Candidate Playbook

07/08/2026

This is the perfect guide for candidates who have urban, suburban, and rural constituents in their district!

Running for office in a rural district requires a different campaign strategy. The geography, the media landscape, the voter contact approach, and the community dynamics that shape whether voters trust you are all specific to where you are running.

Most campaign guides were not written with any of that in mind. This one is.

https://shop.candidateplaybook.com/b/L5kZY

07/06/2026

Save this before you file: 5 things first-time candidates miss.

Paperwork deadlines that catch new candidates off guard. Speech habits worth building early. A running list that becomes your debate prep without you noticing. And one most people never think to do until it's too late.

Guides and worksheets built for women running at every level.
shop.candidateplaybook.com

07/05/2026

Every four years, the conversation about a woman becoming president starts over like it's happening for the first time. What rarely gets asked is where that path actually gets built.

Our latest blog post makes the case that it isn't built in the national spotlight. It's built in school board seats, county commissions, city councils, and state legislatures, the offices where women accumulate the record that eventually forces the bigger story to catch up. The data backs this up too. Women remain far from parity in most state legislatures, and men still hold most local offices in cities over 10,000 people.

If we want to see a woman in the Oval Office, the work starts closer to home than most people think.

Read the full piece on the blog.
https://candidateplaybook.substack.com/p/building-the-path-to-the-first-woman

07/03/2026

Happy 4th of July from Candidate Playbook.

Independence Day is a time to celebrate, gather, and enjoy the freedoms that shape our country. It is also a reminder that democracy depends on people who are willing to serve, lead, protect, participate, and show up for something larger than themselves.

To everyone spending the holiday with family, friends, neighbors, and community, we hope you have a joyful and safe celebration.

Have a wonderful 4th of July holiday. Stay safe, celebrate responsibly, and enjoy the day.

shop.candidateplaybook.com

07/02/2026

Recruiting a volunteer is the easy part. Keeping them engaged, scheduled, and coming back is where most campaigns quietly lose people.

The Volunteer Management Guide covers what happens after someone says yes: who's actually right to run this role, how to keep people engaged without burning them out, how to schedule shifts that hold up, and how to handle the conflicts every campaign eventually runs into.

The guide package includes a shift schedule and a thank-you tracker that you can start using right away.

Available now on shop.candidateplaybook.com.

07/01/2026

A house party fundraiser sounds simple until you're standing in someone's living room with fifteen guests and no plan for the actual ask.

The Small Group Hosting and Strategy Guide walks you through the whole event: setting a real fundraising goal, briefing your host, scripting the ask, dividing costs between candidate and host, and following up in the 48 hours that decide whether people actually give.

It comes with a fillable Candidate Tools workbook and a standalone Host Handout you can forward directly to whoever's opening their home.

Available now on shop.candidateplaybook.com.

Joanne Tica is a specialist in adult education and has spent 20 years building capacity tools for community leaders, small businesses, and nonprofits. She developed Candidate Playbook from direct work with candidates who had the knowledge and the rel...

06/30/2026

"Get more volunteers" is advice every candidate hears and almost nobody explains.

If you're the candidate, or you're the candidate's sister, neighbor, or retired colleague who just got handed "find us some volunteers," this guide is for you. No campaign background assumed, no jargon left unexplained, and it scales with your race, whether you're working with five volunteers or two hundred.

The Volunteer Recruitment Guide is available now on shop.candidateplaybook.com.

06/27/2026

The right endorsement can reach voters your canvassing never will.

New in the Candidate Playbook shop: the Endorsements and PAC Support Guide It's everything a local or regional candidate needs to know about asking for endorsements, navigating organizational processes, and finding PAC support in your market.

Written for candidates in small and mid-market communities. Plain language. No political consultant required.

Get it at shop.candidateplaybook.com

06/24/2026

Tenure is not the same as leadership.

Knowing the system matters. But knowing the system is not proof that someone can lead people, make hard decisions, build support, or point to real accomplishments.

When a candidate leads with how long they’ve been around, voters should ask a better question:

What did they actually lead?

New article:
Tenure Is Not a Leadership Credential

Read here: https://candidateplaybook.substack.com/p/tenure-is-not-a-leadership-credential

06/21/2026

Candidate forums, town halls, and house parties move fast. The strongest answers usually come from the preparation no one sees.

Forum Ready is a 5-worksheet bundle from Candidate Playbook designed to help local candidates research the district, prepare issue briefs, study the record, rehearse hard questions, and debrief after the event.

Built for local and regional candidates who want to walk into the room and face their audience prepared.

https://store.certifiedimpact.com