Typically, political campaigns are short-term operations focused on winning an election (or a ballot initiative), and so they require large teams of volunteers and paid staffers to identify, persuade, organize, and mobilize support for the campaign’s candidate or cause. Some campaigns are very small and run for only a few months, while others can last two years or more.
In a given election cycle, candidate campaigns for the legislative branch make up the vast majority of electoral opportunities; in fact, there are 535 federal seats, thousands of state legislative positions nationwide, and thousands more city or county executive seats. In addition to a candidate’s own team, many legislative races are also overseen by independent political action committees that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in support of one or more candidates.
Competitive races for the judicial and executive branches are also common, and these can be more specialized in terms of their staffing requirements than legislative campaigns. Additionally, there are a large number of local, regional and citywide ballot initiatives that are organized on behalf of one or more parties.
While working on a political campaign can be challenging and demanding, it offers staffers-from college students to mid-level professionals-an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in public policy and governing while advancing their career aspirations. It is important for prospective political workers to assess their fit for this type of work and consider which issues or policies they want to advance, as well as with which party, if any, they wish to affiliate.