Anyone can announce a campaign with a Facebook post — but a campaign that launches with real momentum, early endorsements, a packed room, and donations rolling in from day one is a completely different animal. In this blog post, political consultant Jay Townsend explains exactly how to start a political campaign the right way: what to do before you announce, how to build the kind of launch event people actually show up to, and how to keep the momentum going in the weeks that follow.
There are a lot of ways to start a political campaign, and I’m going to tell you what they are. But I’m also going to tell you the best way — how to kick a campaign off and establish momentum, publicize early endorsements, and raise money right from the start.
First, let’s cover the easy and the simple — because sometimes the easy and simple is not the best way. You can send out a press release and announce that you’re running. You can do a post on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or YouTube saying you’re in. You can call a reporter and say, hey, I’m running. The trouble with any of those approaches is that at most, you get a one-day story — and then nothing happens the next day, or the next week, or the next month. The best way to start a campaign is to do certain things before you announce that will help you kick off with real momentum. Here’s what those things are.
Get your website up before you go public. Get your copy up about what you’re going to do on the issues that are really important to you and your jurisdiction. Get your bio on the site along with photos of you and your family and something about your background. Get your volunteer button live so that when people visit the site, they know exactly how to sign up. Get your donate button there, and make sure you have a credit card vendor lined up so that when someone clicks to donate, they can pull out their card and give immediately. If you’re a Republican, that’s typically WinRed. If you’re a Democrat, it’s ActBlue. If you’d prefer not to use either of those, there is a company called Anedot that can handle it.
Make sure your website has photos that flatter you and a video that makes you look articulate and passionate about what you’re doing. When you do announce and people hear your name for the first time, many of them will go looking for you online. What they find in those first seconds matters enormously — they need to be able to find you, learn what you stand for, volunteer, and donate, all in one place.
Also make sure your website links clearly to all of your social media channels — your Facebook icon, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Everybody has a favorite platform. Make it easy for them to find you on whichever one they prefer, because otherwise they won’t go looking for it.
About a month before you announce, reserve a venue for your launch event. Make sure it comfortably holds the number of people you think you can get there — with one small trick: if you think you can draw a hundred people, reserve a room that holds a few fewer than that. A room that’s slightly over capacity looks and feels like a crowd. A half-empty room does not.
Go through your contact list — your mobile phone, your Facebook friends, your LinkedIn connections — and build a list of everyone you plan to invite. Three weeks before your announcement, send them a written invitation and ask them to come and bring a few friends. Then, one week before the event, organize a phone tree and personally call every single person on that invite list to remind them that the event is coming up and that they need to bring two friends. This is how you fill a room.
Do not be afraid of reporters. When a reporter puts your name in a story, or a radio broadcaster mentions you, or you appear in a news clip, that is free attention — and it reaches people you could never reach on your own.
Personally call every reporter you want to cover your announcement. Tell them you’re launching, give them the date and time, and ask them to be there. It doesn’t guarantee they’ll come, but a personal call dramatically increases the odds. The coverage you get that day — a picture in the paper, a clip on the evening news, an invitation to appear on a local radio program — is worth far more than what any paid ad could buy at this stage of a campaign.
Write a good speech. Rehearse it. Practice it until it is the best speech you have ever given. This is your debut. This is your coming-out performance. You may be speaking to hundreds of people, and you need to give a command performance.
If you don’t know how to do that, get help. Hire someone to help you craft the speech and work through your rehearsals so that you know your material cold and can deliver it without constantly staring at a podium. I cannot overstate how important this is. A speech that moves people — that changes how they feel in the room — generates volunteers and donations on the spot that you simply cannot manufacture any other way.
Have a videographer and a photographer at your announcement. Film the speech in its entirety. Have the photographer circulate through the room capturing the audience — people smiling, laughing, applauding, giving you a standing ovation. You want that footage on your website and distributed across social media immediately after the event. This lets everyone who couldn’t be there see what they missed — and if they’re moved by what they see, they’ll share it with their own networks.
Before you announce, reach out privately to movers and shakers in your community — opinion leaders, influencers, heads of organizations — and ask for their endorsement. Get them to agree before your launch. Then, in the two weeks after your announcement, roll those endorsements out one by one, every couple of days. This creates the impression of a campaign that is continuously picking up speed. Every new name that appears in your feed signals to voters, donors, and the press that something real is happening.
All of this, together, also drives small-dollar donations through your website. Drive people there with your speech, video, your endorsement announcements, and your social media presence, and the donations follow. Candidates who have used this approach have consistently been amazed at how far it exceeded their expectations. Is there work involved? Absolutely. It is not easy or lazy. But the return on that investment — the attention, the endorsements, the money, the momentum — makes it worth every bit of effort.
Q: How far in advance of announcing should I start my preparation?
A: At minimum, give yourself four to six weeks before your announcement date to complete the pre-launch checklist: website built, venue reserved, invitation list compiled, press contacts identified, endorsements solicited, and speech drafted and rehearsed. Candidates who try to compress this timeline into a week or two almost always launch with a thinner event and less momentum than they could have had.
Q: What should my announcement speech actually say?
A: Your announcement speech needs to answer three questions: Why are you running? Why are you the right person for this job? And what will you do for the people you want to represent? It should include a personal story that explains your motivation — something that makes the audience understand why this race matters to you specifically. It should be delivered without reading from a script, and it should leave the room feeling energized, not like they just sat through a résumé recitation.
Q: Who counts as an influential endorser worth pursuing before I launch?
A: Think about who people in your community look to for guidance on civic and political matters: elected officials who already hold office in your party, business leaders, heads of civic organizations like the Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club, clergy, prominent attorneys or doctors, leaders of active community groups. An endorsement is most valuable when the person endorsing you is known and respected by the voters you need to persuade.
Q: What if I can’t afford a videographer for my announcement?
A: A friend with a modern smartphone and a basic understanding of video can produce footage that works perfectly well for social media. What matters most is that someone is capturing the speech and the crowd reaction in full — not that the production values are broadcast quality. If the speech is good, the content will carry the video. Position your phone on a stable surface or tripod and record the whole thing.
Q: How soon after the announcement should I start publicly rolling out endorsements?
A: Start the day after your announcement and pace them out every two or three days for the two weeks that follow. The goal is to fill what would otherwise be a quiet post-launch period with a steady stream of positive news. Each endorsement gives you something new to post on social media, a reason for supporters to share your content, and another signal to undecided voters that your campaign has real backing.
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.
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