A thumbs up hand on the right and a thumbs down hand with chalk on the left side on a blue backdrop

Independent Expenditure Campaigns: What They Can and Can't Use

by Tobias Cebulash (He/Him)

What information independent expenditure (IE) campaigns can use depends on who you ask, and what set of laws you’re covered by. In recent years, you may have seen candidate campaigns that appear to bend over backward to make photos and b-roll videos publicly available on their website (a classic example of this being “McConnelling,” which went viral in 2014). Why? What are voters going to do with all this stuff? Well, it turns out that in most cases, the audience isn’t the run-of-the-mill voter at all. These campaigns may instead be trying to make information publicly available for independent expenditure campaigns to use.

Brain made out of yellow paper

Independent Expenditure Campaign Planning

by Phoebe Retta (She/Her)

Here at The Campaign Workshop, we have written a lot about independent expenditure strategy in the past, but the key takeaways never change:

  1. Know your goals.
  2. Do no harm.
  3. Don’t duplicate efforts.
Political Communications: podium with 2 microphones, background of american flag

Political Communication Strategy - Don't Skimp on Speechwriting

by Elena Veatch

Every good political communication strategy should include a plan for speechwriting. Even if your campaign doesn’t anticipate churning out a ton of speeches, make sure you have a process ready to go for writing and finalizing speeches. If you’re running for office even at the local level, chances are you’ll want to have a speech prepared at least for Election night. If you’re intimidated by the speechwriting process, don’t panic—you can follow a simple formula to write a good speech.

5 children standing against a white board with books on their heads.
speech for strategic communications