What Garfield’s Nomination Teaches About Human Potential
Sometimes all it takes is one person willing to keep believing in you
As the parent of two preschoolers, I don’t have much time for television. But, recently, my boss recommended the Netflix series Death by Lightning, and there’s a scene I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. (Thanks, Eric!)
At the 1880 Republican National Convention, James A. Garfield arrived not as a presidential candidate but as a loyal supporter tasked with nominating Senator John Sherman. His sole purpose is to prevent Ulysses S. Grant from securing a third term. Garfield himself has no real intention of becoming president…and then he gives a speech.
In the series, the convention floor shifts almost instantly. Delegates who had arrived committed to Grant, Blaine, or Sherman began changing their votes ballot after ballot. Wisconsin moves first. Others follow. Garfield keeps insisting he doesn’t want the nomination, but they continue voting for him anyway. They see something in him that he either cannot—or will not—fully see in himself yet.
That scene stuck with me because I think most of us can point to moments in our own lives where somebody kept “voting for us” before we were fully ready.
For me, it was when a former boss asked me to go with him to interview for a “top secret project” in Texas in the summer of 2016. The project? The 2016 Trump/Pence digital team. As a recent college graduate, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, and I was scared sh*tless to sit in that interview seat, but that ~5-month experience was the catalyst for the rest of my career.
We live in a culture that talks constantly about systems, institutions, and big structural change. Those things matter, sure. But I think we often underestimate the ripple effect of individual belief. Entire lives can pivot because somebody looked at another human being and said, “No, I think there’s more in you.”
I think most people are walking around far more uncertain than they appear.
I know so many people who are incredibly talented, but are always one rejection away from giving up. There are people sitting quietly in conference rooms, classrooms, churches, nonprofits, campaigns, and workplaces who are waiting for someone to take them seriously. They don’t need flattery – they need someone to recognize that they have something valuable. More often than not, they need to “lock in and stop being distracted,” as Coach Brenda Frese would say.
This is what makes the Garfield moment so compelling to me. The delegates didn’t rally around him because he was the loudest person in the room. They rallied because conviction has a way of cutting through cynicism. Garfield’s speech represented integrity and clarity at a moment when politics felt exhausted by corruption and factionalism. The delegates saw leadership before there was an organized movement around it.
Sometimes belief comes before evidence.
When I look back on my own life, I can see how many moments only happened because someone else opened the door first, made a recommendation, gave me a seat at the table, or entrusted me with responsibility before I fully trusted myself with it.
Eventually, you move from being the person who needed encouragement to the person responsible for giving it, and that’s where the real ripple effect begins.
In a time where cynicism feels fashionable and tearing people down gets rewarded faster than building them up, I think there’s something deeply important about continuing to believe in people anyway.
There are people around us right now who are one opportunity, one mentor, one moment of encouragement away from becoming who they were meant to be.
Sometimes, all they need is someone willing to keep voting for them a little longer.