Chairs and Candidates: Recruiting and Support

For many people, the decision to enter politics is not an easy or obvious one. Local party organizations play a crucial role in the electoral process by identifying prospective candidates, including those who may have never considered running for office. Chapter 4 reports findings from the interviews and survey of chairs and demonstrates that chairs actively search for people from their communities to run for low-level offices. These efforts have immediate consequences in terms of who ends up in local office, as well as downstream consequences in that experience in local office is often a stepping stone for those who ultimately run for higher office. If chairs can convince their targets to run, they then provide advice and support to aid fledgling campaigns. From the perspective of a neophyte candidate who may know practically nothing about how to organize a campaign, this early advice can provide an important boost.