In a political campaign YOU are the star of your own movie. In this video, how to play well the part only you can play.

In a recent video I mentioned there are four key pillars of a political campaign: Your campaign message, how you execute it, your campaign strategy and how you outsmart your opponent.

This is the first of two videos on executing your campaign message. There is the what you say, and the what you pay to say, otherwise known as advertising.

Today I’ll talk about the words that come out of your mouth.Read More…

A good Political Campaign has Four Major Pillars: Message. Execution. Strategy. Outsmarting Your Opponent. In this video, what matters most as you construct the elements of your Campaign Message.

During the coming weeks I’ll be posting videos on the four key pillars of a political campaign, a step by step process I’ve used to help elect more than 200 public officials.

In this series, I’ll be offering tips on the elements of a campaign message and how to construct yours:

• The various ways to execute your message, the words you say and the advertising you pay for
• Your campaign strategy, the way you roll out your message so that voters have a clear picture of what you’ll do for them
• And how to outsmart your opponent through an exercise I call “war gaming”.

Today we’ll talk about your campaign message:Read More…

Why do Smart Candidates Lose? In this video, 5 Easily Avoided Mistakes that Fell the Election Campaigns of Talented, Smart People.

“Why do you think so and so lost the election?” It is a common question after a hotly contested, high profile political campaign. One that I’ve been asked many times. Today I’ll share the most common reasons smart people lose, and the answers may surprise you.Read More…

All candidates need a campaign strategy. In this video, seven key questions to ask when you are designing yours.

One of the reasons good candidates lose elections is because they copycat. They look at what worked for somebody else in a different year, in a different jurisdiction, and then assume the campaign strategy that worked for someone else will work for them.

It won’t and it doesn’t, for every race requires a unique campaign message, a unique plan to execute the message, and a unique campaign strategy.

As you devise your campaign message, and your campaign strategy, start by answering 7 questions:Read More…

What makes a great campaign message video? Watch this one by a Kentucky Congressional candidate. Correctly answer the question and I’ll send you a free copy of my book, The Worst Mistakes Candidates Make.

Today I’ll do something unusual. I am going to have a contest. It may have more than one winner. You might be one of them.

I am going to play for you one of the best candidate videos done during this campaign cycle, by a candidate for Congress in Kentucky. Her name is Amy McGrath.Read More…

If you are running against an incumbent in a political campaign, you’ll probably be outspent. In this video, how one candidate turned an incumbent’s fat war chest into a liability.

Through the years I’ve worked with a lot of candidates who challenged powerful and very well financed incumbents in political campaigns. We knew going into the campaign that we’d be hopelessly outspent, that we’d have to be very careful with our resources and make every dime count. And that our political campaign strategy would have to be spot on—not a single wasted word in our paid advertising – and spot on in our attack on the incumbent.

All challengers must demonstrate to voters why the incumbent needs to be replaced.Read More…

This past week, a 28 year old who less than a year ago worked as a waitress, defeated a 10 term Democratic Congressman in a New York political campaign.

In this video, how she combined all the elements of a campaign message into a two minute video.

If you’ve kept up with the news this past week you have seen or heard the story about a 28 year old who defeated a 10 term Democrat Congressman in a New York political campaign. Her name is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a woman who less than a year ago was working as a waitress.

No one took her seriously. Until she won.

She defeated a man many thought would someday become Speaker of the House. A man who raised 3 million dollars, outspent her 18 to 1, and lost. So dismissive was the smart set that not even the New York Times covered her campaign.

Read More

Those running for office or holding office during the coming years, will determine the fate of the American Empire.

In this video, what entitlements, demographics and a new superpower portend for those running for office and who will lead in the years to come.

It was my recent privilege to speak to a group of young leaders at the Luce Foundation in New York about the challenges they will face when their generation is running the country. I share today some of what I told them, for it also affects those running for office, and all who live in the United States.Read More…

Those who lead are endowed with the most powerful tool known to humankind.

In this video, an example of its raw power, and why it has never been easier to use it.

It was a perilous time in the United States of America.

Our political discourse had become a sewer, so vile, so venal, so filled with hate and division that certain subjects dare not be mentioned a family gatherings.

There is a crime epidemic no one knew how to contain. Civil unrest no one knew how to control. We were a nation wracked by a war that no one knew how to stop. Read More…

Throughout the history of humankind great Empires and Democracies have faced perilous times.

In this video, why some crumbled; how others survived.

There are occasions when it is useful to step back from running for office and the hard edged rhetoric of our time, turn off the news, silence the iPhone, and read some history.

Last week I afforded myself a short holiday from political consulting, and today will share with you some lessons learned from two books I read, How Democracies Die, and The Storm before the Storm, about events that precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire.

I commend both books to you, in addition to my new website about running for office that you’ll find at JayTownsend.com. Read More…