The Campaign Workshop Blog

*Credit to Lalo Alcaraz for the book cover

All About Chuck Rocha’s New Book, Tío Bernie, and Latino Outreach

Chuck Rocha has been doing ground-breaking work from the start. At 29, he was the first person of color named National Political Director of the United Steelworkers of America (USW). In 2010, Rocha left USW and founded Solidarity Strategies, a Latino-owned and operated political consulting firm. In 2016 and 2020, he worked for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign,…

Make Sure to Include a Timeline in Your Advocacy RFP Template

Using an advocacy RFP template can help streamline the process of hiring the right partner for your next project. The exercise of filling out the template should help you identify your goals, any constraints on the project, and strengths and weaknesses in your organization that you’ll need to be aware of to get your project out the door. One critical area to think through at the outset is your…

Political Direct Mail Starts with Paper Stock

Any printer can give you paper—commonly referred to as “stock”—that is lying around the shop. But when it comes to what paper stock is available for your political direct mail, there are as many choices as there are types of drinks at your favorite coffee shop. Each paper type has specific characteristics that influence printability, color, texture, and price. So, don’t order a pumpkin spice…

Our Interview w/ David Pepper on His New Book, the Voter File and the 2020 Election

David Pepper is currently the chairman for the Ohio Democratic Party. Prior to that, he served as a councilman for the city of Cincinnati and was a member of the Hamilton County Board of Commissions. Pepper has authored The People’s House, which predicted Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, as well as The Wingman, which focuses on the role of…

GOTV Script Writing Is An Art - Try Our tips for Canvassing, Phone Banking & SMS

Get Out The Vote (GOTV) scripts are important because, in the vast majority of cases, they are your last chance to talk to your campaign’s core supporters to encourage them to vote. Therefore, it’s important that you make a lasting impression with these people and engage with them in a way that will resonate enough that they’ll take an hour (or six) out of their day to go vote. First, answer these basic questions to make sure your GOTV efforts are effective…

Advocacy RFP: References Matter

We’re all about helping organizations navigate request for proposal (RFP) processes, and our advocacy RFP template is a great resource for folks who are looking to hire a consultant or vendor.  Once you get the ball rolling on the RFP process, make sure you think through what you really want to learn from references in the final stage. There’s no one-size-fits-all consulting firm out there—a firm that’s a great fit for one…

Political Campaign Jobs: Find a Campaign Job With Our Tips   

Political campaign jobs can be elusive to find. As someone who has gone through the daunting task of political job hunting not too long ago, I know how tough it can be to land a political campaign job—especially your first. With so many newly minted undergraduate, graduate, and even law school grads hunting for jobs in the same market, it can sometimes be an overwhelming and discouraging undertaking. But in the end, all your efforts will be worth it. Sooner or later, most successful…

Telephone Town Halls: Do Political & Advocacy Campaigns Need Them?

What are  telephone town halls? Think of a telephone town hall as a cross between a radio talk show, an old-fashioned town hall, a member meeting, and a conference call all done in the comfort of your home or office.  Why host a tele-town hall: It seems like everyone is looking for ways to engage their organization, membership, and voters in a quick and compelling way. A telephone town hall is a way to move your audience.  How to recruit for telephone town halls:  …

Canvasser Safety: What You Can Do to Stay Safe

Now more than ever, canvasser safety really matters. When COVID-19 hit, canvassing pretty much stopped everywhere and is only now slowly starting to reemerge. Canvassing can be dangerous, as it requires that you approach strangers in what is often unfamiliar terrain, even when we aren’t in the midst of a pandemic. There are very prominent dangers to the grassroots canvasser, loose dogs, confrontational people and now COVID-19. Below is a short list of suggestions to protect candidates, canvassers…

Movies, Shows, and Documentaries to Engage in Social Activism

Amplifying Black voices is always important, and streaming services are helping to do just that. Now, if Netflix users search “George Floyd,” they’ll be taken to a curated list for their Black Lives Matter Collection, which has over 40 movies, T.V. shows, and documentaries. Amazon Prime’s collection is called…

Social Media Activism - 7 Qs with Erick Sanchez

Erick Sanchez has successfully orchestrated multiple online campaigns from convincing Chef José Andrés to pull out of the Trump International Hotel, to organizing a rally for Comet Ping Pong, a pizza place under attack from the far-right. His social media activism and previous involvement in politics has led him into his current position as the spokesperson for former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and his wife, Evelyn Yang. He is also the co-founder of a communications and digital firm called…

Campaign Endorsements Are Critical to a Win

Campaign endorsements can make or break a race for a candidate. But how do you get them and what do you do with them? Below are tips on how to determine which endorsements to go after and what to do after you get them to get as much mileage as possible out of your campaign endorsements. Choose which endorsements to go for: First, do your homework to understand which organizations or individuals are potential endorsers in your race. The easiest way to find this out is to see which organizations have…

Campaign Advertising Harnessing Geofencing For Digital Ads

Whether you’re running a political campaign or an advocacy program, geofencing can be an incredibly useful tactic within your larger campaign advertising toolbox. Geofencing is a method of targeting mobile ads to people within a tight geographic area. Essentially, this means creating a virtual fence around an address and serving ads within that area. Instead of targeting a congressional, or even state house district, you’d set a radius around a particular address. In a political or…

Being A Campaign Manager in the Time of COVID-19

Keith Rosendahl is the past campaign manager for Henry Cuellar for re-election as Congressmen for the 28th Congressional District in Texas. We asked Keith some questions about how COVID-19 has changed the way campaigns run, especially in the lead up to the 2020 election. 1. How has your experience being a campaign manager prepared you for campaigning during a pandemic? At the national level – a campaign manager is a five tool athlete. With many campaigns facing smaller staff sizes and reduced…

So, you want to do relational organizing? Well, here is how you can start.

Relational organizing is the process by which campaigns, groups, or individuals harness their personal relationships to effect community change. It is a form of organizing that is specific to an individual’s personal network in which they mobilize those relationships into taking action. The relationships can be as close as immediate family members or as broad as followers on social media. The key is some relationship already exists. But where should you start if you’re…