By Julie Tomascik
Editor
As the 2022 election year approaches, Texans interested in running for political office attended Texas Farm Bureau’s (TFB) Campaign Seminar to learn the mechanics of running successful campaigns.
Over 20 participants attended the seminar held in Waco in late September.
“Many individuals want to run for office, but they don’t quite know what to do or how to do it. This campaign school is different in that we can teach it for candidates running at any level of office,” Cody Lyons, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) director of Advocacy and Political Affairs, said. “They learn how to campaign effectively so that they can scale it to fit their district and race. We’ve taught this campaign school for candidates running statewide, running in urban areas and running in rural areas. The concepts we teach are exactly the same. It’s helping them build their organization and developing their messages so they can reach the voters and get themselves elected.”
Participants learned more about the mechanics of running successful campaigns, organizing a campaign, recruiting supporters and staff and evaluating their ability to serve.
They learned how to select issues they believe will resonate with voters, and Lyons shared tips on how to craft their messages to gain voter support.
“This campaign school gives participants the skills, knowledge and information to win their race. We work through a variety of different modules and concepts from what the candidates need to consider to run, looking at the electorate, what issues are going to be important for this upcoming election and how to build their organization. But most importantly, we teach them to how to communicate their message with the voters,” Lyons said.
The seminar is offered in the year before campaign season kicks off. It is available to TFB members and non-members.
It helps Farm Bureau identify potential candidates for political offices at the state and congressional levels.
“This program is beneficial because Texas Farm Bureau can help candidates get elected,” Lyons said. “Relationships are vital for any elected official. When someone goes through this campaign school and gets elected, they remember Texas Farm Bureau was there to help them do that. What better way to start building that relationship than helping them before they are elected to an office?”
But this election year will be different since it’s a redistricting year. The impact of the new districts will be a major factor in the upcoming elections.
“Redistricting plays more into what they need to consider, what the election may look like. The candidates need to understand which voters are going to be new to their district, which voters may have moved out, what are the demographics when it comes to occupation, age and gender. All of those things are going to matter,” Lyons said. “It matters for the candidates to know who the voters are, to know how they can reach out to them, and how they are able to influence or persuade those voters to vote for them on election day.”
Texans interested in running for political office attended TFB’s Campaign Seminar to learn the mechanics of running a successful campaign.
To help possible candidates become more comfortable with the media and talking with constituents, TFB staff conducted mock interviews on potential topics they could face when running for office.
“I think it’s important, especially for a grassroots organization like Farm Bureau and all of us agricultural advocates, to understand how we communicate, how we can target groups, how we can understand what it is that the population is asking and how we can address those questions,” Isaac Sulemana, Hidalgo County Farm Bureau member and current AgLead-FarmLead participant, said. “At the end of the day, communication is really key, not just to campaigning, but to policymaking and sharing your message with anyone.”
Each participant was able to broaden their understanding of the campaign process.
“This is my first time running for office, and I really came to learn how to run a campaign, the financial aspects, campaign strategies and things of that nature,” Clay Jostes, Live Oak County Farm Bureau member, said. “It’s been a real eye-opening learning experience for me.”
The seminar was held Sept. 29-30 at the TFB Conference and Training Center in Waco.