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How to run for office: Resource guide

Brendan Finucane
Brendan Finucane
August 26, 2020
5 min read
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How to run for office: Resource Guide

Did you know that over 1 million people will run for office this year! And getting elected is easier than you might think provided you do the right things. Let us guide you to victory on election day with our run for office resource guide designed for campaign managers and candidates. With our experience working on over 4000 campaigns in 70 countries we can help you win no matter who you are running against.

Political campaign tools - Whitepaper

The modern political campaign has moved towards digital. Traditional channels of engagement like door-to-door canvassing and phone banking are being optimized along the way and additional channels have opened up to engage voters, raise funds, manage events, and recruit supporters. Unlike traditional methods where a campaign strategy was implemented with little room for iteration, new digital tools provide granular data on every activity that can be analyzed and used to fine-tune the next action. But there is still a gap between the evolution of digital tools, and campaigns willing to invest in a digital strategy. While a website and a CRM (Constituent Relationship Management ) are considered essentials by most campaigns, the realm of digital is much bigger. New technologies are changing the way candidates reach voters, mold opinions, and win votes. For this reason, political campaigns need to step up and embrace digital to stay ahead of the curve. Check out our political campaign tools whitepaper here.

Social distance canvassing

In the ever changing environment that we now live in, people are having to be adaptable with their strategies for field operations. Anyone who works in the field doing door canvassing or face-to-face engagement with citizens will be acutely aware of the challenges posed by Covid 19. Our recent guideline paper on social distance canvassing has been helping political campaigners, advocacy groups and nonprofits to train their field workers to operate safely. You can access those guidelines through the download form at the end.

Outside of the medical guidance and the protocols for face-to-face engagement we should also look at strategies for canvassing that will apply for the foreseeable future with the need for social distancing. Here are some tactics we are seeing being used by campaigners.

Phonebanking 2020

Phonebanking has become the unlikely hero of campaigns in 2020 as Covid-19 has impacted on real-world activities very significantly. It has stepped into the gap in the market for voter contact that can be conducted 100% safely and still be effective. Political campaigns and advocacy groups are continuing to reach voters and push them to vote/donate/volunteer from the safety of the canvasser’s own home.

Relational organizing

The 2020 election cycle was supposed to be when we saw the awesome power of democrats field canvassing program blowing Trump’s digital campaigning away…..and then 2020 happened.

‌‌Since then many campaigns have fallen back on a well known but not entirely understood mechanism of campaign building - relational organizing. It is not a new phenomenon, as a matter of fact we have been doing it for years without actually measuring it.

‌‌The buzzworthy, friend to friend outreach strategy is powerful - we use it daily, in every aspect of our lives. “Will you like my friend’s new Facebook page?”, “Will you tell your mom that we are holding a bake sale at the weekend”, “Are you interested in coming to this speaker with me at the weekend?” and finally “Will you vote for my father next weekend, you guys have a lot in common!”.

‌‌Think about it this way, a volunteer reaching out to someone they already know is more effective than a volunteer reaching out to strangers. If you got a call from a campaign organizer asking you to vote, it would be easier for you to ignore it than if your cousin texted you and asked you to vote. In the current climate, political organizing makes more sense if it is relational. With movement restrictions still in place in most areas, we don’t have the luxury of building new relationships with voters in the community which is why relational organizing is so powerful in 2020 compared to any other year. Instead focus on what you can do, make use of the relationships you already have.

Connecting with your peers through relational organizing

How to invest in your grassroots supporters to win

The local chapter or constituency will have its own activists and members and these people do not necessarily have a direct relationship with the main organization. This is a real problem because these local grassroots members are hugely valuable to the organization in terms of representing them on the ground. They are also of huge value as a fundraising base and in terms of being a listening ear to what is happening in their local community. In fact, an organization's value is really made up of the quality and engagement of its grassroots members. Learn more about how to organize and mobilize your supporters here.

Political speeches

Political speeches and political debates are two sides of the same coin. Mastering this skillset is crucial if you are to be an effective communicator and a successful politician. In recent times Barack Obama has shown the power of political rhetoric to capture and contextualize issues in an understandable way. His inauguration speech was a generation-defining piece of public speech that will be studied for many years to come. On the flip side, Donald Trump showed incredible ability in political debates, not through rigorous argument or the ability to rebut his competitors, but in the power of making a statement and then defending that position against all comers. Despite being a rank outsider at the beginning of the presidential primary race, in successive political debates, he saw off his competitors by using a mixture of soundbites, put-downs and an unshakeable belief in the correctness of his position over all others.

Political campaign strategy

Political campaign strategy should be 20% strategy and 80% implementation. That said, as you set out on your campaign, now is a great time to do a lot of that strategy. Check out our resource guide here with 17 tips to get your strategy right.

How to run for office training program

Join Brendan Tobin, VP of Growth at Ecanvasser and Matt Krayton of Publitics Political Consulting to learn about campaign setup, field work, campaign messaging, and digital campaigning. This practical course is perfect for anyone running for local office or anyone who wants to sharpen their skills in campaign management.

Run for office

Set over 4 weeks, the Run for Office course will get you ready to run with checklists, case studies, quizzes and a three month subscription to Ecanvasser's world beating political technology. Armed with know-how built on over 4000 campaigns and the technology used to manage winning teams, you will have everything you need to win on election day.

Get your free 7-day trial of Ecanvasser

Sign up now to have our campaign consultants guide you through your 7-day trial

Speak to salesSpeak to sales

Listening to our current users,  we are aware that there can be an internal struggle of team management when it comes to organizing quickly. To get people out on doors, the back and forth over Whatsapp, Messenger, and (insert other apps here) can be endless. We aim to streamline this process for you with Ecanvasser. Now organizers can commit via the Walk app (their canvassing app!) and get notified in the run-up to the event so that they don’t forget. By building it into the door knocking process life has gotten a lot easier for campaign managers.

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How to run for office: Resource guide

Brendan Finucane
5 min read

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How to run for office: Resource Guide

Did you know that over 1 million people will run for office this year! And getting elected is easier than you might think provided you do the right things. Let us guide you to victory on election day with our run for office resource guide designed for campaign managers and candidates. With our experience working on over 4000 campaigns in 70 countries we can help you win no matter who you are running against.

Political campaign tools - Whitepaper

The modern political campaign has moved towards digital. Traditional channels of engagement like door-to-door canvassing and phone banking are being optimized along the way and additional channels have opened up to engage voters, raise funds, manage events, and recruit supporters. Unlike traditional methods where a campaign strategy was implemented with little room for iteration, new digital tools provide granular data on every activity that can be analyzed and used to fine-tune the next action. But there is still a gap between the evolution of digital tools, and campaigns willing to invest in a digital strategy. While a website and a CRM (Constituent Relationship Management ) are considered essentials by most campaigns, the realm of digital is much bigger. New technologies are changing the way candidates reach voters, mold opinions, and win votes. For this reason, political campaigns need to step up and embrace digital to stay ahead of the curve. Check out our political campaign tools whitepaper here.

Social distance canvassing

In the ever changing environment that we now live in, people are having to be adaptable with their strategies for field operations. Anyone who works in the field doing door canvassing or face-to-face engagement with citizens will be acutely aware of the challenges posed by Covid 19. Our recent guideline paper on social distance canvassing has been helping political campaigners, advocacy groups and nonprofits to train their field workers to operate safely. You can access those guidelines through the download form at the end.

Outside of the medical guidance and the protocols for face-to-face engagement we should also look at strategies for canvassing that will apply for the foreseeable future with the need for social distancing. Here are some tactics we are seeing being used by campaigners.

Phonebanking 2020

Phonebanking has become the unlikely hero of campaigns in 2020 as Covid-19 has impacted on real-world activities very significantly. It has stepped into the gap in the market for voter contact that can be conducted 100% safely and still be effective. Political campaigns and advocacy groups are continuing to reach voters and push them to vote/donate/volunteer from the safety of the canvasser’s own home.

Relational organizing

The 2020 election cycle was supposed to be when we saw the awesome power of democrats field canvassing program blowing Trump’s digital campaigning away…..and then 2020 happened.

‌‌Since then many campaigns have fallen back on a well known but not entirely understood mechanism of campaign building - relational organizing. It is not a new phenomenon, as a matter of fact we have been doing it for years without actually measuring it.

‌‌The buzzworthy, friend to friend outreach strategy is powerful - we use it daily, in every aspect of our lives. “Will you like my friend’s new Facebook page?”, “Will you tell your mom that we are holding a bake sale at the weekend”, “Are you interested in coming to this speaker with me at the weekend?” and finally “Will you vote for my father next weekend, you guys have a lot in common!”.

‌‌Think about it this way, a volunteer reaching out to someone they already know is more effective than a volunteer reaching out to strangers. If you got a call from a campaign organizer asking you to vote, it would be easier for you to ignore it than if your cousin texted you and asked you to vote. In the current climate, political organizing makes more sense if it is relational. With movement restrictions still in place in most areas, we don’t have the luxury of building new relationships with voters in the community which is why relational organizing is so powerful in 2020 compared to any other year. Instead focus on what you can do, make use of the relationships you already have.

Connecting with your peers through relational organizing

How to invest in your grassroots supporters to win

The local chapter or constituency will have its own activists and members and these people do not necessarily have a direct relationship with the main organization. This is a real problem because these local grassroots members are hugely valuable to the organization in terms of representing them on the ground. They are also of huge value as a fundraising base and in terms of being a listening ear to what is happening in their local community. In fact, an organization's value is really made up of the quality and engagement of its grassroots members. Learn more about how to organize and mobilize your supporters here.

Political speeches

Political speeches and political debates are two sides of the same coin. Mastering this skillset is crucial if you are to be an effective communicator and a successful politician. In recent times Barack Obama has shown the power of political rhetoric to capture and contextualize issues in an understandable way. His inauguration speech was a generation-defining piece of public speech that will be studied for many years to come. On the flip side, Donald Trump showed incredible ability in political debates, not through rigorous argument or the ability to rebut his competitors, but in the power of making a statement and then defending that position against all comers. Despite being a rank outsider at the beginning of the presidential primary race, in successive political debates, he saw off his competitors by using a mixture of soundbites, put-downs and an unshakeable belief in the correctness of his position over all others.

Political campaign strategy

Political campaign strategy should be 20% strategy and 80% implementation. That said, as you set out on your campaign, now is a great time to do a lot of that strategy. Check out our resource guide here with 17 tips to get your strategy right.

How to run for office training program

Join Brendan Tobin, VP of Growth at Ecanvasser and Matt Krayton of Publitics Political Consulting to learn about campaign setup, field work, campaign messaging, and digital campaigning. This practical course is perfect for anyone running for local office or anyone who wants to sharpen their skills in campaign management.

Run for office

Set over 4 weeks, the Run for Office course will get you ready to run with checklists, case studies, quizzes and a three month subscription to Ecanvasser's world beating political technology. Armed with know-how built on over 4000 campaigns and the technology used to manage winning teams, you will have everything you need to win on election day.

Get your free 7-day trial of Ecanvasser

Sign up now to have our campaign consultants guide you through your 7-day trial

Speak to salesSpeak to sales

Listening to our current users,  we are aware that there can be an internal struggle of team management when it comes to organizing quickly. To get people out on doors, the back and forth over Whatsapp, Messenger, and (insert other apps here) can be endless. We aim to streamline this process for you with Ecanvasser. Now organizers can commit via the Walk app (their canvassing app!) and get notified in the run-up to the event so that they don’t forget. By building it into the door knocking process life has gotten a lot easier for campaign managers.

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