When do congressional campaigns start

See a list of city mayoral elections in Check with your state or local election office or the U. Vote Foundation for elections coming up in your area. Ask a real person any government-related question for free. They'll get you the answer or let you know where to find it.

Share This Page:. Do you have a question? Talk to a live USA. Open: Jan. Close: Jan. Open: Nov. Open: March 7 9 a. Close: March 11 noon on the Friday immediately following such Monday, notwithstanding the fact that any such days may be legal holidays. Close: March 18 at 5 p. Close: March 1 by 5 p. Close: March 29, by 5 p. Close: March 18, by 5 p. Close: April 11, by 4 p. Close: March 30, by noon noon on March 16 and noon on March 30; next regular business day if March 30 is on a Saturday or Sunday.

The bill also changes candidate filing deadlines to reflect the change of date. Open: April 13, at 8 a. Open: March 11 on or after the second Friday in March before the next regular general election. Before a candidate appears in public, an advance team will scout the location, arrange logistics, and assist in drumming up an appropriate audience.

Many advance teams have at least one staff member present during an event to oversee logistics. Advance work involves lots of travel; you could be on the road twenty days out of the month on a national or statewide campaign.

This work is less sensitive and is more likely to go to campaign novices who exhibit independence, self-confidence, imagination, and good judgment. Campaign managers and their deputies integrate all campaign functions, sometimes doing, and sometimes directing traffic.

It is ultimately their job to make sure that the entire campaign runs as smoothly as possible. The official campaign spokesperson or spokespeople will be members of the communications staff. As Election Day nears, communications generally takes on a lot of low-level hires to staff war rooms which consists of watching a lot of television screens in shifts 24 hours a day. Social media and digital communications management also play an increasingly important role in political campaigns, and campaigns recruit heavily for social media directors, digital strategists and digital organizers.

The presence of social media has turned a hour news cycle into a half-hourly or hourly news cycle, and has accelerated the pace of all communications work, online and not. Constituent liaison work involves conducting outreach to the local leadership of particular interest-group communities, which are sometimes organized along racial or ethnic lines and sometimes along professional or issue lines e. For major statewide or national campaigns, political parties may celebrate the end of the primary process with a formal nominating convention.

Often, parties or campaigns will have their own team hired specifically to plan and coordinate these conventions. Important functions leading up to the convention may include addressing rules and platform issues and organizing delegate selection and support, as well as assisting with the substantial logistics of an especially visible gathering quite important to crucial party supporters.

Political campaigns increasingly rely on fast and rigorous iterative data analysis to guide a vast array of campaign activities, including voter targeting, fundraising, and research, to name just a few. Work in this high-demand area can be a creative way to merge interests in technology and politics.

Field teams contact voters, assemble supporters, and create events in particular geographic regions. They help register voters, deliver campaign literature and other information, call potential voters to inform or persuade, track information from potential voters on prevailing issues or levels of support, and above all, are responsible for getting supporters to the polls on election day. Fundraising can involve big events, extended web campaigns, small house parties, group-based incentives or individual contributions.

In any guise, it is welcome. Staff tends to consist of very young people, especially at the lower rungs. A designated IT staff is critical, especially on a larger campaign. More advanced campaigns need staff to tend the infrastructure for volunteer coordination programs or voter contact programs.

Campaign IT staff also perform other crucial tasks, like managing data security and ensuring that field offices and other more mobile teams are securely and properly equipped to perform their tasks. IT supports and works closely with many teams on a campaign, especially operations and data, and interacts with campaign staff to manage help desks and ensure smooth onboarding of new hires. Other specialized tech skills that can be of great use to a campaign include software engineering and web development.

In a large campaign, these jobs are likely to go only to those with substantial experience in a substantive policy area. You can develop this experience through work either by developing deep expertise in a practice area, or more broadly at think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the Brookings Institution, and the Center for American Progress. Policy experience can also be developed on a smaller scale while at law school through intensive classroom or clinical experience, or through participation in groups such as the Federalist Society or the American Constitutional Society.

Political desks are usually arranged by geographic territories. This is very sensitive work, but campaigns occasionally hire newcomers, particularly those who are familiar with the local coverage area, if they are politically savvy. Staff also researches their own candidate. This rapid response can be exciting for someone who loves the political game, but the hours can be grueling and boring.

Expect twelve to sixteen hour days of Googling and Nexis research. Research staff keep the campaign informed: they may vet would-be staff or volunteers, dig up details on particular policy proposals, or track media appearances by their own candidate, surrogates, and opponents. Research is one of the most sensitive areas of a campaign, but if the staff trusts you, it does not require a lot of experience.

Research is a great introductory job in a campaign if you are willing to put in the hours. The candidate can only be in one place at a time; for everything else, there are surrogates. Larger campaigns will have staff specifically devoted to scheduling and managing surrogate appearances, including providing speech materials and talking points that are closely coordinated with what the candidate is saying. Surrogate management is politically sensitive work and is quite interesting because you will get to meet some of the heaviest hitters in the business.

Campaigns must figure out how best to deploy their resources; though it may feel like the country is saturated toward the end of a campaign cycle, campaigns cannot possibly hope to reach everyone all the time. The targeting staff is tasked with determining which voters the campaign should prioritize contacting through different means — both in terms of general groups and specific individuals. In many campaigns, this responsibility falls under the political shop and requires people who love campaigns and data management.

If you want to groom yourself for this position, put Excel, statistical modeling, data analysis, and digital outreach skills on your resume. Many campaigns are so awash in volunteers that they must find a way to productively harness this energy. Some will employ campaign staff specifically to find and manage volunteers and to deploy the talents of campaign supporters where they can do the most good.

This is generally less sensitive work, but requires a lot of patience. We have aggregated a sampling of frequently asked questions and resources to help you understand hiring processes for Presidential transitions and new administrations, and perhaps participate in them. If you have any inclination to be involved in a political campaign, do it! The pace can be challenging, but the work is rarely boring, and individual effort makes a difference every day. In addition to the satisfaction that comes from working for someone you respect and whose positions you support, there is a sense of gratification that comes from working on a project where there will be demonstrable winners, losers, and an end date.

You will also build cameraderie and relationships with individuals that can be beneficial far into the future. Campaigns can provide a host of experiences and levels of excitement that are difficult to match in any other environment. ARENA Arena aims to convene, train, and support the next generation of candidates and campaign staff. It hosts the Arena Summit, which brings together candidates, staff, and activists; offers training through the Arena Academy, and helps recruit and match talent to progressive campaigns.

You can subscribe to their print magazine that is published ten times a year. They also sponsor several conferences a year on specific election issues.

Contact them for upcoming training events or see their website. On their site, you can subscribe to Campaign Insider, which will email political job opportunities as well as the latest inside scoop on campaigns around the country.

American University sponsors an intensive two-week semiannual training session in January and May on all aspects of political campaigning, taught by experts from both political parties. Non-degree-seeking students can apply to attend. The Congressional Progressive Caucus Center Legislative Fellowship is designed for emerging leaders who want to develop their own professional skills in policymaking and social change through learning from and working within a strong legislative operation on Capitol Hill.

Fellows are placed in the offices of active members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Fellows work closely with CPC member offices to gain substantive legislative and federal policy experience in their issue focus. Topics range from media engagement and digital planning to data management and adapting email use to a particular campaign.

There are also templates, blueprints, and worksheets on many of these topics. The programs are open to individuals with a wide range of experience. INCLUSV Inclusv works to ensure that staff, consultants, and vendors of color are found at every professional level within advocacy, policy, and campaigns and elections. It helps to amplify available job opportunities from employer partners, elevate relevant training opportunities, and provide culturally competent career development trainings for staffs or conference attendees of partners.

It is also present on many college campuses and collects relevant job opportunities on its website. You can also find toolkits and frameworks on pressing campaign-related issues like digital voter engagement, security and storytelling strategy. It offers leadership development experiences, educational programming, and networking events focused on political campaigning.

This list is not exhaustive; many other civil rights organizations engage, to a greater or lesser degree, in voting rights work. The ACLU is currently litigating voter suppression and minority vote dilution cases in over a dozen states, from coast to coast, in every region of the country. Individuals should contact their state election agencies for further information.

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Senate and House Missouri March 27, Last day of filing for primary Montana March 12, Last day of filing for primary Nebraska March 1, Last day for non-incumbents to file for the primary election. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source. Categories : Ballot access templates Ballot access concepts and issues Election policy tracking.

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