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Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate the incredible life of a dear friend and a great American, Hal Malchow, someone whom I think many of my colleagues on the Democratic side have known.

I first met Hal in 1985. I was visiting my dear friend from law school, Rob McDuff, in Oxford, MS. Hal and I were pretty young back in those days, both interested in politics, and the two of us really hit it off at a party that Rob hosted.

Now, Hal has long enjoyed a successful career as one of the country's premier political consultants, but before that, he went to Millsaps College and then the McGeorge School of Law in California. He did practice law for a bit in Jackson, MS. But Hal's real passion was never the law; it was always politics.

In fact, when young, aspiring lawyers would come to his office to get advice about following him into law, Hal was known to reach into his big, impressive wooden desk and pull out his latest rental car contract with Hertz.

``See that contract?'' he would ask the enterprising, would-be attorney, slapping it face down on the table. ``You go to law school, you are going to spend the rest of your career writing those kind of deals.''

So after a few years as a bond attorney in Mississippi, Hal turned his attention to politics. He took on three different candidates as a campaign manager and managed to lose all three races.

Undaunted, in 1984, Hal took on a new challenge. There was an up-and- coming young Congressman from Tennessee with a pretty good resume and a well-known family name who was thinking about running for the Senate. And despite his rather unimpressive track record so far, Hal managed to get an interview.

``So,'' Al Gore said to him, ``I've got one question for you, Hal. If I hire you to be my campaign manager, how am I supposed to explain it to my supporters?''

The way Hal tells it, he looked Gore in the eye and said, ``Everyone in Tennessee thinks you're a lock for this seat. But you can tell them you're taking nothing for granted because you hired the hungriest SOB in the country to run your race.''

Needless to say, Hal got the job, and Al Gore went on to the Senate that year. Soon, Hal moved to DC. Starting at his kitchen table in a small, one-room apartment, he managed to build the Nation's largest voter contact firm, pioneering the use of advanced data analytics to revolutionize political targeting, launching experiments to measure and improve campaign tactics, and revolutionizing direct mail and fundraising.

He brought the notion of the ``moneyball'' approach to politics a decade before anybody else was doing it. That will be one of Hal's greatest legacies to the Democratic Party and to American politics: the idea that spending decisions should actually be driven by data. He wanted to hold campaign consultants like himself accountable for being wise stewards of donor dollars. He measured success in effectiveness, hard proof that spending motivated voters one way or the other.

Hal worked on every one of my campaigns; and at one point or another, I suspect that Hal has worked with at least half of my colleagues on the Democratic side. But Hal was more than just a consultant; he is also my friend. I know him not only for his brilliant, strategic mind but as someone who is honest, loyal, and extraordinarily creative. My wife Lisa and I have looked forward to receiving his hilarious Christmas cards. He would create a different message and a different approach every holiday season.

In addition to writing a series of political books on moving and motivating voters, Hal is also an accomplished fiction writer. His writing career began when his then-8-year-old son approached him with an idea. Two years later, they completed the first draft of ``The Sword of Darrow,'' a highly acclaimed young-adult fantasy novel. In 2014, writing alone, he published a sequel, ``The Dragon and the Firefly,'' before penning two political thrillers, including ``42 Million to One,'' a finalist for a number of international and national book awards.

As that story illustrates, Hal is also a devoted father to his son, Alex. For many years, he served on the board of trustees at Alex's alma mater, the Lab School. After his son was diagnosed with dyslexia, Hal dove into the challenges facing other children like Alex, eventually becoming the president of the International Dyslexia Association.

Hal is also the biggest Cheesehead I know. Hal was very proud of the fact-- even though he had grown up in Mississippi--that his grandfather was one of the original shareholders in the Green Bay Packers. And Hal has followed in his grandfather's and his father's footsteps as a Packers fan. For the last several decades, Hal has organized annual trips to Green Bay to watch the Packers play, and I was lucky enough to join him in November for what has turned out to be Hal's final football season.

Now struggling with the effects of Alzheimer's, Hal has approached his illness the same way he has approached life: with no bitterness. He said to me, the last time I saw him, ``I'm the luckiest guy in the world, with the life I've lived.'' He tells me he has no regrets, so I can't have any either.

So Lisa and I will continue to keep Hal and his family--including Anne, Alex, and Astrid--in our thoughts and hold them close to our hearts during this difficult season.

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