One thing that saddens me about campaign politics in 2024, is the state of campaign volunteering. It’s just not what it used to be. What was once a fun and rewarding experience of sharing a push towards a common goal, is now getting harder and harder to find.

If you’re volunteering for a campaign, you should be getting some measure of attention from the campaign staff, and defnitely getting what you need to do a good job.

So, I’ve created a campaign volunteer bill of rights of what you should expect from volunteering on a campaign.

The Campaign Volunteer Bill Of Rights

Water always. Food and snacks often: Lets be clear. If a campaign isn’t providing water for it’s volunteers it’s playing a very dangerous game. If a volunteer collapses matters could get very messy. They should also be offering a lunch, donuts, or snacks depending on the schedule.

Training First: If you’ve never worked on a campaign, you should be getting trained. It’s absolutely nuts to expect a volunteer to just pick up and go with no previous experience.

Protection and Safety: The campaign should never ask you to put yourself in a position where you can get hurt. If a house looks unsafe or if there is a no trespassing sign or dangerous dog sign on the property, you should be allowed to skip that home.

Invitations to the fun events too: There is the grunt work in the field that I love and where I thrive. But there is also a rather fun and occasionally fancy event schedule, where you clean up and get to meet other allies of the campaign. If you’re sweating, you should be dressing.

A “Thank You” and occasional facetime with the candidate: If I notice a campaign not thanking their volunteers I hope to goodness they just forgot. You should get a sincere thank you for everything you volunteer for. And depending on the race, you should get a small amount of time with the candidate between events. But not a lot. We’ve still got a race to win.

That is your Campaign Volunteer Bill Of Rights. Hope it helps!