Campaign Coordination Tips From The Experts
Whether youre preparing a candidate to become the next president, governor, mayor or school board director, youll need volunteers to make the campaign a success. Volunteers do the heavy lifting that paid staff just cant. But volunteers rely on staff to tell them what to do and when. These 10 campaign coordination tips from well-known campaign managers can help you do your job like a pro.
Monitor And Prevent Voter Suppression
Its not enough to turn out voters and help them navigate their polling places. We also have to make sure people can vote without fear of misinformation, intimidation, or violence. Already, Trump supporters have protested outside early voting sites in an attempt to suppress Democratic voters. Volunteers are sorely needed to monitor polling places for attempts at voter suppression as well as to identify disinformation spreading across social media and educate voters about their rights.
Where to sign up:
The Election Protection coalition is putting volunteers to work whether thats safely monitoring polls in person , surveilling social media for misinformation, or reaching out to voters so that they are up to date on their rights. Anyone can sign up to volunteer, even if they dont live in a swing state.
This truly is the most important, highest-stakes election of our lifetimes. If you arent volunteering yet, pick an organization and get going. If youre already doing your part, share this post with someone who needs to see it. We all need to do something. Americas future depends on it.
Jay Inslee Endorses Biden For President
WASHINGTON Washington Gov. and former 2020 presidential candidate Jay Inslee endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday in a special Earth Day edition of Biden’s “Here’s the Deal” podcast.
“You’re going to have a concrete plan for action within the next 10 years to develop a clean energy plan, so we just don’t plan to 2050. I know that you have efforts to really do things in the next 10 years and I’m very excited about this,” Inslee said.
Notably, Inslee endorsed Bidens climate change plan even though many green groups and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have been critical of it. Specifically, groups have argued that Biden’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 2050 instead of 2030 doesn’t go far enough.
Inslee, who focused most of his presidential bid on climate change, ended his campaign in August. He has since been back in the national spotlight due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Seattle area saw one of the country’s first major outbreaks and has over 12,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Inslee has been applauded for issuing an early stay-at-home order. On Tuesday, Inslee said he wouldn’t be lifting the movement restrictions by May 4, when the current stay-at-home order was supposed to be lifted.
“I know that you have a willingness to follow science and really help us get us out of the COVID-19 crisis. You’re going to bring a reasoned approach to that rather than just ignoring doctors. You’re going to follow their advice,” Inslee said.
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Not The Case For Donald Trump His Team Markets His Re
Both campaigns are funneling millions of dollars into their field programs. Trump Victory has over 1,500 full-time staffers across 23 states, and it has required staffers to read Groundbreakers: How Obamas 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America, a close look at Obamas 2008 and 2012 ground games. The RNC says they will add an additional 1,000 people by the end of September to focus on doors and get out the vote.
So Trumps team is saturating the market, with plans to increase intensity. Meanwhile, Biden is just getting started.
Bidens organizing program was slow to ramp up after the primary. Senior leadership for critical states like Florida and Pennsylvania were announced only in July and the campaign set a goal of just 600 hires by the end of June. The Biden campaign, however, told POLITICO it will have over 2,000 battleground staffers by the end of August through a coordinated committee with the DNC.
New Colorado Poll Finds Support For Trump Impeachment Probe ‘headwinds’ For Cory Gardner
- Joey Bunch, Colorado Politics
An RNC spokesman said as the campaign neared its 2 millionth Colorado voter contact that the extensive effort by an army of volunteers means Trump is laying the groundwork to carry the state, defying expectations.
“Colorado Trump Victory cannot be stopped!” said Andres Malave, in a statement. “After another record breaking weekend of action, it’s clear that voters and volunteers across Colorado support President Trump’s agenda of promises made, promises kept, and are fired up to re-elect President Trump in November.”
Malave dismissed polling since Trump’s inauguration that has shown the president is deeply unpopular among state voters, and polls conducted this year that have found likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden leading Trump by double digits in Colorado.
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One Congressional Race Three Very Different Ways To Advertise On Coronavirus
WASHINGTON Today’s First Read Ad Watch heads to northwest Georgia for the battle to replace retiring GOP Rep. Tom Graves, where there are some very different ways that candidates are messaging on coronavirus.
In Clayton Fullers recent spot in the deep-red district, he begins by talking about how he was called up by the Air National Guard for coronavirus response, before pivoting to his work as a prosecutor who will stand with President Trump.
In , neurosurgeon John Cowan blasts weak Republicans like Mitt Romney and deranged Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi before shooting a prop with a sign with COVID-19 written on it.
And in a third spot, Marjorie Taylor Greene calls fines for violating social distancing orders a dose of Chinese-style socialism, warning that America could become a socialist nation under Chinas thumb.
In Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, a district that President Trump won overwhelmingly in 2016, the GOP primary is effectively the only game in town. So there’s a large field of candidates beyond these three looking to grab the seat.
But on the airwaves right now, these three candidates are taking three significantly different tacks toward messaging on the coronavirus crisis.
This is an excerpt from Thursday’s edition of First Read, the newsletter from NBC’s Political Unit. Sign up by clicking here.
Get Other People To Vote
This is the main way most people think about volunteering during an election. Voter turnout in the US varies dramatically across groups. Perhaps the most obvious difference is by age: the vast majority of senior citizens vote in presidential elections, compared to less than half of young people.
Because a lot of Americans dont vote, in the final weeks before an election, political organizations run get out the vote programs . In typical election years, this looks like knocking on peoples doors and asking them to vote on Election Day. But the Covid-19 pandemic has stopped door-knocking efforts in their tracks . Instead, organizations are going all-in on outreach that can be done from home: making phone calls, sending text messages, and writing personal letters.
Nearly every day, someone asks me which of these three options calls, texts, and letters is best for boosting turnout. My answer: it depends on your target voters, your speed, and your interest. The most important thing is that you reach out to voters who stand a chance of swinging the election. This means contacting voters who live in purple areas places where the vote could plausibly go for the blue candidate or the red candidate . You can call as many people as you want in Arkansas, but theres zero chance youll flip the state from red to blue, even if you are effective at getting some left-leaning voters to turn out. Its simply not flippable at least, not this year.
Where to sign up:
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Trump Campaign Colorado Republicans Log 2 Million Voter Contacts By Volunteers
Volunteers for the Colorado Republican Party and state Trump Victory campaign distribute fliers for U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner on Friday, July 3, 2020, in a photo posted to the Twitter account of a state GOP organizer. On Sunday, July 12, 2020, the Colorado Republicans said, they made their 2 millionth contact with a voter.
Volunteers with the Colorado Republican Party and the state’s Trump Victory campaign on Sunday surpassed 2 million voters contacts, a spokesman for the state GOP said Monday.
Colorado isn’t widely considered a presidential swing state this year Democrat Hillary Clinton beat President Donald Trump by 5 percentage points in 2016, and the electorate appears to have shifted to the left since then but U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner’s bid for a second term is considered crucial to Republican hopes of keeping the gavel in the Senate.
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, the state party’s chairman, said achieving the milestone demonstrates the GOP’s organizational strength heading into the home stretch before the November election.
The Shape Of Your Team
Smaller scale campaigns have what Privratsky calls the kitchen cabinet, which is a small handful of regulars… where folks are giving strategy advice for the next week or the next month.
These campaigns are typically run by five to 15 people, depending on the race and how competitive it is, he said.
In terms of formal roles, there is typically a campaign manager and field director, in addition to other positions in charge of communications, fundraising, volunteers, policy positions, technology and legal advice. These would likely be the paid or more senior positions in a campaign.
Presidential campaigns can become massive enterprises. You may be working in a busy office alongside dozens of volunteers. Early primary election state Iowa has even started tracking presidential candidates local staffers.
As for the hours?
It really only takes a few hours a week to make a difference,” Privratsky said. “Helping out a few times a year or a few hours a week can really help get the candidates message out there.
He added that very involved volunteers can work anywhere from 1020 or more hours per week, and the work flow can vary depending on the timing of the campaign.
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Tip Ten: Know When To Play It Safe
Chances are, youll have a few innovators and experimenters on your volunteer team. They may come to you with new ideas about how to spend campaign dollars and how to reach more people. Its important to listen, but remember your goals.
Addisu Demissie, campaign manager for Cory Booker in 2020 and former campaign manager for Gavin Newsoms successful California governors bid, says some regional or state-level campaigns have such tight funding that they can either do something new, experimental and unproven, or they can stick with the tried and true. An experiment here could be catastrophic. Would you roll the dice on someones future that way? he asks.
Striking a balance here is important. Listen to your innovative volunteers, but also keep your strategy, budget, and goals in mind.
Prominent Environmental Group Endorses Joe Biden
WASHINGTON Former vice president Joe Biden embraced an endorsement from a prominent environmental advocacy group, the League of Conservation Voters , Monday and suggested that hes open to building on his climate plan with environmental leaders and organizations.
The LCV, which aims to elect pro-environmental candidates nationwide, announced its formal support for the apparent Democratic nominee in a statement Monday morning. That statement applauded Bidens proposed climate plan and the candidates record of protecting the environment and addressing the climate crisis.
We are proud to endorse Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States, LCV Action Fund Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, Tiernan Sittenfeld, stated. We cannot afford the cost of inaction or another four years of a Trump presidency.
Responding to the endorsement, the Biden campaign said in its own statement Monday that its committed to working with the LCV on expanding its current climate policy.
I have asked my campaign to commence a process to meaningfully engage with more voices from the climate movement, Biden said. Together, his campaign along with leaders and organizations like the LCV will collaborate on additional policies in areas ranging from environmental justice to new, concrete goals we can achieve within a decade, to more investments in a clean energy economy.
We are all in to help elect Joe Biden, she added.
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Volunteer Activity At Corporate Or Labor Facilities
Generally, if an individual provides services to a campaign during paid working hours, the employer makes a contribution to the campaign. However, an employee, stockholder or member of a corporation or labor organization may make occasional, isolated or incidental use of corporate or labor organization facilities for his or her own individual volunteer activities on behalf of a campaign. Note that the Commission has said that the use of facilities for one hour per week or four hours per month is considered incidental use. For example, an employee may use an office phone to make calls that pertain to political volunteer work. If the volunteer activity is limited to incidental use of the facilities the volunteer does not have to reimburse the organization for use of the facilities .
When use of the facilities exceeds incidental use, the volunteer must reimburse the organization the usual and normal rental fee within a commercially reasonable time. Such reimbursement is considered an in-kind contribution from the volunteer and must be reported by the benefiting campaign committee. Or, if any person uses the facilities of a corporation or union to produce campaign materials, reimbursement is required regardless of how much time is spent on the activity.
What You Need To Know To Volunteer For A Political Campaign
We all know that every vote counts in an election, but what about every volunteer? Working for a presidential campaign is a way for an individual to directly help implement governmental change. Campaigns welcome high school and college student volunteers, and they play integral roles in the election by registering and mobilizing new voters. We interviewed two young political leaders who represent their parties on college campuses. Alejandra Salinas, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Texas, is the national president of the College Democrats, and Alex Schriver, 23, works out of Washington D.C. as the chairman of the College Republicans. The College Democrats and the College Republicans are present on over 1,000 different campuses across the country, and Alejandra and Alex each oversee over 100,000 student members. They’ve outlined how you can join a campaign, what you can expect to do, and why you’ll benefit from political activism.
How do I sign up?
Attend a College Democrats or Republicans meeting.
“When you go to a campus meeting, all the campaigns basically come to you,” says Alejandra. “Official representatives pitch campaign positions and offer you free food. It’s how I got my start in campaigning, and how most other college students get their introduction as well.”
Search the web to find your candidate’s local offices.
Use social media.
What will I do as a volunteer?
Speak directly to voters.
Reach out to other students.
Employ your digital skills.
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