A year into the toughest campaign I was ever in when Jesse Helms trailed popular Governor Jim Hunt by 25 points, Arthur Finkelstein walked into my office, dropped a poll on the table, looked from me to Tom Ellis, pursed his lips.

“It’s time you two learned something new.” Arthur pointed to the 4-inch-thick poll book. “This election’s not about issues, it’s not about liberal versus conservative – it’s about character. Jim Hunt’s character.”

For a decade – to elect Reagan, Helms, Senator John East – we’d run campaigns about issues. We ran the same kind of campaign against Hunt for a year, barely gained an inch. Then Arthur said Hunt’s Achilles Heel wasn’t issues – it was changing his stands on issues to tell people what they wanted to hear. It was character.

Watching this year’s Republican Presidential primary unfold reminds me of that day years ago.

Ron DeSantis set out to move to Trump’s right on issues – it didn’t work. Telling himself, ‘If I get to Trump’s right I win and don’t offend Trumpsters,’ DeSantis feared drawing a bead on Trump’s character. But to stop Trump, Republican voters including Trumpsters, need to hear a reason to leave Trump. And Trump’s weakness – vulnerability – isn’t issues, it’s character.

And, at the end of the day, in politics, character is more powerful than issues. If I don’t believe the words I hear come out of a candidate’s mouth I start looking for a candidate I can trust.

When Hunt ran against Jesse for a year we hammered Hunt on issues, got nowhere. Then we ran one ten second ad about character – and a flash of lightning struck. Jesse gained 10 points. A few months later Arthur dropped another poll on the table, Jesse was dead even with Hunt.

DeSantis or Pence or Christie need to evoke that same flash of lightning to defeat Donald Trump.