The demands of a powerful interest group sometimes collide with the demands of voters.

In this video, what all office holders would be wise to remember when running for office.

 

 

Last Saturday newspapers made it a page one story. Another school shooting. This time in Texas. More dead children. More dead teachers.

President Trump promised to do everything in his power to protect school kids, the same promise he made three months ago after 17 were killed at a High School in Parkland, Florida. Other political figures offered their perfunctory thoughts and prayers for the slaughtered children, their grieving parents, siblings and friends.

The sorry truth is this. Parents will again grieve and bury their children. The political class will offer a few more empty words and hollow rhetoric. Then pray that it doesn’t happen again before the next election.

It also illustrates a truth about all candidates running for office, office holders and political parties. All face pressure from four sources.

1. The press, which pressures them to act.
2. The contributors, who pay for their campaigns.
3. Powerful interest groups that offer important endorsements.
4. And voters, who ultimately decide elections.

After president Trump promised last February to promote new measures to curb gun violence, he was visited by lobbyists from the National Rifle Association, a group that spent $30 million to help him become President. The lobbyists told President Trump to shut up about restrictions on assault weapons. He did. The NRA also made clear to the Congressional leadership that no such bill should ever see the light of day. The leadership complied.

In democracies, political parties and office holders often become captive of the interests groups and contributors that support them, unwilling or unable to respond to a public that begs for leadership. Sometimes those bonds can only be broken by indignant voters at the ballot box.

If you are running for office, or someday hold office, you too will find yourself subjected to pressure from the press, your contributors, and the interest groups offering endorsements you want.

It is wise to remember that your fate is ultimately decided by the voters who expect you to lead.

 

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

Invective and incivility have become common in political campaigns.
In this video, how to handle it if it comes your way.

 

 

In the 1998 mid-term elections the Republican Party banked its entire strategy on one message: Impeaching President Bill Clinton for lying about sex. There was data suggesting it was a sound political campaign strategy. The country was disgusted. Clinton had demeaned the office. His personal approval rating was in the toilet.

The political campaign strategy was a complete flop. Republicans lost seats in a year when they should have won seats. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the man who engineered the strategy, was forced to resign.

They learned a hard lesson. The sexual habits of a President are irrelevant to the daily lives of most voters. Wall to wall coverage of the subject on talk TV doesn’t mean voters care. By wrapping their message around a subject voters found disgusting, Republicans made themselves disgusting.

It is tempting for many democrats this year to turn their political campaign into an anti-Trump diatribe, to respond to insults with insults, to emulate the snarky, petty, juvenile antics of a President many in the country find disgusting.

Here is some truth for democrats. Voters who are disgusted with the President are already going to vote for you. You don’t need to wallow in a snake pit to get them.

Elevate the conversation. Rise above the hate. Talk about things that matter to voters. Tell them how you’ll solve a problem, advance a cause, improve their quality of life. Voters do reward candidates who do that, and Democrats who do that in 2018 political campaign stand a much better chance of winning an election.

If you’d like to receive my weekly videos on how to win an election, subscribe to
my You Tube channel.

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

Worthy causes win elections in a political Campaign.

In this video, a few of the places you can look to find yours.

In recent videos you’ve heard me say that voters will not be interested in you until they first know you care about them in your political campaign. The wrong you are going to right, the injustice you are going correct, the cause you are going to advance.

Last week I received an email from someone asking how to find worthy causes to promote in their campaign.

Start by reading newspapers. Newspapers cover pain. They cover tragedies. They cover unmet needs. Every day they are filled with stories about a problem that needs to be fixed.

Read your papers for a week. You’ll find plenty of problems in search of a solution that can be used in your political campaign.

Drive around your community and note what you see. Are there pockets of poverty? Blighted neighborhoods? Traffic bottlenecks? Filthy parks. Empty storefronts. Troubled Schools?

Talk with people who lead non-profit, volunteer organizations. United Way. The Chamber of Commerce. Salvation Army. Habitat for Humanity. Visit ministers. They are often the first ones to know about a social ill.

A few years ago I heard about an African American family that had purchased a house in a white neighborhood. Word that they were moving into the neighborhood got around, and a few skin headed losers decided to leave a welcome present. They ransacked the house. Destroyed the sinks in the bathrooms. Poured acid on the floors. Knocked holes in the living room walls.

I called a friend and we set a plan into motion. He called contractors and talked them into donating new sheet rock, paint, new sinks and plumbing fixtures.

We called a local construction workers union and organized a crew of workers to clean up the mess, repair the walls, and restore the house to its original condition. When the house was finished, it looked brand new.

We then organized a press conference, invited the family, the contractors, construction crews, and had a ribbon cutting as the family walked into their remodeled home with brand new paint, fixtures, and furniture.

My friend and colleague who helped put the plan together was soon thereafter elected to the highest office in the County. What he did demonstrated compassion, empathy, and a steely determination to right a wrong. And the family got a brand new home. It was a win-win for the family, community and my colleague’s political campaign.

Look around. There will always be plenty of causes to advance, wrongs to right, injustices to correct. It is of this that good political campaigns are started, worthy causes advanced and passionate people elected to office.

If you want to know more about how to construct a compelling message sign up for my free 4 part video series on how to do that.

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

Voters don’t care about your bio. They do care about what makes you tick.

In this video, how to develop your signature story for a political campaign, and make it a powerful part of your campaign message.

In a recent video I mention there is a hard truth about running for office. Voters don’t care about you in a political campaign…until they first know what you are going to do for them. A number of people sent me emails about that video, and many asked, Why tell my story at all?

There is a reason. Once voters know what you want to do for them, they then want to know they can trust you to do it. Trust you to make judgments on their behalf; that your values and moral principles are in sync with theirs.

If you don’t tell your story in your political campaign, voters will never know what grounds you, what makes you tick, what qualifies you to make difficult judgments calls on their behalf.

So yes, your story is a very important component of your campaign message. The mistake that many candidates make when telling their story is that they recite some endless laundry list of things they’ve done, where they were raised, where they went to school, the jobs they’ve held, awards they have won.

That is not a story. It’s a boring bio. Do that in front of an audience and they’ll quickly grab their cell phones to stare at something more interesting that you.

Your story is about some seminal event that happened in your life… one that helps explain your point of view and what makes you tick. It is through your story that you make your self likable and human. It is through your story that you reveal your fundamental beliefs and convictions, causes that are important to you, movements you have led, people you have helped or lessons learned from hardships you’ve endured. Every candidate, every human being alive has a story like that.

A couple of examples:

The Contractor: A client of mine who was a contractor had once declared bankruptcy. The circumstances were this. He was building an expensive home. The owner fell behind on the payments. Rather than layoff his workers and walk away from a job half done, he continued doing the work until the house was in a weather ready condition. He was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy until his successful lawsuit against the owner wound its way through the court system. When voters heard his story, they quickly concluded that he was a man of integrity, character, one who would do the right thing when confronted with a difficult decision.

The Farm Girl: I once helped a single mother in a hotly contested race for Family Court Judge in a very large County. She told the story being raised on a farm, working side by side with her brothers digging ditches in the family orchard, making hay, picking apples, saving money for college, raising a daughter who became a star athlete, and a son who was valedictorian of his high school. Voters concluded that she was grounded with a work ethic, would treat men and women as equals in the courtroom, that she placed special priority on the welfare of children.

How do you develop your story for a political campaign?

Make a list of the 10 people who have had the greatest impact on you. Perhaps it was a teacher, your parents, a coach, or college professor, or a minister, a mentor, a friend, a spouse. Now recall some special moments with each and an event or an encounter that profoundly affected you.

Next, put your life in chronological order from the time you were born to present day. Where you lived. What you did. What you remember from your earliest days. Where you went to school. Your teachers. Classmates. The clubs you belong to. The parties you attended. Each year of college. Your best friends. The jobs you’ve held. People you’ve worked with. Organizations you have belonged to. The people you met. Things that happened to you. The good, the bad and even the ugly. The times you were happy. Sad. Afraid. The illnesses you encountered. The friend who died young. Your marriage. Your children.  When you go through this exercise, special moments and memories will fill your mind.

Next look at times in your life when there were significant changes in your point of view, or when you changed your mind about what you wanted to do with your life, or when you saw or heard something that profoundly affected you, or the day you discovered why your were born and what you were put on earth to do.

These exercises will free your mind to remember things in the recesses of your brain that have been long buried. And chances are when you are done you’ll have not one, but several stories about epic moments in your life that profoundly affected you. Stories you can tell that reveal something about your character, convictions, your moral code, your judgment, your notions of right and wrong.

You’ll know you have developed your signature story for your political campaign when it does one of the following:

Does it make you human and likeable?
Does is reveal something about your determination, or a deeply held moral principle?

Does it demonstrate how an event forever changed you for the better?
Does it reveal how you overcame a hardship, or developed empathy for others who confronted a difficult challenge?

When you tell your story, does it make people think, or change the way they feel?
When you tell your story, do people want to talk with you, or shake your hand, or ask you questions?

Very few candidates do this well. Which is why it is so powerful when a candidate does do it well.

This is just one of the 32 lessons I teach in my on-line course on how to run for office. If you’d like to know more about that course, click on the link below:

Get The Course Guide

 

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

In this video, the truth about running for office and life. What voters need to hear first if you want them to care about your story.

There is a hard truth about running for office. Voters don’t care about you. They care about what you are going to do for them.

There is a hard truth about life. The world doesn’t care about you. The world cares about what it can get from you.

I was reminded of that truth when I attended a recent candidate forum. One of the candidates running for office talked only of himself, the hardships he had endured, the obstacles he faced, the identity group he belonged to.

Nobody cared.

I share this to illustrate a truth about running for office.

If you want voters to care about you, they must first know you care about them. That is what your campaign message should be about. Not you. Not your troubles. Not your hardships.

Voters first and foremost what to know what you’ll do for them, the cause you you are going to advance, the problems you are going to solve, the evil you are going to conquer, the wrong you are going to right.

Only after hearing that will voters care about your story.

If your cause is compelling, voters will take an interest in your personal journey. If your cause is compelling, voters will even overlook mistakes you may have made or stupid things you once said or did.

If you want to know more about how to construct a compelling message that will touch hearts, move votes, and make voters interested in you, sign up for my free 4 part video series on how to do that.

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

When political parties cease to stand for much, or believe in much, they wither on the vine. Then they die.

In this video, how dying parties affect a Campaign Strategy. They create demand for smart, passionate people willing to fight for new causes in the marketplace of ideas.

When political parties abandon long held principles, or ties its fortune to a leader who has none, it loses its moral standing, and its reason to exist.

The Republican Party now faces a defining moment.

It once stood for fiscal prudence and balanced budgets. It just passed one with a trillion dollars in red ink.

It’s a party that once believed in trade. It has now started a trade war that will bankrupt farmers and decimate farm communities.

It’s a party that once believed in immigration. Now it tolerates hate.

It’s a party that impeached President Bill Clinton because he lied about a dalliance with a woman who was not his wife. Go figure.

It’s a party that promised new roads, bridges, and airports. Then spent all the money on tax cuts for billionaires.

For years it promised a market driven health care plan superior to Obamacare. Turns out it doesn’t exist and never did.

It is a party that has run out of ideas.

Likewise, if you look at the playbook of the Democratic party, most of it is an anti-Trump screed.

All of this creates an opportunity for smart passionate people who want to run for office, for we are a country hungry for new faces, fresh ideas, candidates willing to fight for new causes in the marketplace of ideas.

If you are thinking of running for office, and would like to learn how to craft a campaign message that is right for the time, I invite you to sign my for my free 4 part video series on how to do that.

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

Some say that every rule of political campaigns was broken in the 2016 election. Some were. Some were not.

In this video, how to get your copy of Lessons from the 2016 Election. What Every Candidate Should Know about a Political Campaign in the Modern Age.

There are those who say that every rule of political campaigns was broken in the 2016 election. Some were. Some were not. And understanding which were broken, or bent or those which stood the test of time is something every candidate should know.

I recently published a new book, Lessons from the 2016 Election, what every candidate should know about a Political Campaign in the Modern Age.

It’s an easy to read book, filled with illustrations, and links to videos and free resources at the end of every chapter to help candidates better understand politics in the modern age.

You’ll learn why developing a clear, concise and compelling message is the most important task you’ll ever perform, and if you want to learn how to do that you’ll find a link to a free video series in the book.

You’ll learn why a great campaign slogan is more important today than its ever been, and a link to a free video series on how to do yours.

The book is now on sale for 99 cents on Amazon.

Click on the Book Below to Get Your Copy Today.

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

Most political mail is junk, and quickly ends up in the trash can. In this video, how to do political campaign mail voters want to read.

It is a little known fact about political advertising in America…that of the billions spent every election cycle, more is expended on persuasion political campaign mail than any other media. It is often the only tool that candidates can afford and the most efficient way for candidates in small jurisdictions to reach their target audience.

Persuasion mail does offer advantages over TV or radio.

When you air a TV or radio spot you lose control over who sees or hears it. With targeted mail you have total control over which household receives your message. And you can, with a little planning, determine exactly when a voter will receive it.

Unlike TV or radio, voters must make an effort to absorb the message of your mail piece. In an ideal world, you’d also like the recipient to read it.

When a voter opens their mail box, your piece is competing for attention with everything else they received that day. Bills. Newspapers. Credit card offers. Magazines. Mail from other candidates and perhaps your opponent.

Voters may not have five minutes to read your copy, or three minutes or even 30 seconds. From hand to trash can you may have less than five seconds to convey a message to the voter.

The job of your designer is to make sure the voter gets a message from your political campaign mail piece even if they don’t read a single word. Voters look at pictures before they read words. Pictures and symbols and graphics evoke emotions and reactions in the human mind with far more power and clarity than mere words on a page.

Your political campaign mail must appeal to: The throwers, who will only glance at it before tossing it. The skimmers, who will glance at the pictures and headlines, but won’t read every word, and The readers, those who will read every word of your piece.

Your job as a candidate, or the job of your designer, is to make sure your mail piece accomplishes its mission with all three audiences.

Here are five rules of effective persuasion mail:

1. Know the disclaimer rules…For example, federal candidates in the United States are required to disclose the committee that paid for the mail piece, and place that information inside a box in 12 point type on the mail piece. All jurisdictions have their unique rules. If you don’t comply with the rules, you may be fined or prosecuted.

2. Make sure the pictures, symbols or graphics visually convey the message of your piece. I’ll show you some examples of this in just a minute.

3. Use your pictures or symbols to trigger one of the seven human emotions. Anger. Sadness. Happiness. Fear. Surprise. Disgust. Contempt.

4. Use a professional photographer. Your mail is only as good as the pictures you use.

5. Use professional help…people who have done persuasion mail for other candidates. There are many moving parts to a mail piece. The list. Proper targeting. Good design. An appropriate size and fold. A quality printer. Complying with post office regulations. Proper sorting and addressing of the pieces. Red tagging.

One mistake on any of those and voters may never receive your mail piece.

How do you decide if persuasion mail is the best option for you? When the cost of TV or radio is prohibitive. When the most efficient and least expensive way to reach your target audience is through the mail box.

There are also good uses for persuasion mail even if your campaign is using television and radio.

An example: You have strong feelings about an issue but your polling data indicates that only a small sliver of the electorate shares your position or cares about it. Instead of running a TV or radio spot on an issue that has only narrow appeal, instead use the mailbox to reach those voters.

Want to hammer your opponent and undermine their credibility without running negative TV ads? There is a saying in politics–Spill blood on the TV screen and the whole world will know you are doing it. Use mail and not even your neighbor may know. More important, you’ll leave your opponent guessing. Your opponent can, if they want, walk into a TV station and find out exactly what you are buying, what you are paying for your time and how many spots you are running. The advantage of hitting your opponent through mail is that only you will know how many pieces you’ve sent and who you have sent them to.

I am going to show you a few examples to illustrate some techniques that will make your mail piece stand out in the clutter; and appeal to the throwers, skimmers and the readers.

The first is a piece done for someone running for a local office—his introduction to the electorate in a suburban community in New York.

This is what is called a “tri-fold”. Start with a piece of paper, 17 inches by 9.5 inches. Fold it twice into pages of equal size. You now have three panels 9.5 by 5 ¾.

Note what is on the cover page. A picture that suggests the candidate is a good listener interested in what voters think. And five short lines that tell the recipient about his qualifications.

The mail panel page conforms to postal regulations—with sufficient space for the address panel, a permit indicia placed in the upper right hand corner, and use of the extra space to reinforce the message on the cover page.

The third panel is for those who want to know more about the candidate and what he believes. Certain phrases are highlighted to make the copy easy to read. It has his phone number and website so that people know how to reach him, and the required disclaimer.

On the inside, the family picture suggests several things. He is a father, and husband, with happy children; a family that appreciates the natural beauty of the community. There is an additional quote above the picture that lets voters know about his roots and yet another panel for those who want to know more about his issue positions.

The piece does exactly what it is designed to do. It introduces the candidate to the electorate. It lets people know he is qualified to hold the job, conveys information about his values and issue positions. The throwers can’t miss the message on the front, the skimmers who open the piece will get a message just by glancing at the headlines, and there is plenty of information for the readers.

The next piece you see is an 8 page booklet done for a candidate in California.

This candidate was running in a multi-candidate field. Note the slogan and the use of a puzzle on the cover to make it more interesting, along with pictures which suggest both a man of vision and action.

Pages two and three let voters know his background and qualifications. You’ll notice a lot of white space, which makes the words stand out and very easy to read. You’ll also note that the slogan, puzzle piece, website address and phone number are repeated every time the voter turns the page.

Pages four and five directly address an issue that was on everybody’s lips at the time, the rampant corruption in Congress.

Pages six and seven contain details about his issue positions for those who want to read it, as well as flattering pictures designed to appeal to a conservative, pro-business, upscale area of southern California.

What if you don’t have the money required to do mail this attractive or elaborate? There are cheaper, but professional ways to make your point.

A few years ago I was asked by a single mother to help her in a race for Family Court Judge. She had very few resources, just enough to do one small, simple mail piece.

Start with one 8 ½ by ll inch sheet of paper, then fold top to bottom to create four panels size 5 ½ by 8 ½.

We did it this way to save money on postage.

The front panel is the title of her story with a picture of the candidate and her two
children.

The mail panel contains her qualifications, endorsements, just enough information to let voters know she is qualified to be a judge.

Inside the fold is her story. It is there that voters learned she was raised on a farm, worked along side her brothers, had a strong work ethic, a single mother who raised a daughter who became a star athlete, and a son who was valedictorian of his high school.

The story made the piece compelling. And irresistible. She surprised even her own supporters when she won.

Never forget the power of a story. This piece is proof that you can tell voters a powerful story even on a small piece of paper.

These three pieces have something in common with every one of the thousands of political campaign mail pieces I have done for candidates through the years. We invest in good photographs, and a professional designer. They have a slogan. They are visually interesting and have something to offer the throwers, skimmers and the readers.

For More tutorials on How to Run for Office, go to:
https://jaytownsendspoliticalroadmap.com

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

Deep down, we know we are a better country than what we have become.

In this video, how those running for office and aspire to public life can appeal to a people and a nation hungry for a new direction.

Growing up I heard the stories from my Grandparents. Sacrifices made to defeat the Central Powers in World War I. Sacrifices made to lift a nation off its knees during the great depression. Sacrifices made to defeat forces of evil in World War II.

I saw President Kennedy summon a country to conquer space. President Johnson summon a nation to abide its promise during the struggle for civil rights. President Reagan summon a free people to prevail over Communism in the Cold War.

We were a different country then. We had a purpose. We had Presidents who sought to inspire. And did.

We were willing to be summoned, to sacrifice for an ideal, to set aside differences to advance a cause greater than our comforts, causes that elevated the condition of all humankind.

Something else about those purpose filled times in the American Story. We had a moral code. There was right. There was wrong. Everybody knew the difference.

Public officials who lied were shamed. Selfish interests that preached a gospel of greed were shunned. Ministers who betrayed a moral code long preached were spurned. Those in public life or running for office who sold their souls were scorned.

How, you might ask, could a country now enjoying the riches of good economic times be so divided, so mired in malaise, with a discourse so venal that few can stomach a full episode of Cable News?

There is a reason. Deep down, we know that we are a better country than this. Deep down we also know we’re squandering that bequeathed by the heroes of our history. Unlike those heroes, we are not leaving a better country for the next generation.

We are content to allow American children to lag behind lesser nations in reading, math and science. We are spending far beyond our means and bankrupting the Republic. We’ve saddled a young generation with a mountain of college debt.

We are a country that has lost its moral compass and national purpose.

This American drift into the morass of malaise has also created a nation hungry for a new direction. A younger generation, new voices in the marketplace of ideas willing to offer hope, inspiration, idealism and some much needed leadership in the public square.

I invite you to sign up for my free, 4 part video series on How to Run for Office.

I’ll give you some free, hands on help crafting a message that will give life to your cause, so that you can play your part in leading your community, city, state and country to a better place than it is today.

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.

In this video, Why Democracies Die. What the fall of the Roman Empire portends about the death of the world’s longest living democracy.

Occasionally I get a direct question that deserves a direct answer:

“Why do you do what you do?”

I spend time each week recording a free video to help smart, passionate people run for office and win an election.

There are now more than 250 free videos on my You Tube channel. There are two books on my website that will help any candidate advance their cause and campaign.

This is why I do it.

Our democracy is dying.

Since walking onto the world stage a 100 years ago, the United States has been an enormous force for good. Despite our faults, we’ve freed more people from the yoke of bondage and lifted more people out of poverty than any nation in the history of mankind.

But today the thriving democracy that allowed us to do that is dying.

We’re content to let billionaires buy elections. This past week students took to the streets because the political class won’t lift a finger to keep them safe in their own classrooms.

Members of Congress are too busy blabbing on talk TV to fix our crumbling bridges, or resolve an immigration problem that pries young children away from their parents.

The President just signed a bill which will add a trillion dollars to our annual deficit, passed by a Republican Congress that once prayed at the altar of balanced budgets.

Entitlements will soon eat 80% of our national budget. We’ve ceded our leadership role in world to China, a nation whose economic might will soon pass ours. While we drain our treasury fighting endless ground wars on foreign soil, China invests billions in new airports and military hardware.

That is why democracies die. Like the fall of the Roman Empire… It happens gradually. Then suddenly.

America needs a fresh crop of new, idealistic and courageous people who are willing to run for office, and willing to lead. Yes, I said lead, because so many who are in office now can’t or won’t.

I do what I do because I want to help smart, passionate people run for office, win an election and use their God given talent to fix, and preserve a nation that has been a force for good.

I invite you to sample the videos on my You Tube page. If you are ready to run now, I invite you to sign up for my free, 4 part video series on how to run for office. I’ll give you hands on help crafting a message that will give life to your cause, so that you can play your part in preserving the greatest democracy the world has known.

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Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.

How to win an election:

Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.