Opposition Research

We teach a lot about campaign research, and most candidates see the benefits and try to make room in the budget for polling. But although many candidates will research their opponents, many first-time (and second- and third-time) candidates don’t do a self-research book on themselves. Why, one may ask, would I need research done on me? Whether you dedicate your own time, have a campaign team member help, or employ a professional to dig in, here are our top 3 reasons why self-research is much more important than it may seem.

Opposition research, or “oppo” for short, is something we have mentioned in this blog before, but have not discussed at length. Such an omission is unforgivable, and can only be chalked up to missing the obvious. Like, for instance, when a newspaper has a typo in its front-page headline because everyone was looking for little, nuanced stuff but missed the big, glaring oops! before going to print. So let’s right this wrong now, shall we?

Is your campaign doing opposition research? We’ve already talked about the importance of self-research for your political campaign here, and about the basics of opposition research for a political campaign. But, what do you do when your opposition research backfires?