Parties, Campaigns, and Platforms

Politics Escape room

Campaign Manual

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Political Parties

Political Parties: Organized group of people working to influence the government by getting people elected into office

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Political Parties

• Recruit and nominate candidates
• They need to get people to believe in their ideals, run for offices, and get laws passed

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Political Parties

• Recruit and nominate candidates

• Mobilize voters
• Get people to vote who wouldn't otherwise
• Ideally wanting to get people to vote who will vote for their candidate

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Political Parties

• Recruit and nominate candidates

• Mobilize voters

• Create a platform
• What this means is coming in pt. 3 of this lesson

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Political Parties

• Recruit and nominate candidates

• Mobilize voters

• Create a platform

• Be a "watchdog" on the other party
• Check on the other party and be sure they are not lying
• Giving public information about their opponents (generally negative ones)

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Political Parties

Major Political Parties in the US: Democrats Republicans

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Political Parties

Major Political Parties in the US: Democrats Republicans Other US Political Parties: Tea Party Constitution Party Alliance Party

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Third Parties

• Political parties that are not one of the main 2 parties

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Third Parties

• Political parties that are not one of the main 2 parties

• Next to impossible for a 3rd party to take power
• Parties see certain parties are picking up steam due to certain issues and they adjust and change their parties views/planks

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Lesson learned!

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Campaigns

Campaigns: organized effort to get someone elected to political office

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Campaigns

• Determine messaging and slogans
• What image is your candidate
• Decide how you want your candidate to be known

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Campaigns

• Determine messaging and slogans

• Fundraising
• Get money so you can hire people, fly people to where they need, create advertising to get people to vote for your candidate

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Campaigns

• Determine messaging and slogans

• Fundraising

• Advertising (TV, social media, print)
• Get people to know about your candidate, what they stand for, etc
• Convince people to vote for you

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Campaigns

• Determine messaging and slogans

• Fundraising

• Advertising (TV, social media, print)

• Debates and Rallies
• Debates are when you argue with your opponent about your various beliefs
• Rallies are when you get people to rally for you and support you
• Get people pumped to vote for you

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Campaigns

• Determine messaging and slogans

• Fundraising

• Advertising (TV, social media, print)

• Debates and Rallies

• Voter outreach
• Getting people to vote for you
• Might go knock on doors and try to get people to vote for you
• Might digitally try and get people to vote for you

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Campaigns

So many people work together to form and effectively put together a successful (or even unsuccessful) campaign

Examples: Campaign managers

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Campaigns

Examples:

• Campaign manager
• You run the campaign and ensure everything gets done!
• Debate Assistant
• Prepare the candidate for the debate
• Prepare responses and counterarguments
• Speech Writer
• Write the speech highlighting why people should vote for your candidate
• Research Analyst
• Research candidate opinions and opposing opinions to give data and facts for your candidate
• Data Analyst
• Gather information about voters to help inform your candidate and choices
• Fundraise Coordinator
• Gather money to support the campaign and candidate
• Art Director
• Deals with all the art related to the campaign
• Think commercials, posters, pins, flyers, etc

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Lesson learned!

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It's poison!

Oh no! You have added the wrong ingredient to the mixture and created poison, go back to correct the mixture.

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Platforms

Political Platform: Formal list of beliefs of a political party

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Platforms

Political Plank: This is a single belief the party has Planks come together to form a full platform

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Platforms

Example: - Grow the economy by lowering taxes of all citizens - End tax incentives that encourage companies to move operations outside of the US

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Platforms

Reminder: Individuals planks come together to form a platform

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Platforms

Now: Look at some actual political platforms

Democratic Party

Republican Party

Alliance Party

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Constitution Party

Question 1/4

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What is a political platform?

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Each individual issue in a political platform is called a:

Question 3/4

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Why do political parties create platforms?

Question 4/4

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Why are political platforms helpful for voters?

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Review

Let's review what you have learned!

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Question 1/4

Which of the following best explains how a political party’s platform connects to its campaign strategy?

Question 2/4

Imagine a new political party forms around the issue of climate action but also supports strong government spending cuts. What challenge might this party face in attracting voters?

Question 3/4

How do third parties most often influence American politics, even when they don’t win elections?

Question 4/4

Why might a political campaign adjust its message over time, even if the party platform stays the same?

Manual completed

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