Campaigns

During this midterm election season, the media landscape is an important place for campaigns and organizations to look as they plan for the fall.  As we continue to see, all elections in the US have become more and more nationalized.

Hal Malchow has over thirty-five years of experience in politics, having worked for four Democratic presidential nominees and a long list of Senate, congressional, and gubernatorial candidates. Hal Malchow’s pivotal role in introducing data science to American political campaigns and measuring the impact of voter communication tactics changed the way campaigns are run. In his latest novel, No Popes in Heaven, Hal Malchow draws upon his experience to highlight the absurdities of our political system and the negative consequences of well-meaning reforms for our democracy. We sat down with him to hear all about his new book.

Meg Ahern is a social and behavior change expert working in international development, and author of the new guide, The Science of Influence: Harnessing Neuroscience and the Social Sciences for Effective Democratic Campaigns. She focused her dissertation at Michigan on the role of emotion and social context in perception, cognition and memory, and did her postdoc in the sociology of knowledge at The University of Chicago.

When you get into politics, it’s hard to resist the all too common tunnel vision of focusing only on politics. But be careful – binge watching Veep or The West Wing is not going to help you run a better campaign or organization; nor will reading solely political books. So Here are some of our favorite non-political books. 

Paul Lage is the President and CEO of Gill Studios, which includes Gill-line: the largest producer of political yard signs, decals, and bumper stickers in the country. We asked Paul for some industry tips to help campaigns navigate the process of designing and printing yard signs and other campaign materials.

No matter how many advocacy campaigns you have done, people will always have a ton of questions about advocacy metrics to judge how successfully those campaigns were run, and if they were effective.

The political website: it’s a requirement for any candidate for office, but that doesn’t mean it should be just another item to check off your to-do list! Being intentional when setting up your website by keeping a few key political tactics in mind will ensure that you are providing voters with an enjoyable, engaging, cohesive experience.