Candidate and Campaign Training

Campaign training can make the difference between a winning and losing campaign—especially training for volunteers. Although it’s important that you have a good candidate, campaign manager, or volunteer coordinator who can gather the volunteers, if those volunteers are not provided with training, they might not be of any help. When volunteers can provide much of your people power on a campaign, it’s important to make sure they know what they’re doing. A simple and effective way to get your volunteers up to speed is to send them to a campaign training!

Political campaign training- here is the scoop: There are lots of decisions candidates need to make before they start a run for public office and a political campaign training can help provide some clarity for first time candidates. In our opinion, attending a political candidate and campaign training is a must for any potential candidate.

When we started building training programs, we had a limited training tips to work from. However, after connecting with great mentors, going through various training programs, and learning through trial and error, we have accumulated tools to run effective training session.

Delegate Danica Roem serves as delegate for Virginia House District 13. Roem served as the first openly transgender in any U.S. state legislature. With a background in journalism and a passion for improving citizens quality of life, Danica was inspired to help solve the issues which she reported on everyday throughout her journalism career.

Kelly Dietrich is the founder and CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee, the largest organization in the country singularly focused on providing free campaign training for Democratic candidates, staff, and local leaders. He’s spent more than twenty years in Democratic politics working campaigns all across the country at every level of government. His specialty is new campaign creation, strategy, and fundraising. After getting his start on a congressional campaign in Kansas in 1997, Kelly went on to work and advise dozens of candidates for U.S House, Senate, governor, mayor, and more.

Campaign manuals and eBooks on politics (especially good ones) are hard to come by. So here is a list of our favorite campaign manuals to help progressive candidates win campaigns. These campaign guides come from experts in a range of different fields. They cover everything from debate prep to messaging. Here is a run-down of our favorite eBooks and campaign manuals by Meg Ahern, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and more:

How much should a campaign training cost? Here at The Campaign Workshop, we believe it's important to train campaign staff by providing individuals who want to become campaign operatives the opportunity to go out and gain hands-on experience. If your goal is to work on a campaign, we suggest finding a training program with a strong track record and high attendance.