https://campaignsandelections.com/industry-news/republican-consultant-sees-field-investment-increasing-following-trump-success/

This article is exactly what I’ve been waiting to see. "The pendulum is finally swinging toward targeting over volume" a buddy mentioned to me. Finally, less about knocking every door and more about hitting the right ones (something I've been preaching for ages). The campaign actually measured voter contact effectiveness instead of just doing outreach for the sake of saying they did. That alone is a massive shift in my opinion.

On top of that, it’s another step toward turnout and away from persuasion. They recognized that some people will always vote, some never will, and the real fight is to motivate the ones in between that. We almost always build out models of GOTV1 and GOTV2, and make it part of the overall strategy, but this cycle they really treated it like a real strategy in and of itself.

Last year when I was talking to some other consultants, pitching a similar strategy, I got told it seemed counterintuitive in our new “digital age,” where it’s all about social media blasts and targeted ads—which, surprise surprise, have a great profit margin for the people who were advocating for it (weird right?). But I’ve been worried for years that person-to-person connection was getting de-emphasized, with PACs slowly taking over everything. This shift back to field is long overdue.

To folks who actually know what they’re doing (and by that I mean, people who started their careers in the field) this is all pretty simple. But there’s a reason the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is so widely used. Sometimes the best strategy is just doing the obvious things really really well.

I’m glad to see people coming to their senses on some of this stuff. Now if we could just all get together and build a reasonable plan for tackling donor fatigue that would be swell. I hope they wake up to that soon.

With the 2024 elections in the rearview mirror, I’m seeing two types of clients right now:

1. Folks breaking down the results to figure out what they mean for 2026—looking for missed opportunities from this past cycle.
2. Candidates who already know where they’re running and want to dive deep into the data to turn a -5% deficit into a +1 win.

I’m finding some interesting trends in the reports I’m building. For example, there are places where the president did well, but the local party didn’t even field a candidate. Such a missed opportunity. With the right prep and an early start, those areas could be prime spots to flip a seat!

Side not, do y’all ever come across anything in the data that just makes you stop and question everything? For me, it’s always those voters who switch parties back and forth every year—swing voters are wild.

Calling all burned out campaign staffers and political/government professionals: I would love to meet with you!

• I made the switch from politics (comms director) to sales/marketing in tech and am extremely fulfilled with this choice
• As I hit my 3 year anniversary of this move, I'm looking for people like I was - burned out, sad, feeling like you've chosen a career that is overwhelmingly stressful and unforgiving just because you care SO much
• I am looking for ways to help people in the position I was in and want to hear from you!

I'm playing with the idea of creating a career coaching offer specifically for people trying to move from politics/activism into tech. Tech is a fantastic and growing industry and skills from campaigns are so relelant to startups, particularly in sales and marketing.

If this sounds like you, please DM me or comment on this post! I would love to interview you to provide feedback on my offer and learn more about the resources that would be most helpful to you in this season.

Alternatively, my linkedin is here if you'd like to reach out there or pass this along to someone you know. Thank you in advance!

https://campaignsandelections.com/industry-news/2024-revived-the-question-do-campaigns-still-matter

Harris took over after Biden's July withdrawal, and despite running what many considered to have been a "great race," she still had limited time to build her organization, message, plan, etc. – additionally, the stink from the Biden campaign lingered overhead. Meanwhile Trump revised his 2016 plan of activating low-propensity (and no-propensity) voters to great effect.

I think the big take-a-ways here are:

• Early spending is way more important than late-stage spending for the purposes of persuasion. For those not in the know, the phases of the campaign are Org Building, Identification, Persuasion, and GOTV. If you miss one of those phases, there's no going back. Building a campaign takes time.
• Factors outside your direct control—like inflation or the previous administrations policy decisions—can create a perception among voters that sticks to anyone in the party that's been in power. That's a lot of why the opposing party usually does well in mid-term elections.
• Targeting a specific demographic can help offset losses from other demographics, especially if those are low-propensity voters. Additionally, changing the electoral math, by including those low-prop voters, can move the goal posts, and surprise your opponent.

Personally, I think all of this speaks to the importance of parties building a Farm Team, where lower-level candidates are trained and kept ready, so that when a situation like this happens, we don't end up running some half-cocked campaign that missed a few steps.

Does anyone know where I can find a list of campaign managers?

Local, State or National, it doesn't matter.

Thanks.

The political campaign I'm supposed to work for I think uses i360 Call, and I wanted to know your thoughts about this app?

Any tips? Suggestions?

Thanks

Hello! This may be a silly question but my partner and I were thinking of attending a political rally in another state. We live near the boarder of a swing state in a very red state, so candidates hardly ever come here. Is this allowed or will we be turned away?

Hello,

I am not part of a political campaign but a concerned parent for my local BOE election in NJ. We got a letter from extreme candidates that I want to send a response to every household in the town.

I need to print 2,200 single page letters. I looked up usps political mail which seems like the cheapest shipping. Let me know if anyone knows alternates

Does anyone know what would be the cheapest way to print all 2,200 of those in B&W?

Disclosure: I would be doing this on my own dime.

https://campaignsandelections.com/campaigntech/dont-leave-your-fundraising-on-autopilot-during-gotv/

--

Good article, and really interesting thought exercise! I came up with a few ideas:

• Launch a "Fund a XXXX" campaign, where donations directly contribute to something concretely related to your GOTV efforts: transportation services for voters, mailers to low prop voters, or ask folks to sponsor a certain number of voter outreach calls or texts.
• Implement a "Match Your Donation with Action" program, where donors pledge to take specific GOTV actions alongside their financial contribution.
• Launch a "Pledge Your Vote" campaign where each pledge triggers a matching donation from a major supporter, amplifying both GOTV and fundraising - sort of like "matching donations" but instead pushes people to get voters to pledge to vote

What do you think?

Leadership Institute: Going Viral on Election Day

Want to know how to go viral simply by volunteering for the cause or candidate of your choice on Election Day? Join Leadership Institute's Matthew Hurtt as he walks you step-by-step through an incident on Election Day in Virginia in 2023 that went viral on social media -- landing him a primetime appearance on Fox News. Armed with sample ballots or campaign literature and a smartphone, you can expose the radical left on Election Day and raise awareness for the campaign or cause of your choice.

When: Thursday, October 3, 1-2 pm ET

Where: Online

Cost: FREE – register here

Eric Wilson of the Campaign Trend blog (which actually just changed it's name from the Business of Politics Show) recently wrote a pretty cool article about the major disparity between US election budgets and our foreign counterparts.

https://campaigntrend.com/posts/how-international-campaigners-use-creativity-to-overcome-limited-budgets

I occasionally take foreign clients, and it's always shocking how different things are. It's also kind of wild how few resources are available for folks overseas, so it's cool to see someone talking about non-US strategies.

For those not in the know, US campaigns spend exceeds that of other countries by insane margins, with 2024 expected to see $17 billion in campaign spending. I swear every year we hear about how "this is the most expensive campaign ever". There's just basically no laws in the US limiting spending. Meanwhile, International campaigns operate under some serious constraints, including shorter campaign periods, public funding, raising/spending restrictions, and advertising limits. But necessity is the mother of invention they say, and these constraints often lead to more creative campaign strategies that folks in the US never consider. But despite us having the most expensive campaigns, we have plenty of candidates running on a shoestring budget.

Look for (accidental?) opportunities to create engaging, shareable content that doesn't rely solely on paid advertising. This could involve leveraging social media trends, creating memes, or finding (unique) ways to present your candidate's personality. Given the restrictions on political ads on some platforms, trying out some new strategies to increase organic reach might get you results. Free your candidate!

Encourage supporters to create and share content related to your campaign by not pumping out the same old garbage. Instead of providing highly sanitized content for folks to share rather try asking yourself what kind of stuff people are actually going to want to share. Be funny, be unique, be interesting!

Good luck out there guys!

https://www.thecampaignworkshop.com/blog/gotv/gotv-3

It's GOTV time y'all! TCW, is a pretty good source for this stuff, and this post goes over some tips for making a pretty robust GOTV strategy in the final stages of a campaign. It's bullet point time:

• ALL GOTV messaging should include basic info like candidate's name, nearest polling location, open hours, and a way to contact the campaign. You'd be surprised how many folks forget this stuff!
• Lit drops suck! But when used with a door-to-door push, especially in areas where your party performs well can help a bit, and every bit helps.
• Early voting starts basically now: Incorporate early voting dates into your strategy, and dont get caught "doing persuasion all the way up to election day" like a lot of campaigns. I mean, unless you've got a good reason to do so - all rules have exceptions.
• Poll watchers - These are different from election judges or "sign wavers". On election day, your volunteers are going to want to know how they can help. It's important to tracking who has voted, mark them off your list, and call the stragglers to make sure they get their ass to the polls.

Also, for those looking for a little more advice, there's a good guide to GOTV on the Arena Toolbox page. I really like their stuff. It's pretty much all free.

I read C&E religiously, and came across this article that reminded me of some work I did recently:

https://campaignsandelections.com/campaigntech/early-voting-starts-and-ends-with-the-data/

When you're building your GOTV strategy your campaign, you're going to have an advantage over your opponents if you can more accurately consider voter behavior patterns. That's why I love data! In the US there's plenty of it. Recently I did a dive into the data in a few of my clients districts, and noticed the same trends across states: The more partisan someone is, and the longer they've been voting contribute more than anything else to how likely they are to vote earlier or return their ballot by mail sooner.

If you don't prioritize the groups that turn in their ballots earliest in your initial outreach efforts you're going to spend time talking to people who've already cast their ballot. That's why I'm advising my clients that as the election nears, and more of these folks have voted, they should shift their focus to less partisan and newer voters, who typically vote closer to Election Day.

More importantly though, you shouldn't take the advice of some random person on the internet without double checking that this is applicable to your campaign. Take a look at your own voter file, and adapt your strategy based on that. By aligning your outreach with each of these different voter segments' voting timelines, you can optimize your campaign's effectiveness and resource utilization, potentially gaining an edge over less adaptable opponents.

For folks with a bit of excel knowledge who need a bit of a point in the right direction I wrote a few how-to guides you can check out (they're free) - Part 1 for beginners and Part 2 is more advanced.

First campaigns are often a nightmare. I know mine was. I look back now and see all the mistakes I made.

If I could go back in time and give myself some pieces of advice, I'd say:

• Take care of yourself - burnout won't help anyone.
• Keep meticulous records - you'll thank yourself later.
• Master the basics before trying fancy tactics - fundamentals win races.

I was new to politics, with some experience as a volunteer coordinator, but nothing too deep. I was driven, always first to arrive and last to leave the office. We had tons of voter interaction, but my follow-up game was weak. When GOTV rolled around, I only had some loose survey responses to work with. We tried a lot of fancy stuff, even holding weekly brainstorming sessions for new ideas. Looking back, I think we wasted time on things that didn't translate into votes - and that's all that matters on election day.

What about you folks? What would you tell your rookie campaign self if you had the chance?

Social's media isn't really new, but it keeps changing.

In the early days you'd just post your press releases on your facebook page, and thankfully folks got over that pretty quickly. Back when I started, we'd spend a long time crafting the perfect message, and then posting it and waiting for the replies to come in. Now? It's all about being quick and authentic, and you see the best responses to folks who post the way people actually talk.

Back when these were more of a thing, I had a candidate once who'd just hop on and go live whenever he felt like it. No script, no plan, nothing. Scared the crap out of the team at first (you know how candidates can get sometimes when they speak their mind), but people actually kind of loved it. He'd answer questions, and chat in real time. It was kind of like an impromptu town-hall, and you could tell voters felt like they were getting to know him and making a connection. When I teach candidates I find myself repeating that campaigning is about "Making a real connection, talking to people about the things they want to talk about, via the method they prefer." and the fact is a lot of people prefer face-time

How's social changed things for you? Anything you or a candidate has done that have had a larger impact than you expected?

On campaigns, you see a lot of weird stuff get tried out. Most of the time, it's a dud, but sometimes the weird stuff actually works.

I was on this local race where the candidate got it in his head to hit up bus stops. Every morning, like clockwork, he'd show up at a different stop with one of those massive Dunkin' coffee jugs and a stack of cups. He'd pour and chat politics while people waited for the bus. To most people, it sounded nuts, but it kind of paid off. He was reaching folks in apartments and high-rises we couldn't get on the phone or at the door. Plus, he'd catch night shift workers heading home. It was like he'd found this whole hidden chunk of voters.

I've never seen it done since, and it got me thinking about how many voters we miss by sticking to "normal" hours.

What about you? Any odd tactics that paid off?