Running for public office comes down to three gears that all have to turn together: your message, your money, and your advertising. In this video, political consultant Jay Townsend walks through all three, from the five questions voters expect you to answer to where the easiest campaign money comes from to how modern campaigns reach voters where they actually spend their time.
If you’ve ever stood in front of the mirror and asked yourself how you run for public office, you’re in the right place. If you know how to do it, how to get on the ballot, how to put together a good political campaign, you too can win an election and make a difference — the kind your grandkids will still be talking about 50 years after you’re gone.
There’s a lot to know about this subject, but let’s start with an overview of the three most important gears in a political campaign: message, money, and advertising. We’ll take them in that order.
Running for public office is kind of like a long job interview — you’re talking with voters about electing you to a position of power that may affect their quality of life, and voters expect a certain amount of information from you over the course of the campaign. Imagine you’re a voter. Here’s what you’d want to know: What are you going to do for me, my state, my country, or my community? What makes you qualified to do the job? How do I know your moral code and values are in sync with mine? How do I know I can trust you? And what makes you better than your opponent?
The answers to those five questions are your campaign message, and that’s what voters expect you to tell them over the course of the campaign. They’re not going to go looking for the answers themselves — they expect you to tell them, which is where money comes in, because you can’t tell them without the money to pay for advertising.
The easiest money you will ever raise in a political campaign comes from your family, relatives, and close friends. If you don’t have many wealthy relatives or friends, you’ll need a different approach — start circulating in your community and talking with people who do have the means to help. Where do you find them? Look at the campaign contribution reports of people who’ve run for this office before, and see who gave them money. They may or may not give to you, but people who’ve given before are far more likely to give again than someone with no history of political giving. You need to find these seeds — people who can write reasonably sized checks to help you get started.
Then there’s what I call planting seeds and making them grow. Someone who decides you’re the right candidate and writes you a four-figure check probably knows other people who have money — that’s a time-tested truth about people with money. As you find these golden nuggets in the process of getting started, go back to them and say, thank you for your investment, who else do you know who might be able to contribute so we can advance this cause together. It may be slow going at first, but it will grow if you do it correctly.
How do you start raising small donors? There are people who habitually give to political candidates if you reach the right list — an email list of past donors to candidates like you, text messages, or prospecting on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram with a short pitch about who you are and the cause you’re advancing. In the last presidential election, $4.5 billion was raised by the two candidates, and it didn’t all come from millionaires and billionaires. A lot of it came from people giving five, ten, or twenty dollars at a clip, because they got an email, text, or call with just the right pitch that moved them to pull out a credit card and give. If your message is right, raising money gets a lot easier. If your message is wrong, it’s going to be hard no matter what you try.
There are hundreds of ways to get information to a voter, and how you put together your advertising depends on the political environment, your jurisdiction, and how many people you need to reach. If you’re running for governor, in most states you’ll use commercial television, connected TV, and over-the-top TV. If your state has rural communities, you’ll probably use some spot radio. If you’re running for Congress in a district with several big media markets, you’ll also use persuasion mail — the glossy pieces in your mailbox designed to convince you a candidate is right for the job and that you should vote for them.
Digital advertising is the piece growing by leaps and bounds — advertising through Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and increasingly whatever else the social media platforms figure out how to sell, since it’s a great source of revenue for them. You have to know where voters get their information so you can meet them there. Under age 30 in the last election, TikTok became the way to reach voters — that’s why both major presidential candidates were on TikTok. It’s where younger voters were watching. Your advertising should find where voters get their information and meet them on their preferred medium.
Q: What are the three most important “gears” in a political campaign?
A: Message, money, and advertising. Your message is your answer to what voters expect to hear from you, your money pays for the advertising that delivers that message, and your advertising is how you actually reach voters — all three depend on each other.
Q: What are the five questions voters expect a candidate to answer?
A: What are you going to do for me, my state, or my community? What makes you qualified? How do I know your values are in sync with mine? How do I know I can trust you? And what makes you better than your opponent? Together, the answers to these five questions form your campaign message.
Q: Where should I look for my first campaign donors?
A: Start with family, relatives, and close friends — the easiest money you’ll ever raise. From there, look at campaign contribution reports from people who’ve given to candidates for this office before, since they’re far more likely to give again than someone with no history of political giving. Ask early donors who else they know who might contribute, and the list grows from there.
Q: Do I need wealthy donors to run a competitive campaign?
A: Not necessarily. In the last presidential election, $4.5 billion was raised by the two candidates, and a large share came from small-dollar donors giving $5, $10, or $20 at a time in response to emails, texts, or social media asks. A strong message makes this kind of fundraising much easier.
Q: How do I decide where to advertise?
A: It depends on your jurisdiction, the size of your race, and where your voters actually get their information. Statewide races typically use commercial, connected, and over-the-top TV, plus radio in rural areas; congressional races often add persuasion mail; and digital and social advertising, including platforms like TikTok for younger voters, are growing fast. The goal is meeting voters on whatever medium they actually use.
Jay Townsend has spent more than 40 years helping candidates build winning campaigns at every level of American politics. Browse the full resource library at JayTownsend.com or subscribe to Jay’s YouTube channel for new campaign strategy videos every week.
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