🧰 Campaign Toolkit for First-Time Candidates and Grassroots Campaigns
A Starter Guide for New Candidates & Grassroots Campaigns
Welcome! Whether you're running your first campaign or building a movement from the ground up, this toolkit is here to help you move faster, stay organized, and make smart decisions—without needing a full team. Use the prompts below with ChatGPT to generate custom templates, plans, and talking points tailored to your race.
📌 Tip: For best results, always start with this setup instruction ⬇️ (Just copy and paste the block below when opening a new ChatGPT session.)
🧭 Setup Instruction (for ChatGPT)
You are a senior political consultant and communications strategist with deep experience in campaign management, field operations, press strategy, policy messaging, and constituent engagement. Your job is to help create high-quality templates and strategic documents for political professionals. These should include press releases, talking point memos, precinct analyses, campaign plans, email fundraising templates, constituent response templates, newsletters, debate prep guides, and content calendars. Use a confident, professional tone. Structure responses with headers and bullets. Tailor templates for Republican campaigns and advocacy organizations unless told otherwise. Format responses as editable templates or frameworks.
📣 Messaging & Media
Press Release Template Prompt: Create a press release template for a Republican congressional candidate announcing their campaign in a suburban swing district.
Talking Points Memo Prompt: Draft a talking points memo for a candidate discussing border security, crime, and inflation at a town hall.
Debate Prep Brief Prompt: Write a debate prep document that includes 5 likely questions, ideal responses, and rebuttal notes on education and economic growth.
Crisis Communications Plan Prompt: Build a crisis response template for when a campaign faces negative media coverage or a candidate gaffe.
🗳️ Field & Strategy
Precinct Analysis Template Prompt: Create a precinct analysis framework that includes voter registration breakdowns, historical turnout, and persuasion targets.
Campaign Plan Outline Prompt: Draft a high-level campaign plan template for a Republican state house race including budget, field, digital, and comms.
GOTV Script Template Prompt: Write a persuasive Get-Out-The-Vote phone script targeting low-propensity Republican voters.
Volunteer Recruitment Flyer Prompt: Design the copy for a flyer that encourages community members to volunteer for canvassing and events.
Opposition Research Template Prompt: Provide an opposition research document outline that includes personal background, voting record, public statements, donor history, and vulnerabilities.
Door-to-Door Script Prompt: Write a friendly and persuasive door-to-door canvassing script for volunteers talking to likely voters.
Phone Call Script Prompt: Create a standard phone banking script to identify supporters, persuade undecided voters, and collect emails.
Voter Persona Template Prompt: Create a template for building detailed voter personas, including demographics, key issues, communication channels, and likely persuasion methods.
Voter File Analysis Prompt Prompt: Outline how to analyze a voter file to identify persuasion universes, high-turnout segments, and swing voters.
Polling Summary Memo Template Prompt: Generate a memo template summarizing polling results, highlighting key takeaways, vulnerabilities, and recommended adjustments.
💬 Constituent Communications
Fundraising Email Template Prompt: Write a fundraising email template for a first-time conservative candidate running for Congress. Tone: urgent, grassroots.
Campaign Newsletter Template Prompt: Give me a monthly campaign newsletter template that highlights events, endorsements, and volunteer opportunities.
SMS Outreach Script Prompt: Draft a short, friendly SMS message to mobilize supporters to attend a local campaign rally.
📅 Planning & Operations
Weekly Content Calendar Prompt: Build a weekly campaign content calendar template including social posts, emails, SMS, and press activities.
Social Media Post Planner Prompt: Create a social media content plan template with categories like “candidate spotlight,” “policy breakdown,” “supporter story,” etc.
Budget Tracker Template Prompt: Provide a basic campaign budget spreadsheet template with columns for category, vendor, cost, and status.
Event Planning Checklist Prompt: Give me an event planning checklist for a campaign town hall, including logistics, outreach, materials, and follow-up.
Daily Briefing Template Prompt: Provide a morning briefing memo format for campaign leadership, summarizing press hits, polling shifts, events, and priorities.
🗂️ Onboarding Documents
General Campaign Onboarding Packet Prompt: Develop a comprehensive onboarding checklist for a new campaign team, including tech setup, messaging guidance, field planning, and compliance basics.
Intern Onboarding Packet Prompt: Draft an onboarding packet for campaign interns, including schedule expectations, tasks, contact info, and code of conduct.
Volunteer Shift Sign-Up Sheet Prompt: Create a template for managing volunteer sign-ups and shifts for canvassing, phone banking, and events.
🔍 Research & Policy
Issue Position Template Prompt: Write a policy position template with a short summary, 3 key talking points, and a contrast message against the opponent.
Legislative Agenda One-Pager Prompt: Draft a legislative agenda one-pager that outlines 3–5 core priorities for a candidate running for state legislature.
🎥 Digital & Creative Assets
Ad Copy Prompt Bank Prompt: Create a bank of prompts to generate digital ad copy for display, CTV, OTT, pre-roll, and social media.
Landing Page Copy Template Prompt: Write a template for a campaign landing page focused on building an email list or fundraising.
Video Script Template Prompt: Draft a 30-second video ad script promoting a candidate’s biography and core values.
🚨 Rapid Response & War Room
Opposition Tracker Log Template Prompt: Give me a tracker format to log and analyze opponent’s media appearances, statements, and social media content.
War Room Response Flowchart Prompt: Create a flowchart or checklist for how a campaign should handle breaking news or opposition attacks, including roles and timelines.