Are you an amateur? Do you suck at being a decent human? Fix it here:
Campaigns invest significant time refining how a candidate explains their values, their priorities, and their vision to the voters they need to reach. The expectation is consistency. The expectation is control.
But discipline does not always hold in real time.
For the first hour and a half, we will walk through several well-known campaign mishaps and focus on the moments where preparation met pressure.
These are the situations where messaging breaks down, where a single response shifts the narrative, and where campaigns are forced to react instead of execute.
More importantly, these examples show what those moments reveal about the campaign’s internal structure, its preparation, and its ability to operate under stress.
Ryan Brann will then focus on what comes next. How campaigns respond after the initial mistake, how they attempt to rebuild trust with voters, and how communication strategy adjusts once the narrative has already taken shape.
In many cases, the response matters more than the mistake itself.
This is also an opportunity to engage directly with communications professionals on how they approach crisis situations, ask questions about real-world decision making, and learn from the missteps that have shaped past campaigns.
These moments are not rare.
They are part of the campaign environment.
The difference is how they are handled, and whether a campaign is prepared for them before they happen.
Rick Tyler
Director of the Advanced School of Politics
Leadership Institute
About the Advanced School of Politics
UPCOMING PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
- May 5-7, 2026 – Campaign Fundraising School – Arlington, VA
- June 19-21 – Campaign Leadership College – DC Metro Area
If you know anyone who might benefit from these courses, please forward this email to them.
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