The 2020 presidential election campaign is unlike any before, according to political pundits Nicolle Wallace and Stephanie Cutter.

“The way we communicate is changing so rapidly, and the 2020 campaigns are facing that challenge in different ways,” says Cutter, founding partner at Precision Strategies and a former Obama administration adviser.

Cutter and GOP strategist Nicolle Wallace, special assistant to the president and director of media affairs at the White House under President George W. Bush, will address the 2020 CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference Feb. 23-27 in Washington, D.C.

Troy Stang, CUNA Board vice chair and president/CEO of the Northwest Credit Union Association, will lead the discussion.

In the recent past, it was somewhat radical to integrate digital and traditional communications strategies, Cutter says. Now, we take it for granted.

“It’s fascinating to watch that play out in 2020,” she says. “Each candidate has developed a narrative that’s being reinforced at all angles in both paid and earned media.”

One development that has surprised Wallace: The fact that one-time Democratic frontrunners Kamala Harris and Cory Booker have left the race, and that Mike Bloomberg has entered it.

The biggest question, Wallace says, is “whether voters will seek change or four more years of the current climate.”

Regardless, Wallace encourages credit union leaders to “get engaged in the policy process.”

Cutter concurs. “One lesson my former boss, Sen. Ted Kennedy, imparted on me every day was ‘be prepared,’” she says. “Think about what lawmakers and their staff need to know about the role of credit unions in their districts or states. Bring policy to life through the eyes of the small businesses, individuals, and families you serve each day.”

►Check out our coverage of the 2020 CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference