Familiar Advice for First-Time Candidates
Mostly everything I tell first-time candidates, repeated here so I don’t have to say it every single time.
It’s that time of year again, and I’m not talking about Toyotathon.
New candidates are announcing. Every time we bring on someone new, I get the same questions and give the same advice. So I pulled it all into one place in no particular order.
And this is not just for newbies. Some veterans need the refresher, too.
1. Run everything by your compliance officer
Your compliance officer keeps you out of trouble. Before you spend or release anything, send it to them. That includes your website, yard signs, media, scripts, palm cards, and mailers. One review today can save you thousands later. Compliance mistakes turn into attack ads fast. Make this rule nonnegotiable from day one.
Real Example: A client printed thousands of yard signs without checking with the compliance attorney or me. The signs had no disclaimers. They tried to save a few dollars and ended up spending more.
2. Hire political professionals
Campaigns run on tight rules and fast timelines. Professionals who work in politics understand compliance, strategy, voter contact, and the pace of a campaign. Well-meaning friends or local freelancers do not. Hiring people with real political experience prevents mistakes, saves time, and keeps you focused on winning instead of fixing preventable problems.
Real Example: One of the mistakes I see over and over again is a candidate asking a friend to shoot their campaign photos. The friend may be a solid photographer, but they do not understand what makes a photo usable in political work. The campaign gets a bunch of pretty pictures that cannot be used for anything, then has to hire a real campaign photographer to redo the entire shoot.
3. Fundraise, fundraise, fundraise
Money drives voter contact. If you want to reach voters, you must fundraise every single day. Start with a simple Excel sheet with names, phone numbers, emails, ask amounts, and call notes. Go through your phone and write down everyone you believe will support you.
Fundraising gets easier once you understand what you’re doing. You are not asking people to fund your personal life. You are asking them to invest in a campaign built on shared principles. Set daily call goals and treat fundraising like part of your job.
4. Trust your real friends
When you announce, plenty of new people will want to join your circle of trust and offer advice. Some mean well, some want access, and some want drama; most do not know what the hell they are talking about.
Be polite to everyone, but trust only the people who have known you for years. You know the ones, the guys in your decades-old group chat who could ruin you if they ever released the stupid stuff you’ve sent. These are your friends. Don’t forget that.
5. Tell people you’re running
You have to say it out loud. Tell people at the grocery store. Tell the server at the restaurant. Tell your neighbors. Voters cannot support you if they do not know you’re in the race, and most voters never meet a candidate. Every conversation counts.
Real Example: I had a client one time go to all the businesses in town and introduce himself as the candidate for a specific office. One of the conversations turned into a relationship that resulted in over $20,000 in donations.
6. Always be prepared
Keep palm cards in your car and your bag. Bring a notebook or use your phone for quick follow-ups. Have business cards handy. Keep a clean shirt or blazer in the backseat for last-minute meetings or photos. A spare pair of shoes never hurts. Preparation signals seriousness, and people notice it.
7. Take pictures. Lots of pictures.
Document your days. Take photos at events, meetings, small businesses, and community gatherings. Voters want to see you active in the district. Your team needs photos for social media and mail. Aim for a mix of posed shots and natural moments. Use a shared album so your team can access everything in one place. Tell people what’s new, what’s now, and what’s next.
8. Keep your message simple
Pick the three things you want voters to associate with your name. Repeat them in every interview, speech, and conversation. Clear, steady messaging wins. Long, complicated lists do not. Stay positive, upbeat, and friendly. Nobody wants to hear you complain about the “establishment”.
9. Avoid debates on Facebook
You do not win votes by arguing online. Post your updates, share your message, then move on. Save your time and energy for real conversations with real voters. Remember that screenshots spread fast and posts live forever. You’ve got better things to do than argue with the They/Them pronoun police that has a BLM flag as they/their/it profile picture.
10. Respect your family’s time
Campaigns demand long days and constant decisions. Talk with your spouse and kids before you start. Set expectations. Protect time with them. Candidates burn out when their personal life collapses. The voters will be there tomorrow. Your family needs you today.
11. Treat volunteers well
Volunteers give up their personal time to help you. Respect that. Thank them often. Give them clear tasks. Celebrate their wins. A strong volunteer team becomes a campaign’s backbone, but only if they feel valued.
12. Thank your donors
I still can’t believe how often this gets overlooked. Handwritten notes matter. A quick personal thank you builds goodwill and keeps donors engaged. It takes five minutes and pays off in the long term.
13. Practice your stump speech
Keep it tight and clear. Hit your main points. End with a direct ask. Practice it until it feels natural. A good stump speech works everywhere, from county fairs to donor meetings.
14. Clean up your personal social media
Review old posts that could distract from your message. Adjust privacy settings. Be disciplined about what you share now that you’re a public figure. Opponents and reporters will scroll back years. Give them less to work with. Nobody needs to know you were the beer pong king at Greek Village keggers
15. Free is never good
I saved the best for last. This is one of the most significant points of contention that I face with clients.
One of the biggest traps candidates fall into is accepting free campaign work. It sounds helpful, but it almost always creates more problems than it solves. When someone works for free, you are less likely to give direct or constructive feedback because you do not want to offend them. Then you end up stuck with subpar work because you do not want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Free work also removes the incentive to deliver on time and at the level a campaign needs. Campaigns move fast. You need people who take the work seriously because they are being paid to take it seriously.
This does not mean you should never hire people you know. It means you should only hire people you feel comfortable giving honest feedback to, and who understand that political work is not a hobby. You get what you pay for, and in campaigns, that rule holds up every single time.
Real Example:
One of the most common examples of this happens when a candidate lets a friend build their logo or website. Candidates often don’t know where to start, so they ask a friend who “knows computers,” once built a company website, won an art contest in 11th grade, or volunteered for another campaign. The results never match what a real campaign operation needs.
And if someone made you a free website when you were getting started, hear this clearly: you are not stuck with that website for the rest of the race.
Final Thoughts
If you work in this industry long enough, you see the same patterns repeat.
The candidates who prepare, listen, and keep their circle tight almost always end up in a better place than the ones who throw a Hail Mary hoping for good results.
Voters can tell who is serious. They can also tell who is guessing.
Take these rules, put them into practice, and treat your campaign like something worth doing well. The race will still be hard. It always is. But you will be ready for it, and that alone puts you miles ahead.
Great advice. As a long-time political professional, I would add one item: to paraphrase Dwight Eisenhower, campaign plans are useless, but campaign planning is essential. The four basic elements of any campaign are time (primarily the candidate's), money, people (volunteers), and talent (professionals). Good plans incorporate and coordinate all four as efficiently and effectively as possible.
On item 10, I would also advise campaigns, early on, to pull out a calendar, block off personal time for the candidate and his/her spouse and family, and develop a spouse "plan." Spouses need to feel engaged in ways that make them comfortable and reflect how they can best distribute, and an unhappy spouse can be a huge drain and distraction.