When I ran my first political campaign in 1995, I did not know what I was doing.
I was a 20 year-old college student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I had excellent organizational skills, I was a former boy scout, I was in Navy ROTC, and I was in College Republicans. I was also a lifeguard at the university's aquatic center. None of these things prepared me for running a countywide race.
I did not even think of looking for a book about how to run a political campaign. I thought that type of text would not exist.
So everything I began learning about how to run a political campaign, I had to learn organically - either by creating my own system or learning from others who had run campaigns, before.
Fortunately, I was able to work with a campaign professional who had run federal and state political races. I took classes about campaigning that were offered in my state, and I began to learn how campaigns were structured and how successful people won them.
Fast forward 13 years, and I had won nearly every campaign I had ever run. There were some instances in which we lost. Those campaigns taught me the most. It is hard to lose a campaign, but if you can be honest with yourself, and be introspective, a thorough analysis can tell you where you may have gone wrong and what could have been done to achieve a different outcome.
I had become so successful at winning that I and a couple of friends who teamed up with me, and we were able to defeat the state's best political strategists in every race where we had been on the opposing side. In one instance, our opponent spent more than five (5) times the amount of money we could raise, and we still won.
And during that first 13 years of running campaigns, I took notes on what worked and what failed. I began to format a short manuscript that I gave to my candidates about how to plan and win campaigns. The lessons in it were hard-learned. But they were excellent lessons, and the candidates who took my advice continued to win even when I had candidates with "Strange" last names running against good ballot names like Smith or Black.
We won these tough races, where we had many disadvantages, because we created a plan, stuck to the plan and our message, and executed our budget the way we analyzed and developed it for the race.
By 2008, my manuscript that I created for my candidates had grown pretty large. I met with Terry Grundy, a professor at the University of Cincinnati who taught a class on urban lobbying. He did not have a text for his course, so he made me a proposition: get this manuscript published by this fall, and I will use it as the text for my classes.
After a couple of months of rewriting, organizing and editing, editing, editing, I was finally able to produce a manuscript that was fit for publishing!
I found an online publisher who printed my book, The Political Campaign Desk Reference, and I began guest lecturing at the University of Cincinnati and other colleges and universities that adopted my book (including Harvard, Duke and many others) as their course text. I would see my text appear on syllabuses that were published online for various courses.
The biggest component to winning a campaign is planning. The Political Campaign Desk Reference is a guide that will walk you through planning a campaign that will be competitive.
And the book began to sell! It sold big. In just a few years, I had developed candidate "followers" who reached out to thank me for my text and for helping them - even people who had not hired me for consulting!
But the tone changed over the years. People liked the information in my book, but they wanted something that would help "baby-step" them through the process.
I was hesitant to revise my book to be more "punchy" because important content would suffer. I created the Audible version of the book in 2024 to help people who did not have time to read the text. Then a friend of mine suggested that I develop a companion workbook for The Political Campaign Desk Reference. So in January of 2025, 17 years after my first edition, I published the companion WORKBOOK to The Political Campaign Desk Reference.
Now, candidates who have a tough time reading through a reference text can use the workbook and look up items in The Political Campaign Desk Reference as they need them.
In the last few months since I published the workbook, I have had candidates tell me that the two books combined have "put their campaign planning on steroids."
I think that's good.
So, I hope you find these two books helpful, practical guides to planning your campaign. I have met many wonderful consultants who have developed their own guides over the years, and I would never disparage any of their works. Each one of us brings unique talents and experiences to the table. But I ask that you consider that I have 30 years of experience running campaigns, have lectured at universities and leadership programs, have a bachelors and masters degree in this field now, have operated or consulted on campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels not just in Ohio but in other states as well, and I have even won very difficult issue-oriented campaigns (i.e. levies, liquor options, charter amendments etc.).
Additional reading:
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The Political Campaign
Desk Reference has been used by
candidates, campaign managers and in college classrooms since 2008. It is available in paperback, Kindle and Audible
audiobook.
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The is the necessary
workbook to accompany The
Political Campaign Desk Reference. Using this companion in
conjunction with The Political Campaign Desk Reference, you will
build a comprehensive plan and create a focused path for an effective
campaign. It is available in paperback.
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Are voters choosing human
candidates for office, or are we now choosing candidates based on the
information we know about them that is generated by Artificial Intelligence
(AI)? AI is forever changing the
landscape of political campaigns. Even the most local, low-budget campaign
has access to AI tools.
This book is available in hard
cover, paperback, Kindle
and Audible
audiobook.
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This book includes the full
text of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation,
Constitution, Bill of Rights and additional amendments. It is a staple in
every patriot's library.
It is available in paperback and Kindle
versions.
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The day a President takes
office is an opportunity to present a vision for the country. In times of
peace and times of war, good economies and poor economies, and times of
trepidation and prosperity, America's presidents have addressed the nation
that looked to them for leadership. Most were elected, but some presidents
came to office upon the demise of their predecessors. Their words to the
nation are reflective of the nation they swore to protect and defend. This
book compiles the words that America's leaders spoke upon their inauguration
to office.
It is available in paperback.
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campaign advice on the Campaignguy
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These resources will help you develop your campaign plan and keep you focused:
The Political Campaign Desk Reference
Workbook: The companion to the Political Campaign Desk Reference
Campaignguy.com – a web site dedicated to the successful development of campaign plans and providing resources for your political campaign.
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