by Rod Williams, August 5, 2026-If you ever plan to run for public office or want to be a valuable volunteer and help others win elections, I encourage you to get lots of training. Over the years, I have witnessed some great campaigns and some really bad campaigns. I have seen campaigns waste enormous amounts of money and campaigns that made every dollar count. Money is certainly important in politics, but I think of equal importance, or maybe even more importance, is working hard and smart, being well organized, and exercising good time management. Let me give you one example from my own campaign for Metro Council from years ago.
All serious candidates for office purchase a voters list of their district, and so did I. Before I knocked on my first door, however, I created an index card for each household with a registered voter. I then put colored tags on each card: one color if there was more than one voter in the household, another color if they were Republican, and a different color for frequent voters. After visiting the voter, if they told me I could put a yard sign in their yard, then the index card got an additional tag of a different color.
The advantage of this is that I did not waste time knocking on doors with no voters; I could approach the door by calling the person by name, and I could tailor my message. Also, I could make notes on the card about the household that might help me with follow-up campaign contacts.
One can now get a voter list on your cell phone that does all of this for you and more. Yet, I still see people wasting time with the door-to-door campaign. How to get the most benefit out of the voter registration rolls is one thing that one can learn in a campaign school setting. One needs to know how to order a voter roll and how to get the maximum benefit out of it.
The upcoming training session offered by the Nashville GOP has to do with fundraising and campaign finance training. Raising money is important. Learn how to do it. Knowing how to file a campaign finance report is also very important. One does not want to run afoul of the law. In addition to the legal liability, filing a faulty campaign finance report can make the news and be a campaign liability. Also, should one give their campaign money or loan their campaign money? There is a difference.
I have taken several campaign training classes over the years. All I have taken were non-ideological. They teach skills and do not proselytize a point of view. So, if you are a traditional Regan Republican or a Democrat or of some other political persuasion, learn the skills regardless of who is teaching them. After all, it doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.
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