Inside Modern Campaigns: How Elections are Won and Lost

Catalog description

Politics is as much art as science. Washington Post columnist James Hohmann will pull back the curtain on how the nature of campaigns, along with media coverage of American politics, is changing. During this exclusive seminar, students will engage directly with a bipartisan mix of today's most skilled political practitioners about what they've learned from their wins and losses. Guest speakers will include current and former officials from presidential, gubernatorial, Senate and House campaigns who have held senior roles, such as campaign manager, chief strategist, general counsel, admaker, speechwriter, opposition researcher, communications director, digital director, pollster, and policy director. The head of a leading Super PAC and the executive director of a party committee will help explore the vital functions of outside groups. Students will play the roles of senior officials for a tabletop exercise and write an end-of-term case study analyzing a major strategic decision by a campaign. This course is offered to students in the Stanford in Washington program in Washington, DC.