Campaign Managers

The campaign manager, charged with the day to day running of a campaign, faces a challenging job working with the candidate to steer his or her campaign from launch to Election Day.  The starting point is the relationship with the candidate.  Then, he or she must build and manage a team that will work together, maximizing the experience and capabilities of staff, consultants and advisors; harnessing the energy of supporters; presenting to voters the best of the candidate; and implementing a strategy that will lead to electoral victory, or at least get the candidate's message out.  This requires making sure that the different elements of the campaign team—political, field, communications and so forth—are running smoothly.  It requires long hours over a period of months leading to Election Day.  A good campaign manager has the ability to work with people of varying personalities, can respond to changing and unexpected situations that arise during the course of a campaign, and must have the confidence of the candidate. 

Most of the campaign managers for major party Senate and gubernatorial nominees bring considerable experience to the task, having worked on many campaigns.  Some have worked for the candidate in his or her office and/or on one or more of their previous campaigns.  If they haven't worked for the candidate, they may have years of experience in state politics.  Alternatively, the candidate may bring in an outsider who had worked in races around the country.  (The DGA and RGA national party committees can suggest possibilities).  In a few instances, the manager may be brought in from the private sector with little or no campaign experience.  For less resourced, less competitive races, the campaign manager may have more limited political experience. 

Some campaigns don't have a campaign manager, but rather a campaign coordinator or director of operations, who fills only some of the duties that a campaign manager would.  One sees this sometimes with strong, well-bankrolled incumbents in non-competitive races.  At the other extreme, in very low budget campaigns, the candidate often serves as his or her own campaign manager and, depending on the budget, may have a number of people/consultants under contract for various tasks.  

Finally, note that titles can be misleading; in some cases it is not the campaign manager but the senior strategist or campaign chairman who is "calling the shots."

Campaigns and campaign organizations are fluid.  Each cycle there are a handful of races where a candidate replaces the campaign manager for one reason or another.  Campaigns do go through various phases, and the person brought on to start up a campaign or navigate a primary may not be the best person to lead the push to the finish in November.  To use a baseball analogy, there are starting pitchers and relievers.  Not infrequently a change is made after the primary, as the race heads into the general election.  It can occur earlier, for example if fundraising is not meeting expectations or if the campaign is lagging in the polls.  The parting may be amicable or not.  Sometimes the campaign manager may move to a senior advisory role or remain on the payroll in another capacity; other times they may be fired.  Replacement of a campaign manager may be normal evolution or a sign of trouble.  Invariably the media will cover the change or "shake-up," and questions will be asked about the state of the campaign.   

As an example, looking at the 2018 races for governor, based on media reports, nine of the 36 Democratic campaigns (25-percent) changed managers and two of those did so twice (+).  [Five of the nine went on to win].  According to media reports, five of the 36 Republican campaigns changed leadership. 

Methodological Considerations
The analysis used in these pages depends on clear and consistent of what is meant by "the campaign manager."  In instances where a campaign manager is replaced, for example, one could consider all people who held the position or only the person holding the position at the end of the campaign.  I have opted for the latter and simpler option.  Applying the same logic, in instances where the campaign manager exits relatively late and is not replaced, this interpretation does not include him or her in the analysis.  In cases where a campaign does not have a designated "campaign manager," but rather a "campaign coordinator," "campaign director" or "director of daily operations," I use the strict interpretation that there is no campaign manager—these roles often have fewer responsibilities.  If the candidate is serving as the campaign manager that is also treated as no campaign manager.  Most tricky are instances where the campaign manager holds the title (sort of a campaign manager in name only), but it is clear from news reports or other information someone else is actually running the campaign. 

Campaign managers were identified primarily through online search of news articles.  Where that doesn't produce a result, one can look at the FEC reports to see who are the highest paid staff, although there are quite a few cases where the finance director earns more than the campaign manager.  Other former staff or even the former candidate can also be helpful.  The biographical blurbs are compiled from news accounts, LinkedIn, company websites (many staff work or have worked for consulting firms), and Legistorm.  It takes considerable research to put these together.  A campaign may put out a press release at the outset announcing senior staff, but after that staff generally like to stay in the background and out of the news.  There are exceptions; on smaller campaigns the campaign manager may also serve as spokesperson. 

While the lists I have put together have some holes, they do provide a good representation of the campaign managers and the experience they bring.  Keep in mind, however, that this sample only covers governor and U.S. Senate race and provides no information on other statewide races or on local races.

Research Questions: Gender
The data raise a number of interesting research questions.  Is the experience and education of campaign managers now the same as it was in the 1970s or the 1950s?  As a group, do campaign managers for Democratic and Republican candidates more frequently attend different sets of colleges and universities?  Most campaign managers are male.  Is the number of female campaign managers increasing?  It is also clear, just from looking at available LinkedIn photos, that at this level campaign managers are mostly white; members of minority groups were quite rare.  Is that changing?  Gender is the easiest factor to analyze.