About

About MyCampaignGuide

This site exists to help you run a serious campaign for public office in the USA. This site is for you if:

You are a first-time candidate
You are a campaign worker moving into a management or general consulting role for the first time
You are a candidate going it alone after parting ways with your former team
You are hoping to run for office in the future
You are an activist planning to get into campaign work professionally
You want to learn about the practical logistics of political campaigns

About the author

Hi, I’m Bradley L’Herrou. I’ve worked as a General Consultant with dozens of Democratic candidates in seven states; I’ve worked on campaigns for Congress, DA, Mayor, State House, County Commission, City Council, and School Board.

I learned over time that our campaign infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. This site is my small attempt to improve that infrastructure. I believe that Democratic candidates and campaign workers should be able to find practical resources at the click of a button.

Everything on this site is based on a resource I wished I had at some point in my own career. Hopefully I can help you grow faster and go further as a candidate or professional campaign worker.

The story of My Campaign Guide

During my time working political campaigns (with a focus on campaign finance), I noticed that Democratic campaign infrastructure was serving two groups of people very poorly: 1) most candidates, and 2) campaign staff (especially young or developing workers). This site began as a way to help those two groups.

Candidates

The status quo works well for candidates running huge statewide campaigns and fairly well for dedicated grassroots campaigns running on effectively no budget. That leaves those in the middle — the vast majority of candidates — without great options for raising significant money and keeping that money targeted at voter outreach — staffing is expensive! This site is filled with resources to help you make the most of your time and budget. Avoid costly mistakes out of the gate, do more yourself, hire fewer staff, and make sure your team has the resources to be more efficient. If nothing else, spend less time googling because the information you need is laid out here in an organized, easy-to-use way.

Campaign Staff

There is a development pipeline for Democratic campaign workers, but it is organized around presidential campaigns. Every 4 years, a huge number of young people are hired to be field organizers. Those who perform well can move up the ladder to become regional field directors and ultimately statewide field directors. This training is focused overwhelmingly on field and on managing larger and larger districts. That unfortunately doesn’t prepare staff well for the vast majority of political campaigns in the USA, which are Congressional-level or below. These campaigns don’t involve multiple layers of staff management and statewide organization, nor are the most-needed skills in field. Instead, these campaigns need staff well-trained in campaign logistics, especially campaign finance. Good in-person trainings exist for these things, but it’s also invaluable to have readily-accessible guides and resources. Starting your first campaign management gig from scratch is very time-intensive, and frankly shouldn’t be necessary. Hopefully MyCampaignGuide will be helpful in your professional journey.

To Democrats:

This site was built by a Democratic campaign worker for Democrats. Most of the information here is possible to find elsewhere, but only by piecing together many different sources. I’ve compiled what I’ve learned in one place so you can benefit from it.

I hope you can use these resources to grow your skillset, become a stronger campaigner, and put good Democrats into elected office in your community. Please don’t be afraid to reach out so we can talk about how you can make a positive change.

To Republicans:

This site was built for Democratic candidates and may not align with your experiences running for office as a Republican. I hope you appreciate the spirit of openness that leads me to make this information public and available to all.

Reading the site, maybe you will come to see myself and my party members as what we are: people working hard to make our communities better. I hope you’re working toward the same thing. Oh, and I hope you lose your election to a good Democrat who governs well.

Want to take all this with you?

We are working on an ebook incorporating all the campaign information gathered in this site. We can let you know when that’s available so you can take the campaign guide with you and review it offline.