Planning a political campaign sounds complicated, but political consultant Jay Townsend breaks it down into five straightforward pieces: finding people to help you, knowing your jurisdiction, building a compelling message, advertising it, and raising the money to pay for it — plus one step candidates often skip: researching your opponent.
In this video, we’re going to talk about how to plan a political campaign — and here’s a secret: if you properly plan one, it’s as easy as 1-2-3. We’ll cover how you find people to help, how you become an expert on your jurisdiction, how you create a compelling campaign message, how you advertise that message, and how you raise the money to pay for it.
Here’s a basic truth about running for office: nobody ever wins an election on their own. Everybody who’s ever won had help from somebody. So start with the people you already know — friends, family, relatives, people who know you and like you. You’ll be surprised how many people you’ve forgotten you know if you look in three places.
First, scroll through your phone’s contact list — identify those who would know your voice if you called them and those who would recognize you if you ran into each other in a foreign country. Second, go through your Facebook friends; you may find people from high school, college, or old jobs willing to help. Third, check your LinkedIn connections — I’ve had clients tell me they found a treasure trove of people willing to contribute to their campaign there. Those are the places to start when you’re asking, “Where do I go to get volunteers?” or “Who might contribute to my campaign if I asked?”
The second thing to plan for is studying your jurisdiction. You win an election by getting more votes than somebody else, so the question is: where are those votes going to come from? If you don’t know the demographics and political nature of your jurisdiction, you’ll waste money on things that don’t matter at the expense of things that do.
Start with past turnout — how many people normally vote in races like yours, year by year, to estimate who’s likely to show up. Then look at partisan identification, since Democrats tend to vote for Democrats and Republicans for Republicans — know the size of each group. Dig into the demographic nature of your jurisdiction too: age breakdown, income level, race, ethnicity, education level, and if you want to get sophisticated, buying habits and hobbies. The more you know about the people you’re trying to appeal to, the better your planning will be.
Few things are more important than your message. When you ask voters for their vote, you’re asking them to give you power that affects their quality of life — they take that seriously. You have to tell them what you’ll do with that power and convince them you’re worthy of it.
A good campaign message generally has five components. First, what makes you qualified — what have you done in your life that makes you qualified to do the job? Second, your moral code — what are your notions of right and wrong, who do you have compassion for, what do you believe about justice and fairness in the world? Third, and basic to every campaign, what problems are you going to solve — which is, in a way, an expression of your moral code. Voters want to know this, otherwise you’ll sound like you’re just running for yourself.
Fourth, do you have a story that shows voters they can trust you to make decisions when they’re not watching — something from your own life that made you passionate about fixing the problems you say you want to fix? And fifth, something voters appreciate hearing toward the end of a campaign: what makes you better than your opponent? What can you tell them that makes that choice easy? Voters appreciate candidates who make that clear.
Two more components of properly planning a campaign: how you disseminate your message, and how you raise the money to do it. There are many ways to advertise: social media, digital and internet ads, direct mail, posters, yard signs, radio, and four kinds of television — OTT, CTV, cable, and commercial. Your mix and spending depend on your jurisdiction and how many people you’re trying to reach. In small jurisdictions, some candidates just go door to door. But no campaign plan is complete without an advertising blueprint and a clear sense of what it’s all going to cost.
Which leads to fundraising. If advertising is going to cost money, you have a few choices: refuse to do it and nobody hears your message, pay out of your own pocket, or ask people for money. There are several ways to ask — candidate solicitation, surrogate solicitation, raising money through social media and Facebook ads, mail, cocktail parties, dinner parties, and celebrity events. Pick your approach, but it’s essential to have a fundraising plan. As a candidate, especially a first-time one, you have to be personally involved in asking for money. If you truly believe in your cause and aren’t willing to ask people to invest in it, you need to rethink what you’re doing.
One thing candidates often forget in their campaign planning: know the person you’re running against. Do a cursory review of what they say about themselves — go through the resume they circulate online or post on their website, and make sure it’s true. Look at newspaper articles that mention their name so you know if they’re contradicting something they said in the past.
A few years ago, I was involved in a big, complicated congressional race. I had my own desk at campaign headquarters, and one day the candidate overheard me on the phone with someone at the U.S. Naval Academy. When I hung up, he asked why I was calling them. I said his opponent claimed to have two degrees from the Naval Academy, and I wanted to confirm it was true. He told me I was wasting my time — the man had been in public life forever and wouldn’t lie about something like that.
But he had. His opponent never earned any degree from the Naval Academy — he’d dropped out after his first semester. We made sure that got into circulation, and it destroyed his campaign before it really started. Never assume your opponent is telling the truth about everything they say.
Q: Where do I find volunteers and donors when I’m planning a campaign?
A: Start with people you already know. Scroll through your phone contacts, go through your Facebook friends, and check your LinkedIn connections — all three consistently turn up people you’d forgotten you knew who may be willing to volunteer, spread the word, or contribute financially.
Q: What should I know about my jurisdiction before planning my campaign?
A: You need past turnout data to estimate likely voter numbers, partisan identification to understand the political makeup, and a full demographic profile — age, income, race, ethnicity, and education — so you can target your message to what different groups actually care about.
Q: What are the five components of a strong campaign message?
A: Your qualifications for the job, your moral code and values, the problems you intend to solve, a personal story that builds trust, and — toward the end of the campaign — a clear answer to why voters should choose you over your opponent.
Q: How much should I plan to spend on advertising versus fundraising?
A: It depends on your jurisdiction and how many voters you need to reach — small, sparsely populated districts may only require door-to-door effort, while larger or denser jurisdictions require a real advertising budget across social media, mail, radio, or TV. Either way, you need an advertising blueprint paired with a fundraising plan to pay for it, since asking directly for money is unavoidable.
Q: Why is it important to research my opponent before the campaign?
A: Because you can’t assume they’re being truthful about their own background. Checking their claimed credentials and past statements against public records and news coverage can reveal serious inconsistencies — and in at least one real case, a fabricated academic record that ended a campaign before it ever gained momentum.
Jay Townsend has spent more than 40 years advising candidates at every level of American politics. Browse the full library of free campaign resources at JayTownsend.com or subscribe to Jay’s YouTube channel for new videos every week.
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