Why You Don’t Need to Hire a Political Consultant

Candidates running for local political office have an array of decisions to make as they plan their campaigns, including who to hire for their campaign team. Is it necessary to hire a political consultant for your campaign? While hiring a political campaign consultant can have certain benefits, not every campaign needs to work with a consulting firm to ensure electoral success. 

Below, our guide explains the main duties, job description, and average salary of a political consultant, before exploring cost-effective alternatives to hiring a political consultant.

What Is a Political Consultant?

A political consultant is a professional who provides strategic advice, insight, and services to help political candidates, parties, and organizations navigate the political arena. Essentially, the job of a political consultant is to refine a campaign’s strategy. 

Political consultants often work out of consulting firms or companies. There are also specialized types of consultants, including fundraising consultants, direct-mail marketing consultants, digital campaign consultants, and more. While a good political consultant comes with valuable skills, hiring a political consultant in no way guarantees that a certain candidate will win an election.

What Does a Political Consultant Do?

Political consultants’ duties vary slightly depending on what kind of campaign they are working for. A presidential campaign has vastly different needs than a mayoral campaign, for instance. A campaign for an individual candidate also has different needs than that of a larger organization.

In general, political advisers focus on the following areas of campaign strategy:

• Strategic Planning: Political consultants assist candidates with setting well-crafted campaign goals and developing strategies to meet those goals effectively. These strategies include obtaining endorsements from organizations and notable individuals, setting campaign priorities, and organizing voter engagement efforts.

• Campaign Messaging: Political advisers ensure that a candidate’s campaign messaging remains consistent and effective for voter targeting.

• Data Analysis: Political consultants dive deep into the data and research voter trends and demographic information. They can also conduct and analyze polls to track voter sentiment over time.

• Public and Media Relations: Political consulting involves managing a candidate’s public image and reputation. A political adviser may also navigate interactions with media outlets such as local newspapers, send out press releases, schedule interviews and press conferences, and so on.

A political consultant can also bring a certain level of expertise to political campaigns, depending on their level of field experience. Finally, political advisers can bring a more objective perspective to your political strategy and problem solving efforts.

What Is a Typical Political Consultant Salary?

The cost of hiring a political consultant will vary based on your specific campaign needs and based on the particular consulting firm or business. However, the average salary of a political consultant is $98,330 per year, or $48 per hour. Political consulting services can be expensive, both in national or state-wide races as well as in local elections. This means that while valuable, professional policy consulting can take away from other areas of local campaigns if candidates are working with a limited budget.

Do You Need to Hire a Political Consultant?

Keeping in mind the potential costs and benefits of hiring a political campaign consultant, should you invest in hiring one? Before making a decision, it is important to consider more cost-effective alternatives. One powerful free tool that has the capability to replace the job of a political consultant in local elections is GoodParty.org’s AI Campaign Manager. GoodParty.org’s free tools and support are available to independent, non-partisan, and third-party candidates.

The AI Campaign Manager combines expert support from real people with time-saving insights and messaging developed through Open AI. Here’s how GoodParty.org’s AI Campaign Manager fills the same responsibilities as a political consultant:

• Strategic Planning: The AI Campaign Manager uses artificial intelligence to build a unique path to victory for each campaign, while GoodParty.org’s team of experts draws on their 50+ years of combined experience to hone your political strategy. GoodParty.org’s tools also provide recommendations for acquiring needed endorsements and setting effective campaign priorities.

• Campaign Messaging: The AI Campaign Manager is perfect for quickly developing campaign messaging materials, from slogans and campaign positioning statements to fundraising emails.

• Data Analysis: The AI Campaign Manager draws on demographic data and past voting trends in your area to provide recommendations for how to power your campaign forward.

• Public and Media Relations: The AI Campaign Manager can assist in generating press releases, social media copy, video scripts, and more to help your campaign make the best possible impression, both with the general public and with local media sources.

In addition to these benefits, GoodParty.org’s free tech gives independent and third-party candidates access to our team’s high level of political expertise. GoodParty.org’s political director Jared Alper is a political strategist who has managed or served in senior strategic roles on more than a dozen campaigns for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, state legislatures, and local offices across the United States. By his side is GoodParty.org’s head of mobilization, Rob Booth, who has nearly 20 years of experience running winning campaigns, all the way from the local to national level. Booth also has experience leading successful ballot measure efforts from his time as the National Field Director at RepresentUs. Candidates who choose to work with GoodParty.org receive one-on-one campaign support from Jared Alper, Rob Booth, and other members of the GoodParty.org team.

With their high level of experience, our team provides candidates with an objective, outside perspective, leading to a more refined on-the-ground and digital campaign strategy. To go even further than what a typical political adviser can provide, working with GoodParty.org also provides added benefits for candidates:

• Independent candidates who use GoodParty.org’s free tools become GoodParty.org certified, meaning they are endorsed by GoodParty.org after pledging to run a clean, people-powered and anti-corruption campaign.

• GoodParty.org Certified candidates also gain access to GoodParty.org’s growing network of remote and in-person volunteers. To see GoodParty.org’s volunteers in action, read our case study on how grassroots volunteers supported 2023 city council campaigns in Nashville, Tennessee.

All of these capabilities and benefits come at no cost to non-partisan candidates. 

Conclusion

Should you hire a political consultant? In the end, the decision is up to each individual candidate and their campaign team. Different candidates and campaigns have different needs, just as different campaigns function on different scales.

For independent and third-party candidates, GoodParty.org’s AI Campaign Manager can do the work of a potentially expensive political consultant, completely for free. Whether you’re running for mayor, city council, town commissioner, or another local office, GoodParty.org is here to support your campaign. We want to celebrate your decision to run outside of the two-party system and champion your cause. 

Ready for next steps? For a more concrete picture of how the AI Campaign Manager can fuel your campaign, read our case study on how GoodParty.org’s tools and volunteers helped power Terry Vo to a city council win in Nashville, Tennessee. If you’re ready to get in touch about how GoodParty.org can accelerate your campaign, book a meeting with one of GoodParty.org’s campaign experts today. No commitment is necessary. We’ll help you weigh your options and develop the best campaign strategy for you and your team, at no cost to you.