If you’re a first-time candidate for office, don’t trust anyone.
Don’t trust your team.
Your campaign manager is probably just working for you to get a paycheck or to enhance their resume. They need to be micromanaged. They are definitely wasting both time and resources. Second guess everything.
Your field director has probably doesn’t understand your race at all. They have picked the wrong doors to knock on. The mailers are going to the wrong mailboxes. They either have you doing too much or too little canvassing. You should spend a lot of time in your database redoing everything.
Your finance director isn’t going to file your reports on time or correctly. They have totally misjudged your budget. They probably need to be yelled at regularly.
Your comms director can’t be trusted to post on social media, write a press release, or give you advice on any issues. They aren’t going to phrase things exactly as you would, so you should wordsmith everything all the time.
They are your team, but you shouldn’t trust them.
Don’t trust your volunteers.
Volunteers are notorious for not showing up. They say they’ll do something for the campaign and then don’t follow through. The yard signs will be in the wrong places. They won’t stick to the phone banking script. And don’t get me started on how little they’ll donate.
Volunteers are the worst. You shouldn’t trust them.
Don’t trust your voters.
If there is anything wrong with politics in America, it’s voters. They are fickle. They don’t vote in their own best interests. When they ask questions, it’s almost always with some kind of ulterior motive. The best way to deal with voters is to shame them, guilt them, and generally distrust them.
Definitely don’t trust voters.
Most of all, don’t trust yourself.
You should work all the time, be constantly stressed out, not take any days off, and avoid self-care and sleep. You are the only hope for America, your state, or your town. If you don’t win, democracy will die. Really, the fate of the whole planet is resting on your shoulders. Good luck with that.
Whatever you do, don’t trust yourself.
Of course, all of this is the worst advice I could give you as a candidate. The truth is that people are just people, and as hard as it can be sometimes, you’ve got to trust them. And maybe the best way to do that is to know what to expect as a first-time candidate. That’s why we’ve created the Campaign Readiness Checklist so you can start your campaign with confidence.
Sign up here to get immediate access to our FREE downloadable PDF - Campaign Readiness Checklist from You Could Run. Click Submit and check your email.
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