Mandat

What does the chief of staff do?

Susie Wiles — known among insiders as the “Icebreaker” — was appointed White House Chief of Staff after the 2024 win.
Not because she’s loud, but because she believes in the operative.

The chief of staff is not just an organizer.
They stabilize the system.
They translate political messaging and strategy into operations.
Their job is not to be everywhere — but to know what’s happening.

They connect messages, people, campaign HQ, digital and field ops, central and local committees — into one system that runs without mistakes. Or with as few as possible.
At the end of the cycle, the better result belongs to the candidate or party that made fewer mistakes.

In the campaign, the chief of staff:

• Synchronizes messaging from top to local
• Defines goals by phase and measures progress
• Coordinates sectors inside HQ
• Manages crisis without panic
• Makes decisions based on research and analytics — not gut feeling
• Pushes motivation to the last polling place
• Doesn’t shut down until the last vote is cast

Their strength isn’t improvisation — it’s the system.
They sit while everything falls into place — because everything is already in position.

This series breaks down the chief of staff into 10 key functions.
For every candidate or party, the most responsible person.
In America, neither campaign nor administration runs without them.

🎯 From Doorstep to Result: Why DtD Underlies Field Campaigns

Direct contact is the most powerful tool of political communication. In the noise of digital channels, flyers, and media, door-to-door (DtD) canvassing — when preceded by call center outreach — is not a nostalgic relic. It’s the most precise instrument for building trust, understanding voters, and mobilizing them.

Even though I dislike the metaphor, I’ll use it: TV ads, billboards, posters, brochures, and digital marketing are like machine gun fire. Canvassing, followed by call center feedback, makes DtD a sniper.

If we simplify the system: designate ALL voters as the target zone, and conduct DtD based on their indecision. Sounds simple. But we’ve spent years perfecting the technology behind it.

We have an internal version of DtD called “carpet.” Most topics and teams don’t have the resources to operate at that level globally.

This series will break down every piece of the DtD campaign: from team architecture to front-end planning and the follow-up system that enables the best interactions.

And here’s a warning: campaigns that rely solely on social media are important — but they’re not the main ones. Digitally, one thread might be missing. What if no one meets you on that path?

Ask a newer team member who’s taken 3 months of online courses but has never knocked on a single door. Ask them why someone who’s never knocked is laughing at DtD.

Then get dressed.
And start building the bridge to fellow humans.
That’s what it’s all about.

📞 RUNNING A GOTV CAMPAIGN?

If your regular surveys tell you what drives high versus low turnout, then practically — both outcomes can be shaped through a Get Out The Vote campaign.

If your answers point toward higher turnout, this is your chance to learn the fundamentals — step by step.

From slide one to the last, I’m trying to explain what many campaigns skip:

✅ Who our voters are
✅ Why they do (or don’t) turn out
✅ How we activate them

From team architecture to crisis communication, each slide is a tool for anyone who wants to lead a proactive — not reactive — campaign.

📣 YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• GOTV is not an add-on campaign — it is the campaign.
• Emotion, structure, and rhythm matter equally.
• If we don’t understand ourselves, we can’t activate others.

This is my attempt to write about campaigns again and again — under my favorite conditions.
Thank you for being here.

🧠 What drives your campaign?

When I worked with parties in Somaliland, I asked a delegation member at a meeting: Where do you stand on the political spectrum? The president answered me like out of a cannon: we are social democrats. Surprised, I ask him, 'Where did that come from?' He tells me, children, honestly: we were in Denmark at a seminar and had a meeting with their social democrats. They offered to finance us. And that's what we became!

Reading the programs of many parties, both in the region and around the world, for work, I get the impression that many parties, like this one from Somaliland, have determined their ideology.

And it shouldn't be like that because when we start a campaign in organized political systems - we always align everything with ideology. It is not just a theory — it is the foundation of every political strategy. From the values you stand for, to your view of society, to the vision you offer voters — all of this makes up your ideological position.

🔍 Three components that shape all messages and derive from ideology

• Values (principles)
• View of current society
• Vision of an ideal society

These three points are not abstract — they are the basis of every slogan, every visual, every performance.

🎯 From ideology to campaign

Ideology shapes attitudes, policies and programs.
The campaign conveys them — clearly, emotionally, strategically.

🧭 Key issues of every ideology

• How do you imagine economic development?
• What is the role of the state?
• How do you approach human rights?
• Where do you stand when it comes to war and peace?

The answers to these questions shape your communication.

🪞 Look in the mirror

• Which ideology is present in your party?
• How do you recognize ideological messages in the campaign?

Every message carries value. Every value builds trust.

How to maintain control when questions become uncomfortable?

In an ambush situation, the winner isn’t the one who knows all the answers — but the one who knows what to answer. And even more importantly, what not to answer.

This slide series shows how to:
✅ Set clear boundaries
✅ Structure the press conference to minimize surprises
✅ Respond briefly, clearly, without debate
✅ Leave a visual impression of confidence and focus — make sure your key message is seen

❌ Your focus is not on the questions. Your focus is on your target voters.
❌ The message of the day must be heard — everything else is noise.

Real communication begins after the press conference ends.
Share, follow, like — so others see it too.

Surely there are people on the networks who know a lot more about digital than I do. However, I know much more about politics and political campaigns than they do.

So, what is the solution? Who should you listen to?

The truth is in the middle.
The strategist, campaign manager, and head of digital are also setting the foundations for this campaign.

Set aside money to outsource design, production, ads, and optimization. Personally, I always trust professionals more than an aunt's kid who knows it. If it does happen that they impose 'aunt’s small' on me, it often ends with him giving up because he realizes that he cannot fulfil my demands.

Regardless of whether you decide to be a professional or a "little aunt" without a clear plan, everything you do is in vain. When FB appeared, almost all municipal committees in my party opened their accounts on it. I ended that option very quickly because they started posting anything and everything. The culmination was when my colleagues showed me a couple of orders: one of them was a funeral, complete with the wailing and grief-stricken expressions of the deceased. On the second, the president of the local board sang at a wedding at a table.

This series is not about how to design a post, but how to know what you're looking for in a post.
A digital campaign is not a series of posts.
It's a series of decisions.
Who is the audience?
What are we telling them?
What do we want them to do?
Why now?

If you don't understand that, even the best design won't be of any help to you.
If so, even an average design won't hold you back.

That's why we start from the basics.
No noise. No myths. No shortcuts.