Candidate Recruitment Doesn't Happen the Way You Think It Does
Candidate recruitment is a lost art form. There is a lot of lore and legend about candidate recruitment we are here to give a more realistic view of candidate recruitment. Contrary to popular belief, someone from the DNC does not appear one day, out of the blue on you doorstep, and say you should be the next representative from Omaha.
The majority of candidates who run for office are never formally recruited through a candidate recruitment process – they recruit themselves. They firmly believe they can make real change in their community. Sure, legislative caucus and interest groups try and get folks to run through recruitment, but this is a chicken and egg process where folks are interested in good candidates and candidates are interested in running.
In my experience, the best candidates are those that have a personal conviction and drive to do it. Organizations provide early training and outreach, but you cannot create the drive for public service, you must have that drive from within.
There is good reason for this. Running for office is an entrepreneurial endeavor. You need to organize and get your resources together. Beyond that, you need to have experiences that exude the confidence of your potential electorate.
Smart candidates use the time before they run to assess their viability, the district, and office they should run for and what their resources will be.
So if you are thinking about running someday, don't wait for the phone to ring and don't let someone tell you how great a candidate you would be - though it is nice to hear. running for office starts with you.
Do your homework and decide whether running for office and serving in office is really what you want to do.
Have more questions about candidate recruitment? Drop us a line and ask away...