The Campaign Workshop Blog

The process for finding good political candidates doesn’t involve filling out a job application. When a candidate decides to run for office, they may not realize that the time commitment requires hours of work and many more hours in the day. Sadly, the time commitment it takes to be a political candidate is not changing anytime soon.

We always try to ask the political pros we interview in our “7 questions” blog series what they’re reading. As a result, we’ve gotten some great recommended reading ideas from these folks. Some of these reads help shed light on the state of the American electorate; others will give you the break you deserve from the state of our politics. Behold, our latest recommended reading list, brought to you by experts in Democratic polling, messaging, political science, decision-making, fundraising, and beyond. Happy reading!

Meg Ahern is a social and behavior change expert working in international development, and author of the new guide, The Science of Influence: Harnessing Neuroscience and the Social Sciences for Effective Democratic Campaigns. She focused her dissertation at Michigan on the role of emotion and social context in perception, cognition and memory, and did her postdoc in the sociology of knowledge at The University of Chicago.

Any time you work with a digital strategist to craft a digital ad campaign, they’ll want to know 5 things to build the right plan for you. Your digital strategist will want to know your goal, budget, targets, timing, and the geographic area you want the ads to run in. It can be helpful for you to think about these things ahead of time so you and your digital strategist can get on the same page and build a campaign quickly and efficiently.

When you get into politics, it’s hard to resist the all too common tunnel vision of focusing only on politics. But be careful – binge watching Veep or The West Wing is not going to help you run a better campaign or organization; nor will reading solely political books. So Here are some of our favorite non-political books. 

In this day in age, social media is essential to any advocacy or political campaign. Every successful campaign in the past few years has implemented social media to win over voters' hearts and minds. Integrating social media properly into your communication strategy is particularly useful when you're trying to reach young voters in an authentic way.

When candidate fundraising, there are several tools that you can use to diversify your techniques.  It is important to diversify in order to keep your asks fresh and to raise the most money possible. This post will go over each tool in detail, explain their importance, and show how to utilize them to their full effect.

The 2018 election cycle is here! Everyone has a renewed spirit of social justice and resistance. Lots of activists are looking for ways to get involved in the new wave of change. Are you thinking about becoming a grassroots organizer?

For any brave souls that have dared to take on scheduling for a political candidate or even on a professional level, you’ll truly appreciate this post. Political Scheduling isn’t easy—it’s an art form and not for the faint of heart or the disorganized. Most people think, “Well all you do is just put events on a calendar, so it can’t be too hard.” Well, truth is, it is way more complex than it appears.

Annie Duke is a decision-making expert and a former professional poker player. She won her first World Series of Poker, as well as the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, in 2004. In 2010, she went on to win the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Annie Duke founded a nonprofit called How I Decide in 2014 that helps young people develop stronger decision-making skills. Prior to her professional poker playing career, Annie Duke was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship and studied cognitive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She recently authored Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions. We talked with Annie Duke about how we make decisions, and how we can make better ones in life and in politics.

With the 2018 election cycle ramping up, it’s never too early to get going on your member communication plan. By amping up your communication, you can harness the power of your membership and get results for the issues you care about. Whether you’re working for a labor union or an advocacy organization, these tips will help make your member communication program count.