By Jason Marlow
The most important thing I can possibly tell anyone about committing yourself to work for a campaign is this: get some extremely comfortable shoes. Do not get yourself just any shoes, get some extremely comfortable shoes. Just any shoes will not do; trust me on this. I have been campaigning from December 2017 to March 2019, and I definitely couldn’t have done it without my extremely comfortable shoes. I know this seems like superficial advice to the uninitiated, but as someone whose lived enough campaigning in the last year to last me a lifetime, I sincerely believe it is the best and most practical advice I can offer.
What is campaign life like? You will knock doors;you will knock a lot of doors. Over the last year or so I’ve knocked on about 3,000 doors. I’ve door knocked in Plant City, Temple Terrace, and nearly every section of the city of Tampa. What is campaign life like? You will eat like crap, you will likely drink too much, and you will always be tired. Campaigns are mostly a mad dash, a scramble, punctuated by moments of bliss and/or terror. On campaigns, there is no such thing as time off and you will get text messages and phone calls at all hours of the day. Your life will to some extent cease to be your life. Cherish the moments you get to spend with family or friends in the interim because they will be few and far between. The campaign doesn’t stop until the polls close on Election Day and in my recent experience with recounts, it sometimes doesn’t end there either.
What is campaign life like? You will quickly learn that candidates will always let you down in some way, since there is no perfect candidate. As a campaign worker you will have to prepare yourself for this. Money, though helpful, does not and will not fix everything. Nothing is going to go exactly as you planned it, and there will be complications, disappointments, let downs, and set-backs. Things are always harder and more difficult than you envision them, and obstacles are often taller in real life than they are in your imagination. Never let yourself completely buy the hype because you are in a campaign not a cult, and always remember you are staff not a sycophant. Healthy skepticism is never a bad thing because honesty in this industry is a precious commodity.
What is campaign life like? It is a roller coaster that lasts for months instead of minutes. You will feel your stomach in your throat, you will feel your heart pound through your chest. You will feel victories and you will feel losses. You need to prepare yourself for the possibility of failures since more campaigns lose than win. You cannot personalize failure; not everything is about you, and not everything is your fault. You will also need a back-up plan. Your back-up plan needs a back-up plan. Your back-up plan’s back-up plan needs a back-up plan. Do not put all of your eggs into a single basket. You will laugh, celebrate, cry, despair, not sleep, drink too much, and lose some of your sanity. Most of all, you will knock on a lot of doors so get some extremely comfortable shoes.