Don’t forget: Your opponent reads your website too. Don’t post anything you don’t want used against you.
Here’s today’s tip: Don’t forget: Your opponent reads your website too. Don’t post anything you don’t want used against you.
This tip applies broadly to your website, social media and anywhere online. In any campaign, you are appealing to various constituencies which overlap to a greater or lesser degree. If you find yourself appealing loudly to one group, you may tick off another.
The idea here isn’t to be disingenuous or to pander. Rather, be careful about what you say and how you say it. Know that there’s somebody on the other team seeing all the material you put out. If it can be used against you, it will be.
Write your content for your idea support base at large and be careful that you don’t hand ammo to your opponents in the process. Factual inaccuracies, grammatical errors, contradictory positions and more have been found by opponents in campaign materials and used against them.
Effective door-to-door campaigns are meticulously planned and methodically executed.
Here’s today’s tip: Effective door-to-door campaigns are meticulously planned and methodically executed.
If there’s one area of campaigns where the majority of my experience lies, it’s the ground game. Knocking doors, recruiting volunteers and calling voters. It’s where most campaigns live or die. Their ability to navigate the logistical hurdles and tactical setbacks dog make it a difficult area to play.
Your door to door campaign should be considered among your earliest strategic discussions and be a central focus of your campaign. As with all campaign activity, start with the close of polling places on election day and work backwards. Plan your GOTV, then your Persuasion phase and finally Identification.
In each phase, figure your voter touch goals and how many contacts are needed (at an average of 30% door open rate) in order to reach them. By estimating that your canvassers will hit an average of 15 houses per hour, that will tell you how many man-hours you need. When broken down by week through the campaign, you’ll quickly see how many man-hours you need on a weekly basis to hit your targets.
Based on your messaging and research, write your canvassing scripts and determine what data points you want to collect from voter conversations.
Identify and train on a strong software platform that will give you flexible options for targeting, deployment and tracking for your team. I recommend Campaign Sidekick.
Finally, start recruiting, training and fielding your team. You’ve got a lot of doors to knock so get after it.
Answering hypothetical questions is a great way to lose ACTUAL elections.
Here’s today’s tip: Answering hypothetical questions is a great way to lose ACTUAL elections.
I hate hypothetical questions in campaigns. I’m not talking about things like, “If elected, would you vote to cut taxes and spending.” The worst offenders are more detailed and harder to square with circumstances you may face in office. They’re also largely agenda driven. One might sound like, “If you knew that banning all private gun ownership would end firearm crime, would you support the removal of the 2nd amendment?”
Answering that question in the affirmative means you’re not protecting constitutional rights and in the negative, it means you are heartless and love murder…neither of which I hope you support.
Rejection on the campaign trail is a fact of life. Dust yourself off and get back on the horse.
Here’s today’s tip: Rejection on the campaign trail is a fact of life. Dust yourself off and get back on the horse.
I don’t remember the first time I got cussed at while canvassing. I know it’s happened a lot but after careful examination by my bride, I can confirm that I don’t have a single scar as a result. No blood has been lost and rigorous counseling has been unable to uncover the slightest psychological ramifications from political rejection.
The truth is that being rejected on the campaign trail sucks. Whether it’s someone wordlessly shutting the door in your face or your conservative friend telling you that they won’t donate to your campaign. None of that feels good!