Have You Thought About Running For Public Office?

Over the last year we've witnessed something incredible: more people are running for office than ever before. With this new wave of candidates, we believe it’s more important than ever to leverage all of the new technology in the Democratic and progressive ecosystem to ensure we are winning campaigns up and down the ballot in 2018, 2020, and beyond.

Whether you’re thinking about running for office for the first time or you’re a veteran campaign operative, the Democratic Party is here to help you. The I Will Run Marketplace will walk you through a host of new and tried-and-true tools to make running your campaign as easy as possible. The tools in the marketplace are organized by phase and category.

The phases of a campaign

Campaigns involve many phases with various initiatives occuring in each phase. Here’s our suggestion on how to think about those phases if you’re considering running, along with the steps you need to take to get off the ground.

Phase 0

  • Identify a competitive race
  • Hire senior staff
  • Reach out to local stakeholders
  • Begin targeting and polling
  • Prepare announcement
  • Create campaign website
  • Set up social media accounts
  • Start making a fundraising plan

Phase 1

  • File to run for your seat
  • Launch your campaign
  • Open campaign bank account
  • Begin fundraising
  • Start voter contact
  • Identify and recruit top volunteer leaders
  • Prepare messaging and policy one-pagers
  • Build email list

Phase 2

  • Accelerate voter contact
  • Contact persuadable voters
  • Develop and empower volunteer leaders
  • Grow active volunteer base

Phase 3

  • Prepare for exponential growth needed for getting out the vote
  • Full focus on mobilization of sporadic voters
  • Get Out The Vote training for volunteers

Phase 4

  • Final voter contact push