Working for a political campaign offers staffers – usually college students to mid-level professionals – an opportunity to gain professional experience quickly while building a meaningful career. The work is challenging and highly demanding, requiring long hours, frequent evening and weekend commitments, and a willingness to take on tasks outside one’s comfort zone. Campaigns are deeply rooted in the communities they serve, and offer an intimate understanding of how political support for specific policy ideas is built, maintained, and lost. Consequently, political instincts developed during campaign work are likely to be aligned with local political dynamics, and may limit one’s opportunities to advance policy agendas on the national level.
In addition to candidates themselves, campaigns are powered by organizations and individuals who passionately believe in the candidate’s ideas and are willing to put in the work required to help them win. Trade unions, employer organizations, groups of citizens, and even famous people completely unrelated to politics regularly engage in election campaign activities.
The most visible campaigns are presidential elections, but there are many thousands of campaigns that are run for other public office: the 435 members of the House of Representatives; the 100 senators; tens of thousands of state legislators, elected state judges, auditors, attorneys general, treasurers, and secretaries of state; and hundreds of mayors and city councilmembers. In all of these races, the success or failure of the candidate depends on how well they can reach, communicate with, and persuade voters that they deserve their vote.
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