Running a political campaign—even a nonpartisan city council race—takes a lot of work. Running a political campaign during a global pandemic? That was an unprecedented challenge.
As campaign manager, I spent four months providing administrative and logistical support for my candidate. This included the usual duties: keeping her on task and on schedule through daily check-ins; establishing calendars, shared documents, and file storage; and implementing standardized processes.
This also included rapidly shifting our carefully planned messaging and engagement strategy from municipal issues to voter education as deadlines, laws, and safety guidance evolved almost daily through the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I took on the type of tasks that I’ve always enjoyed doing but don’t get to as much anymore as a freelance writer and editor: volunteer management, budgeting and finance, newspaper ad placement and printing logistics, database management and data entry, calendaring and meeting facilitation, standardizing processes and file storage, mapping and delivering yard signs, and making grilled cheese sandwiches during late-night planning sessions.
The best part? We won with 65% of the votes against a two-term incumbent! I could not be prouder of the hard work my candidate put in throughout the campaign. She’s incredibly intelligent, thoughtful, and compassionate and is going to be a tremendous leader in our community.
Wendy Hathaway 