Election Campaign

Gender equality matters.  Susan Markham and Stephenie Foster are the founders of Smash Strategies, a firm that provides strategic advice on gender equality and women’s leadership. Susan comes from a background of empowering women to participate in politics both in the U.S. and abroad, recruiting and training women candidates, and supporting the aspirations of thousands of women to be equal and active partners in leading democratic societies.

While there has been a lot of hype that says Democrats have the 2016 Presidential Election in the bag and the electoral map is stacked in our favor, a simple look in the history book says otherwise. In the history of the modern presidency, after being in power for two terms, the party in power has flipped more often than not, with a couple notable exceptions.

The midterm elections on Tuesday made for a rough night for Democrats. As many of us emerge from the fetal position under our desk, I decided to write down my observations of the midterm elections of 2014, and what could be done differently in future elections. You can listen to some of my observations here as well.

If you make use of USPS for political direct mail, there are some important changes happening with the United States Postal Service (USPS) beginning in January 2014. The biggest change is that Full-Service Intelligent Mail is now required for automation pricing (automation pricing gives you discounted postage rates) for First-Class and Standard letters and flat mail as well as Periodicals and Bound Printed Matter.

Before Election Day it’s important that you have a chance to test your campaign’s ground operation. After all, even the best-laid plans can go awry. Testing ensures that your organization can maintain its composure under pressure and gives you an opportunity to iron out any snags before the big day. The best way to test your operation is by creating an Election Day stress test that simulates your operation on the big day.

Many times it is difficult to distinguish between what is considered political mail vs. election mail. Here’s a quick rundown of the differences between the two.