If becoming a political campaign manager is your goal, you need to know that the qualifications that matter most aren’t what most people expect. In this video, political consultant Jay Townsend explains the real skills campaign managers need, how to work your way up from volunteer to senior staff to manager, and why your network — not your resume — is what actually gets you hired.
In this video, we’re going to talk about how to become a political campaign manager. It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it pays well. There’s a right way and a wrong way to pursue a job like that, and I’m going to tell you how it’s done, along with some points and tips that will help you along the way.
Let’s start with the qualifications you need. Yes, you can try to become an expert at every single detail of how things are done in a political campaign, but if that’s all you want to do, you might as well be a resident expert. A campaign manager needs a different set of skills. They must be a good communicator. They must be able to delegate responsibility and keep tabs on the people they delegate to. They must be a good negotiator, because they often have to balance the competing demands of a demanding candidate and an overworked staff — a delicate balance to keep. And they must be an extraordinary judge of character.
Why these things? Because in most cases, a campaign manager’s job is to make the trains run on time, and it’s a people business. You have to wring a lot out of people who are working under enormous pressure, on very difficult deadlines, in a chaotic environment — because that’s what a campaign is. Sometimes the greatest qualification I’ve seen in a campaign manager is being a voice of calm in a sea of chaos, or the cheerleader in a room when everybody is down after their candidate has had a bad day. Those are the most important qualifications a campaign manager has.
Now let’s talk about where you acquire the skills you need to hold and keep a position as a campaign manager. I’m going to assume this is a dream you have, something you haven’t done yet — the fact that you’re watching this video suggests you’re interested in becoming one. So if you haven’t already, your first step is to go volunteer for a political campaign so you can see, in a competitive election, how things work: how the manager does the job, how the senior staff operates.
Frankly, the bigger the campaign, the better it is to volunteer for — even if you never get on the payroll — because you’re observing how highly competitive campaigns work and how the staff interacts with the campaign manager.
The second thing I’d suggest, once you’ve volunteered and made a few friends, is to get yourself a senior staff position. Senior staff have a specialty — you’re an advisor of some kind to the candidate, or you’re the wordsmith writing speeches, or you’re overseeing social media outreach, or overseeing fundraising. Get yourself a senior staff position so you’re sitting inside the meetings with the manager.
Managers are not perfect people. They get frustrated, they can be very demanding, and they’re operating under a lot of pressure because there’s a lot at stake. But observe how you feel about the manager — what the manager is doing well, and what that manager’s weaknesses are. Watching how it’s done, and how they handle the job, will someday make you a better manager when you get the job yourself.
So how do you go from senior staff to political campaign manager? If you’re in that network, you’re aware that all political campaigns come to an end. One of the most aggressive ways to land a job as a manager is to learn from your network what the next election cycle looks like — who’s up in the next year or two, who may be running for Congress, the state legislature, the state senate, or mayor somewhere. You take it upon yourself to use your connections and the friendships you’ve made to get an audience with that future candidate and talk to them about the possibility of managing that campaign. That gets you a position early on — it’s the best way I know to do it. But you have to pay attention to what’s going on around you, and know what these races are going to look like a year or two out.
As you move from volunteer to a staff position on a political campaign, you’re going to meet lots of people operating under very difficult conditions — including some you may not like. Make friends, and make it your job to keep them. Never say anything that permanently damages an acquaintance or friendship with someone you encounter as a volunteer or work with as a staffer. Never burn bridges.
The political business operates behind the scenes principally on friendships. It’s not the advertising campaign managers do — it’s the people who know them, who vouch that they’re capable, that gets a campaign manager a job. A reputation and a recommendation from someone who’s worked with you, who would describe you as calm, cool, collected, always on top of the game and thinking a day, a week, or a year ahead, is worth a lot more than an ad that says, “Hire me, I want to be your campaign manager.”
There’s an art to making friends and keeping them. The best advice I can give is: don’t burn bridges unnecessarily, and once you’ve established a friendship, make it a point to stay in touch. I once ran into someone with a lot of friends and asked what his secret was. He said, “I never let more than six months go by without making contact with people who can be helpful to me.” I asked how many were on that list. He said 300. “Every day I’m talking to one of those people,” he told me, “because I never want those friendships to grow old.”
The fourth thing I’ll mention — I’ve seen certain people in the political business, as professional managers, master this art — is being a resource to a candidate. Suppose a bright candidate pops up, and you hear they may be interested in running for state senate, Congress, or state representative. You have a chat with them, you’re impressed with their brilliance or communication skills, and you think, this person would make a great candidate. You can enhance your value as a campaign manager by bringing that candidate resources they need — your connections, the people you’ve met in politics and in the political apparatus, the people with money you’ve met along the way.
I once knew a political consultant who worked in a certain region of the country. He wasn’t nationally famous, but in his four or five county area, he worked for everybody — and the people he didn’t work for generally lost. I asked him how it worked. He said, “In this particular area, there are four counties, each with a county chair, and 26 towns, each with a town committee. I’m on a first-name basis with all of these people. I’m on a first-name basis with every elected official in this area. I’ve become known as the guy who can connect a first-time candidate to anybody they want to be connected to — that makes me valuable, particularly to a bright, well-funded first-time candidate. I make it a point to be on speaking terms with all of them, even the ones I don’t especially like — they just don’t know that. That’s my secret. I’m kind of the gatekeeper, and I’m one of the people who can open doors for a first-time candidate in a way nobody else can. That’s why I get to fish in this pond, and I always get the big fish.”
Here’s the thing about this job that’s not like any other: it’s short term. You do your job, your campaign wins or loses, and you’re on to the next one. So how do you keep your network alive and able to refer you to upcoming campaigns you may not even know about yet? I’ve already mentioned the importance of keeping and making friends, but there’s a network you really need to pay attention to so you can be among the first to know when candidates start thinking about running.
When a candidate starts to think about running for office, what do they do? They start calling their friends, they start calling people who may have money, they start calling other office holders in the community. So here’s my point: in the area, state, or jurisdiction where you’ve performed as a campaign manager, go out of your way to expand your network of people in that community — because you never know who’s going to be the first to learn that a promising local figure is about to run for a seat in Congress and is looking for a manager. They may be the first to know it, but you want to be the first to know that the opportunity is coming. That’s the network you really, really need to nurture and care for — and it’s one of the reasons keeping your friendships alive matters so much.
If becoming a political campaign manager is one of your dreams, it starts with volunteering in a political campaign. If you’re smart, good at it, and apply yourself, you’ll be somebody’s political campaign manager fairly quickly.
Q: What qualifications do I need to become a political campaign manager?
A: More than technical campaign knowledge, you need to be a strong communicator, a good delegator who can track the people under you, a skilled negotiator who can balance a demanding candidate against an overworked staff, and an excellent judge of character. Above all, the best campaign managers stay calm in chaos and can rally a discouraged staff after a bad day on the trail.
Q: How do I get my first job on a political campaign?
A: Start by volunteering — ideally for the biggest, most competitive campaign you can find, even if you never get on payroll. Volunteering lets you observe how a real campaign manager operates and how senior staff interact under pressure, which is the foundation for everything that follows.
Q: How do I move from volunteer to campaign manager?
A: Work your way into a senior staff position first — as an advisor, speechwriter, social media lead, or fundraiser — so you’re in the room with the manager regularly. From there, track upcoming election cycles, use your network to get an audience with future candidates, and pitch yourself to manage their campaign early, before anyone else does.
Q: Why does networking matter more than a resume in political campaigns?
A: Because campaign jobs are short-term and the business runs almost entirely on reputation and referrals, not advertising. Candidates hire managers based on who vouches for them. Building a large network of contacts and keeping in regular touch with them is what puts you first in line when a new campaign is forming.
Q: What does it mean to be a “resource” to a candidate?
A: It means using your connections — to donors, local officials, party committees, and other political players — to help a promising candidate build the relationships they need. Campaign managers who can open doors that no one else can become the ones candidates fight to hire.
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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