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Campaign Schools Foster Pro-Housing Candidates
As part of their political efforts to elect pro-housing candidates to public office, the Wichita Area Builders Association, the Home Builders Association of Greater St. Louis, HBA of Greater Kansas City and the HBA of Lincoln have been sponsoring training schools to educate candidates and their key staff members in the art of successful campaigning.
Campaign schools typically involve 15-30 targeted candidates and staff members. The curriculum includes instruction and information to help candidates develop a personalized campaign plan and budget, organize fundraising efforts, identify and target voters, develop messages and voter contact strategies and recruit volunteers. In addition to helping candidates to be better prepared for the challenges of running for office, hosting candidate schools can also be extremely beneficial for sponsoring HBAs.
With the help of NAHB’s Political Operations team, the Wichita Area BA has implemented a highly successful candidate education program that has sponsored more than 10 training sessions.
“The decisions that affect us most are the decisions made right here at home”, said Wichita Executive Officer Wess Galyon. “The key to our industry being successful politically and locally are political outreach programs like NAHB’s candidate training schools. These schools and their effectiveness at giving local candidates a winning edge have opened doors for us,” he said.
Overall, an overwhelming majority of the newly trained candidates from the HBA schools came out on top to win their respective elections.
Hosting a candidate school for the first time, Greater Kansas City’s executive officer, Tim Underwood, said that, “It was a great start to a political program we look forward to continuing for years to come.”
For more information on local political outreach programs or to find out more about hosting a candidate training school, contact Ashley Feaster at 800-368-5242 x8126 or Dan Quinonez at x8585 in NAHB’s State & Local Political Operations department.
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