A political campaign is an organized effort to elect candidates or pass ballot initiatives such as constitutional amendments, legislative referenda, or local ordinances. While many campaigns are largely volunteer-driven, many larger ones will hire paid staffers to manage project and budget management, fundraising, and volunteer recruitment and engagement programs. These professionals typically focus on implementing strategy and policy decisions alongside a team of volunteers.
While there are a wide variety of positions available on political campaigns, some roles tend to have more demanding workloads than others. As you get experience in the field, you may be able to take on more responsibility.
As with most jobs, you will have better odds of landing a role on a political campaign if you have a personal connection to someone who works for that campaign. In addition, you should be aware of partisan affiliations when searching for campaign work. Most opportunities are partisan and switching parties incurs reputational and career costs that are low early on but increase the longer you spend in one party.
Most political campaigns are focused on raising money and turning out voters. As you work on a campaign, make sure to separate your personal funds from campaign funds and follow all federal, state, and local laws regarding how you can spend campaign funding. Also, avoid using credit cards for campaign expenses if possible to avoid incurring lingering debts after the election is over. You can find many job postings for campaign roles online, but it is often more effective to network your way in with a candidate or a member of their leadership team.
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