely even been to Washington, had actually done it.

Even if he was just leveraging others’ power, that itself was a skill.

Karen Miller was the same.

She looked at Leo as if he were an alien.

"What’s with you two?" Leo noticed their strange looks.

"Nothing." Ethan shook his head with a wry smile. "I was just thinking that perhaps I need to reassess your political weight class. Do you realize you just caused a small earthquake in Washington?"

Leo didn’t look triumphant. Instead, he let out a long sigh and sat back down in his chair.

"I know," he said. "I also know that if an earthquake like that isn’t controlled, I’ll be the first one buried."

He felt relieved, but also a wave of lingering fear.

This victory, which seemed to be the result of his masterful strategy, was in reality a dance on a knife’s edge.

He had leveraged the conflict between Sanders and the Establishment Faction, leveraged the pressure of the midterm elections, and leveraged every lever he could.

But in essence, he was still just a pawn in this grand game of chess.

"Alright, enough reflection."

Leo gave his orders. "Karen, put the VAN System data on the left screen. Ethan, put the Shadow Data System interface on the right."

The projectors whirred to life.

On the left screen were densely packed blue dots, representing the traditional Democratic Party voters recorded in the VAN System: Union members, senior citizens, and African-American and Latino families who were long-term residents of the city’s urban core.

For the past several decades, they had been the foundation of Pittsburgh’s political landscape.

On the right screen were countless twinkling red sparks—the emerging forces unearthed by the Shadow Data System: college students, young renters, gig economy workers, and radical environmentalists.

They were the groups that had been ignored by mainstream politics in the past, yet possessed an immense voice in the internet age.

When the two maps were overlaid, something miraculous happened.

The blank areas that had existed on the individual maps were instantly filled in.

Blue and red intertwined, covering every block in Pittsburgh, every apartment building, and even every college dormitory.

This was a complete picture that no Pittsburgh politician, not even Carter Wright, had ever possessed.

Leo stared at the map, a light shining in his eyes.

He turned and looked at his team members.

Frank was rubbing his fists together, eager to rush out and start knocking on doors right then and there.

Sarah’s fingers flew across the keyboard as she prepared new promotional copy.

Karen and Ethan were rapidly comparing data, searching for the optimal mobilization routes.

This was a well-equipped, high-spirited army that now had a view of the entire map.

"Everyone." Leo’s voice was steady and powerful. "The war in Washington is over. The bigwigs up top have reached their peace accord, and they’ve withdrawn all interference."

"Now, in this cage, it’s just us and Carter Wright."

"No excuses, no backers, no backroom deals."

"This is our war now."

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Leo, the same fire burning in their eyes.

At that very moment, Roosevelt’s voice echoed in Leo’s mind.

’Did you see that, Leo? This is the power game at a higher level.’

’You used your loyalty, your pledge of allegiance, to trade for Sanders’s protection, to trade for this brief moment of fairness.’

’But you must remember.’

Roosevelt’s voice turned icy.

’This kind of protection is never permanent. The peace deals struck by the big bosses in smoke-filled rooms can be torn up at a moment’s notice over a new distribution of benefits, or with the arrival of the next crisis.’

’In the world of politics, there is no such thing as a permanent patron.’

’Your only, true, inalienable guarantee of security is this one thing.’

’To win this election in Pittsburgh, on your home turf, cleanly and decisively!’

’You have to win beautifully, win completely, win so thoroughly that none of them can say a word, win so that they wouldn’t dare treat you as a disposable pawn ever again!’

In his mind, Leo nodded firmly.

He understood.

All external interference had been cleared away. All excuses were gone.

Now was the time to prove himself to the world.

"Frank, I want your team to knock on the doors of these ten thousand addresses within two weeks."

"Sarah, I want those red sparks to burn into a wildfire across the internet."

"Karen, Ethan, I want you to turn this data into bullets. Every single shot must hit Carter Wright’s soft underbelly with precision."

Leo looked at the map and gave the final order for the general offensive.

"Attack."