What You’ll Learn in This Blog Post

• A political campaign is essentially a long job interview with voters — and voters will expect you to know the responsibilities of the office you’re seeking and to be informed about current events.
• Nobody wins an election alone — you need two categories of supporters: old friends you can re-engage, and influential people (opinion leaders, party officials, civic leaders) who can open doors.
• The ability to speak in public — without notes, without boring your audience — is not optional. It is one of the fastest paths to political advancement.
• Authenticity isn’t a soft skill — voters can easily detect a fraud, and one unguarded moment on someone’s phone camera can end a campaign.
• If you’ve never run for office before, get help — from elected officials who’ve been through it, or from a professional political consultant who lives and breathes campaigns.

Introduction: Three Things You Must Understand

We’re going to talk about how to become a politician — seven essential steps. If you run for office, technically that makes you a politician, even if you don’t think it does. If you want to run for office and win an election, stay with me.

We’re going to cover several things in this post, but here are three essential topics you need to understand in order to do this well. Number one, it starts with what is in your head, your heart, and your soul. Number two, it’s about having a network of friends and a network of influential people willing to help you. Number three, it’s the knowledge you need in your head in order to be successful in this line of work.

Step 1: Integrity — Your Non-Negotiable Foundation

In this day and age, you have to have a moral code. You have to have some integrity. Because if you do not, it won’t take long for your voters — the people you are trying to appeal to — to figure out that you don’t keep your word, that you don’t believe what you’re saying, and they will come to the conclusion that you’re not out to do good things for them, but that you’re some sort of fraud or grifter.

Do not make the mistake that so many people make when they get into politics. Have a sense of integrity. Do not bend your moral code. If you do, you will regret it.

Step 2: Knowledge — What Voters Will Expect You to Know

The second thing is knowledge — and there are certain kinds of knowledge that voters will expect you to have. Here’s the basic reality: a political campaign is a long job interview with voters. You are asking voters to give you the power that will affect their quality of life. They will expect you to know what you’re talking about.

That comes on two levels. First, if you’re running for a particular office, you really should know the responsibilities that come with holding that office — the job description, the power you have — so that you are not making promises you can’t keep. Second, you have to stay up to date on what is going on in the world around you. Because you are in public life, voters will expect you to be aware of what is happening in the world, your country, your community — current events, wars, economic issues, everything. Both sources of knowledge are essential to your success in politics.

Step 3: Build a Network — Friends and Influential People

Nobody wins an election on their own. Everybody has to have help from someone in order to win. There are two kinds of people who are really important to you as you begin this process.

First, it’s the friends you already have. If you have friendships from the past that you’ve allowed to grow a little stale, this is a good time to get back in touch and rekindle those relationships. Friends from twenty or forty years ago can be very helpful in many ways during a political campaign.

Second, you need influential people in your corner. We’re all equal on election day, but certain people are more equal than rank-and-file voters. They are opinion leaders. They have influence. Where do you find them? You get involved in activities that allow you to rub shoulders with those kinds of people. If you’re running on a party line, there is a political party infrastructure in your community with elected officials who are influential. There are civic and charitable organizations whose leaders carry weight in specific areas. There are special interest groups with a vested interest in who holds the office you’re seeking. You don’t have to promise them the world, but you need to meet them, talk with them, find common ground — and maybe they decide to help you.

Step 4: Go, Do, Join — How to Build That Network From Scratch

You may not know many influential people right now. Don’t give up — if you work at this, there is plenty of time to make friends in those communities.

If you’re running as a Republican or Democrat — or in another country where parties control nominations — those party organizations have a structure. They have a chairperson, an executive committee, stakeholders who are deeply invested in who runs and whether they win. Show up at their events. Say hello. Build relationships with the people inside that structure.

Then there are the elected officials already serving in your community who belong to your party. They’ve already been through this process. They’ve won an election. What they know that you don’t could save you enormous time and energy.

Third, get to know the civic and community leaders in your jurisdiction — the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the chairperson of United Way, the president of the Rotary Club. In order to meet them, you have to get involved with the organizations they lead. Show up at their events. Shake hands. Get to know them. Set up a time to have coffee and chat.

Step 5: Learn to Speak in Public

There’s something that all politicians have to do when they’re running for office: speak. In public. Sometimes on a moment’s notice. You’ve seen some of them. There are speeches that bore people out of their minds — people can’t wait to get out of the room. And then occasionally there are speakers who so engross an audience that the crowd hangs on every word.

Your path to success is much easier if you master the art of giving a speech. Take the time to learn how to do it. It will pay off beyond your wildest imagination if you can master that craft.

Step 6: Be Authentic — Don’t Try to Be Someone You’re Not

I probably shouldn’t have to say this, but I’m going to anyway. You have to be you. The worst mistake you can make in public life is to try to be someone you are not.

Voters will know if you are faking it — pretending to care about something when you don’t — they will sense it in a speech and in conversations. They will notice it in the way you treat your staff, your spouse, your family. And all it takes is one small moment caught on somebody’s camera and posted online to expose you as someone pretending to be what you’re not. There is nothing worse in a political campaign than being revealed as a fraud.

My advice: don’t try. Be you. Be your authentic self. Voters will respect you for it.

Step 7: Get Help — Don’t Try to Learn All of This Alone

If you’ve never put together a political campaign before — if you’ve never run for office — get some help. There are two places to look.

First, the elected officials in your party who have already been through campaigns. Talk to them about what campaigns are all about, who you need to meet, what your marketing and advertising should look like, and where to find important demographic data. They’ve learned it all through experience, and what they know that you don’t could be enormously helpful.

Second, there is a whole class of highly professional people in the political consulting profession who are very good at what they do. Yes, they require an investment. But here’s why they’re worth it: they live, eat, and breathe politics. They do it day in and day out, month after month, year after year. If they’ve been successful, it’s because they are genuinely good at what they do. As the saying goes, if you don’t know how to do something, call someone who does. You’ll be much better off with a mentor, a guiding hand, and someone showing you the ropes — especially if you’re doing this for the first time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does running for office really make me a “politician”?
A: Technically, yes — the moment you file for office and begin asking people for their votes, you are a politician. The skills, preparation, and integrity this blog post describes apply regardless of whether you’re running for city council or Congress.

Q: What does it mean to “know the responsibilities of the office” before I run?
A: Every elected office has a defined job description — the legal powers it holds, the budget it controls, the decisions it can and cannot make. Before you run, research the power that comes with the position. Candidates who make promises that the office has no power to deliver destroy their credibility fast. Understanding the scope of the job also helps you build a platform that voters know you can actually execute.

Q: I don’t know any influential people. Is it too late to start?
A: It’s almost never too late, but the earlier you start the better. The key is showing up consistently in the places where influential people gather — party events, civic organization meetings, community fundraisers — and doing real work there. Influence is earned through repeated contact and demonstrated competence, not through a single well-timed handshake.

Q: How do I find a good political consultant?
A: Ask the elected officials in your party who they’ve used and trusted. Look for consultants who specialize in races at your level — someone who runs U.S. Senate campaigns may not be the right fit for a school board race. Check their track record: have they won races similar to yours? The American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) is also a useful starting point for finding credentialed professionals.

Q: What’s the fastest way to improve my public speaking before I start campaigning?
A: Join a Toastmasters group — it’s inexpensive, widely available, and specifically designed to build the kind of off-the-cuff speaking ability candidates need. Beyond that, take every opportunity to speak in low-stakes environments: introduce someone at a community meeting, give a brief update at a club, volunteer to emcee a local event. The goal is to get comfortable talking in front of people before your first candidate forum, not after.

Want to Go Deeper?

Jay Townsend has spent more than 40 years advising candidates at every level of American politics. For more campaign strategy resources, visit JayTownsend.com or subscribe to Jay’s YouTube channel for new videos every week.