Recently, Scott Milburn visited the students at JMG’s Master’s Programme in Political Communication (PolCom).
He gave an exclusive insight into the communication work during John Kasich’s campaign to challenge Trump as presidential candidate – the former Republican Governor in Ohio also known as one of the most prominent critics of Trump within the Republican party.
Scott Milburn had 25 years of experience at top positions in the communications industry, when he ended up in the middle of the political process that today characterises the US.
”I started my career with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism at Ohio University 1991 and got my first job as a journalist where I stayed for two (!) weeks. After that I worked at the State Legislature where my job was to write different weekly opinion pieces – a total of 700 pieces in 3,5 years. It was a great way to start my career in communication where you must know how to write. If you can’t write - leave”.
After that, Scott Milburn got an impressive variety of top positions, for example as Media Relations Specialist, Press Secretary, Communication Director and Senior Advisor both in the White House and at the public administration at the office of Ohio Governor John Kasich.
Scott Milburn was actually Deputy Chief of the staff at the Governor’s office, when John Kasich decided to challenge Donald Trump as the Republican’s presidential candidate in 2016.
For JMG’s PolCom-students, Scott Milburn describes the intensive communication work during the campaign, the day-to-day work and the essential priorities. He emphasises the necessity of preplanning and sticking to the goals, at the same time as they had to struggle with the constant flow of tweets and clips at an incredible speed.
On the students' question if he thinks that they could have done something different, he hesitates only a little while before he answers ”no, actually not”. Possibly they could have started the campaign earlier, but otherwise ”no”.
Today, the Governor John Kasich has just left the Ohio office after eight years.
Scott Milburn also resigns, though he still doesn't really know what to do in the future. Apparently, after the visit to JMG’s PolCom-students, lecturing and sharing his long experience with students could be an option.
Scott Milburn’s lecture was held for students at the course Citizens, Politicians and the Media.
Continue reading about the Master’s Programme in Political Communication (PolCom)
Watch the film about the Master’s Programme in Political Communication (PolCom)