Wisconsin WFP Political Director

Working Families Party • Wisconsin, WI

1d • Remote

About The Position

The Working Families Party (WFP) is seeking a Political Director for its Wisconsin chapter. This role is responsible for developing and executing a year-round strategy for candidate recruitment, development, endorsement, and campaign support to advance the state power plan. The Political Director will build relationships with potential candidates, elected officials, campaign staff, volunteers, and leaders of aligned organizations. Collaboration with state and national WFP staff, as well as political strategists, will be frequent. The position involves providing strategic support to endorsed candidates during election seasons, managing canvassing programs, identifying strategic opportunities, and running candidate trainings. The role also includes building a network for elected officials, assessing campaign needs to develop digital and organizing plans, supporting fundraising efforts, and developing electoral tactics that leverage WFP's membership and volunteer base. Alignment with organizational partners and ensuring compliance with campaign finance laws are also key responsibilities. The position requires travel within Wisconsin and may involve supervising staff or vendors.

Requirements

• At least 4 years of electoral experience, including in-state specific experience, and at least 5 years in the workforce
• 2+ cycles as a campaign manager
• Existing relationships with WI electoral organizations, candidates, and elected officials
• Demonstrated ability to cultivate powerful relationships and build alliances
• Experience managing “hard†side campaigns coordinated with candidates, and “soft†side independent expenditure campaigns
• Experience with WI compliance laws for c3, c4, state PACs, and federal compliance laws of national PACs
• Working knowledge of all aspects of electoral campaigning, including field, paid media, earned communications, fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and digital organizing
• Experience with coalition-building - especially aligning plans across allies into one coherent whole
• High competency with numbers, and comfort using NGP-VAN, Catalyst, databases, spreadsheets, and learning new campaign software
• Strong communications skills, including writing, public speaking, and listening
• Commitment to values of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Ability to mobilize quickly and inspire others to do so
• Valid Driver’s License and ability to travel to in person events and meetings in other parts of the state
• Flexibility and willingness to be resourceful and communicative is a top priority
• Applicants must be currently authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor, or take over sponsorship of, employment visas at this time.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with other senior leadership to developing the state power building plan with the WFP organizing committee, elected leaders, and aligned partners
• Build and maintain relationships with endorsed and aligned candidates and campaigns, to implement the political and electoral strategy in the state power building plan
• Manage our Know Your Neighbor Canvassing Program
• Identify key strategic opportunities and priority electoral races aligned with the state power building plan
• Candidate recruitment and vetting, including providing key leadership with state director and organizing committee of electoral endorsement process
• Run events such as candidate trainings with and without partner organizations
• Build a statewide container for WFP and aligned elected officials to connect across Wisconsin
• Work with WFP-endorsed campaigns to assess campaign needs so that WI WFP can build digital and organizing plans that take advantage of our tools (e.g., dialer, peer-to-peer text, etc.) and offer services to best support their campaigns
• Coordinate with WFP national staff to support endorsed candidates as necessary
• Support fundraising for coordinated campaigns and independent expenditures so that these initiatives can be successful
• Electoral program development and management, including both independent expenditure and coordinated campaigns and maintaining a long term strategy to engage and build WFP membership
• Support the development of electoral tactics that rest on and build the strength of WFP’s membership, volunteers and leaders, working in consultation with staff across the organization
• Align our political strategy with major organizational partners and organizing around shared priorities
• Help ensure compliance with campaign finance rules and reporting to all relevant entities
• Relationship management and in-person events and meetings up and down the state
• Help the State Director maintain national relationships with organizations including Vera Action, Seed the Vote, and others as appropriate; support on the ground membership and party building in Madison, WI in absence of organizing staff
• Supervise paid canvass manager/vendor, organizers, etc. as needed
• Other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• The salary range for this role is $71,400 - $94,500 per year.
• This is a nonmanagerial role eligible to join WFP's staff bargaining unit after six months of employment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed