Campaign

Everyone loves a good party, but when it comes to a campaign kickoff, the fun factor shouldn’t be the only thing driving your decision to host one. 

Events, especially those tied to political campaigns, require significant resources like time, money, and staff capacity. The return on investment (ROI) isn’t always easy to calculate. That’s why it’s crucial to take a strategic approach from the start. 

Starting a campaign is a unique challenge. From getting digital running to prioritizing fundraising and self-care, here’s what every staffer, campaign manager, and candidate should know.

In the world of political campaigns political power is often achieved through the party convention process. Whether you are running for state representative, county office, or President of the United States conventions still matter in many places.

Runoff election season is here. After a hard-fought election, your campaign made it into the runoff election. Depending on election law, these runoff elections could be held weeks or months after the original election. The type of voter who turns out for a runoff is different from other types of voters.

Kim Rogers is an Executive Director at the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (DASS) where she focuses a lot of her attention on electoral politics. The DASS is committed to both electing and protecting Democratic Secretaries of States.

Will Robinson of the New Media Firm penned his rules for campaign staffers over 25 years ago and they are truly words to live by. Over the years, these rules have saved money, time and jobs for many campaign staffers who have heard and lived by them. Whether you are working on a candidate’s campaign, ballot measures, or independent expenditures, these campaign rules will help.

Campaign manuals and eBooks on politics (especially good ones) are hard to come by. So here is a list of our favorite campaign manuals to help progressive candidates win campaigns. These campaign guides come from experts in a range of different fields. They cover everything from debate prep to messaging. Here is a run-down of our favorite eBooks and campaign manuals by Meg Ahern, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and more:

When you get into politics, you can have tunnel vision.  Binge watching House of Cards and the West Wing is not going to help you run a better campaign or advocacy organization. The fact is, campaigns are like running a small business.

Snapchat has created a new way to have conversations—from consuming content and messages to creating and broadcasting it. Through Snap, conversations are held in video and picture form rather than through texts, messages, posts, or speech; making Snapchat not only a creative way to get your political and advocacy campaign's message out but a new way to communicate it to a specific group of people. 

We all love life hacks. I’ll read any article that promises to show me “10 ways to be more productive at the office” or “15 secrets to make your morning better” or “5 ways to pack a healthier lunch.” Even if I just glean a single tip from the list, the sparkling promise of ease and order will hook me every time. That was why I was excited to try out the Hemingway Editor, a website that’s designed to show you simple ways to make your writing “bold and clear.”

Running for office or working on a campaign?  Check out The Campaign Worskshop's fifth e-book “Ready, Set, Go! Jumpstart Your Political Campaign.