A campaign manager, campaign chairperson, or campaign director is an individual whose role is to coordinate a
political campaign
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracy, democracies, political campaigns often refer to election, electoral campaigns, by which representatives a ...
's spending, broad tactics, and hiring.
They lead operations such as
fundraising
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
,
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...
,
poll
Poll, polled, or polling may refer to:
Forms of voting and counting
* Poll, a formal election
** Election verification exit poll, a survey taken to verify election counts
** Polling, voting to make decisions or determine opinions
** Polling pla ...
ing,
getting out the vote (with direct contact to the public), and other activities supporting the effort, directly.
Apart from the candidate, they are often a campaign's most visible leader. However, modern campaign managers, particularly at the presidential level, are mostly concerned with executing strategy, not setting it. The senior strategists are typically outside
political consultants, primarily pollsters and media consultants.
Particularly for large, well-funded campaigns, campaign managers often manage a huge number of
staffers and
volunteers
Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergenc ...
in a variety of departments; while also coordinating closely with the candidate and outside consultants.
In the United States, increasingly, campaign management has been a speciality occupation. The top-tier of managers will move throughout the country working on a different campaign each election cycle. The challenges of building a successful operation from scratch in less than 2 years makes experienced professionals increasingly valuable.
In addition to their past experience, experienced campaign managers also bring with them knowledge of
campaign management tools and relationships with
political consultants.
The pay ranges for a campaign manager differ depending on the scale of the political race.
References
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*
Elections