Effective political campaigns in Texas
Signature Assignment 1 (Unit 2): Campaign and Elections Paper
(3-5 pages)
Paper must be double spaced, with 12 point font and include section headers for each of the paper sections noted below (Candidate, Campaign Message, Campaign Strategy, Campaign Resources).
Objective: The objective of this assignment is for students to think critically about effective political campaigns in Texas and understand both the personal and social responsibility inherent in representative democracy.
Description of Assignment: You have been hired to be the campaign manager for a candidate who is running in the 2022 general election to be the Governor of Texas. As campaign manager, you need to develop the campaign plan based on the four of the five (do not worry about campaign organization) components of a modern campaign discussed in the lecture notes. In your paper, please address the following:
- Candidate: A description of the qualifications (personal and professional) of the fictional candidate you will be working for. Create the biography for your candidate, including name, experience, history and characteristics (include political party) for your candidate. (Unit 2 Written Lectures, Slide 2-23)
- Campaign Message: Select one of the campaign messages in the notes and talk about how it will be used in your campaign- it should be a good fit for the candidate you describe. (Unit 2 Written Lectures, Slide 2-24)
- Campaign Strategy: Explain what types of voters are likely to vote for you (based on candidate qualities and campaign message). (Unit 2, Written Lectures, Slide 2-25)
- Campaign Resources: Explain what types of people are most likely to donate money to and work in your campaign. (Unit 2, Written Lectures, Slide 2-25)
The paper should include subject headers (ie. Candidate, Campaign Message, Campaign Strategy and Campaign Resources, etc.)
Assessment: Your Assignment will be assessed based on the following rubric.
| Percent | 0 % | 60% | 80% | 100% | |
| Candidate | 15% | No Effort | Limited discussion of candidate. | Some discussion, but did not include all aspects of biography. | Thorough biography of candidate. |
| Campaign Message | 25% | No Effort | Limited discussion (three sentences or less) of Campaign Message. | Lists, but does not thoroughly explain campaign message. | Explains campaign message and why it will be effective in Texas. |
| Campaign Strategy | 25% | No Effort | Limited discussion of who message targets (one paragraph or less). | Discusses message and some target groups, but does not explain thoroughly (two or less target groups). | Thoroughly discusses message, issues and groups targeted by issues (at least three target groups). |
| Campaign Resources | 20% | No Effort | Lists potential donors and voters, but does not explain. One paragraph or less. | Lists and discusses some possible voters and donors, but incomplete. | Thoroughly explains potential voters, and donors and why they would be supportive. |
| Grammar/ Structure | 10% | No Effort | Numerous grammatical and typographical errors, no headers. | Some grammatical and/ or typographical errors and/ or no headers. | Well written and well organized |
| Format | 5% | No Effort | Not double spaced and not long enough. | Not double spaced or not long enough. | Double spaced and correct length |
Class Notes
1) The Candidate
Obviously, every campaign for office, whether in Texas or in another state, must have a candidate! You can’t win without a name on the ballot. Candidates tend to be White, wealthy, older, conservative, and well educated with a connection to the business community. The number of women candidates and candidates of color have been increasing significantly. Modern candidates must have a great deal of money, or at least have access to money since the campaign process is quite expensive and the United States (unlike most modern democracies) does not have publicly funded campaigns. The number of minority candidates is increasing as the number of minority voters increases. Historically, you needed to be a Democrat, but now it helps to be Republican. This describes the three most recent Texas governors, George W. Bush, Rick Perry and Greg Abbott. All three are White, Republican, pro-business, conservative males.
The key to being an effective candidate is that the characteristics of the candidate must match those of the people who will be voting. While the currently, conservative Republicans have an advantage running in Texas, the recent success of Beto O’Rourke suggest that in the future, more liberal, younger Democratic candidates might find an easier path to victory in the Lone Star state. Further, as the proportion of Latino voters increases, one wold expect more Latino and Latina candidates to be successful statewide.
3) The Campaign Message
The campaign message has to do with the theme around which you plan to build your campaign. What will be your central campaign theme-how will you “market” your campaign and your candidacy? The campaign strategy is generally a function of two things: the strengths of the candidate and the context of the times.
If you have a great deal of political experience, that might be the strategy. If not, you have to adopt a different strategy. If the economy is good and the candidate is an incumbent (in office), then the strategy will focus on what you have done to improve the economy. If it is bad, you will take a different approach.
Candidates who believe that such negative tactics will work resort to attacking the character of their opponent(s). This strategy has become more common in recent years and contributes to voter apathy over the campaigning and election processes.
The Experienced Leader: This is often the strategy of the incumbent officeholder or an experienced policy maker looking to move to a higher office. The focus is on his or her political experience and the things he or she has done for the district or state.
The Outsider: This strategy is usually adopted by the person trying to dethrone the experienced leader. This person focuses on the fact that he or she has not been tainted by the political system. This strategy works really well when times are bad and voters are ready to toss out the incumbent leaders. Issues position will focus on changind the way things are being done- we have to improve education, ethics, etc.- change, change, change.
Local Boy (or Girl) does Good (One of Us): This candidate focuses more on where he or she comes from than where he or she is going and emphasizes roots in the community. Works best for localized office and candidates with deep community ties.
The Savior: This is a variant of the outsider strategy, but focuses on the ability of the outsider to come in and save the day; the problem solver. This candidate will build his or her campaign around promises to address key issues important to the voters- provide jobs, improve education, clean up the environment, etc.
The Good Person: This strategy once again focuses more on who the person is and where he or she comes from than what he or she will do. He or she will talk about background and his or her work in the church, in the community, and for the common good. This persons campaign will focus less on specific policy issues and more on his or her qualities of moral leadership.
The Moral Leader: This strategy focuses on social issues and is often used by social conservatives (bedroom Republicans) who build their campaigns around abortion, school prayer, etc. He or she promises to support “traditional family values” like supporting a traditional definition of marriage, school prayer and vouchers for religious schools, while standing against abortion and expansion of rights based on sexual orientation or gender identification.
The Progressive: This candidate will build his or her campaign around the promise of economic equality- better wages, taxes on the wealthy, equal rights according to race and religion, etc.
4) The Campaign Strategy/ Issues
The specific demographic, regional, partisan and ideological groups of voters you will target and how your message and issues you will focus on will be used to target those voters.
* What parts (regions) of the state will be likely to vote for you and what issues/ message will you use to appeal to them?
* Which party (Republicans, Independents and Democrats) will be likely to vote for you and how will your message/ issues appeal to them?
* What economic groups (wealthy, middle class, poor) will be likely to vote for you and how will your message/ issues appeal to them?
* Will any particular ethnic group or gender be more or less likely to vote for your candidate and why?
The campaign strategy reflects the campaign message. For example, the Experienced Leader might appeal to Democrats and Independents, wealthy and middle class voters, etc.
5) Campaign Resources
Finally, every campaign requires significant resources, particularly money, people, and organization.
Money: As discussed above, money is critical. It buys you name recognition – if you have enough money, you can run enough commercials so that people know who you are. Second, it buys you credibility. Because you have money or have access to money, you are considered a real, viable candidate.
People/ Volunteers: Every campaign needs an army of people (preferably volunteers) who will stuff envelopes, knock on doors, make telephone calls and hand out fliers on election day. The candidate cannot be everywhere, but with enough people, his or her campaign can be.
Even interest groups can provide volunteers, assist with the organization, and contribute financial resources in support of the candidate.
Desire to Win: You must really want to win. Don’t go into the campaign half-heartedly. If you do, you will not win. The road is too hard and the demands too great.
Time: A candidate must be willing to commit a significant amount of time to the campaign. If you are running statewide, plan to commit at least two years of your life to the campaign. You have to raise money, give speeches, make appearances, etc., and all of that takes time.