The Campaign Workshop Blog

How to Have an Effortless Pre-Election Cycle Vacation 

Practice self-care this pre-election cycle with a vacation! We are officially on the cusp of the 2018 election cycle. Most primaries are either completed or happening in the next few weeks. The warmer weather provides the perfect time to get in a pre-cycle vacation. This list will provide five ways to take self-care and ensure an effortless pre-election cycle vacation: 1. Get Your Mobile Passport Let’s begin with the best part of Mobile Passport, its free!  Mobile Passport is a program of…

A Recommended Reading List from TCW Interviewees

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…

7 Questions on Harnessing the Social and Behavioral Sciences with Meg Ahern

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…

Your Digital Strategist Needs 5 Key Pieces of Information

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. Goal Setting a goal is the first thing your…

10 Non-Political Books Every Politico Should Read

Originally written by Joe Fuld and updated by Elena Veatch 4/3/18 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.  You are running a business. And while we like to think of politics and business as totally separate realms,…

Campaign Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

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. However, just pressing tweet or publish won't get you that far. It is possible to use social media wrong. Here are the top 5 campaign social media mistakes…

Voter Contact: Political House Party Do's and Don'ts

House parties are underutilized tactic for voter contact, especially around primaries and special elections. It is a good way to get a candidate to engage in their community quickly and authentically. Although this is an old-school technique, we have added in some new-school tactics, like SMS, to make it relevant in today’s political toolbox Do: Use your house parties as a means of voter contact (Hi, I’m Ben with Jenna Smith’s campaign. We wanted to invite you to our house party on XXX. Jenna…

Different Methods for Candidate Fundraising

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.  To run an effective candidate fundraising campaign, use all of the methods explained in this post. Call-time:…

Campaign Training Is the Key to Good Campaign Management

Candidate and campaign training can make a real difference in your campaign.    So, you have the right candidate, you found the perfect campaign manager, and a great volunteer coordinator who has tons of people ready and willing to phone bank and canvass for you… now what? You need to send them to a candidate and campaign…

Candidate Messaging Can Win Your Campaign

As spectators of political debate and electoral politics, we’ve all seen it before. Our favorite candidate takes a turn and ends up going on either a rant, long tirade, or ultimately veers far off the path of his or hers intended candidate messaging. As spectators we can only watch in horror as this trainwreck happens.  In the world of social media, these moments are captured more often than not. Truthfully, whether Republican or Democrat, there’s nothing like a completely crazy statement from a…