Every candidate enters a race with potential vulnerabilities. These may include previous statements, professional history, financial records, social media activity, personal relationships, policy positions, or inconsistencies in the candidate’s public record.

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Campaigns often devote significant time and resources to researching their opponents while failing to conduct the same level of research on their own candidate. This can leave a campaign unprepared when a reporter, opponent, activist, or social media account uncovers damaging information.

Join Tom Jones and the Leadership Institute’s Advanced School of Politics for a one-hour online workshop exploring how campaigns can identify, evaluate, and prepare for candidate vulnerabilities before they become public crises.

This workshop will provide a practical introduction to internal candidate research and help participants understand how successful campaigns uncover potential problems early, assess the seriousness of each issue, and prepare accurate, defensible responses.

During this live workshop, you’ll learn

How to conduct an internal review of a candidate’s background
How to identify political, personal, professional, financial, and digital vulnerabilities
Which areas of a candidate’s public and private record should be examined
How to evaluate the seriousness of each potential vulnerability
How to separate minor concerns from campaign-threatening risks
How to develop accurate, credible, and defensible responses
How to prepare a candidate for difficult questions from reporters, voters, and opponents
When a campaign should respond publicly and when it may be better not to respond
How to build a vulnerability response file before the campaign begins
How to integrate vulnerability planning into campaign messaging and strategy

Upcoming Courses

Who Should Attend

Candidates and prospective candidates
Campaign managers and political directors
Communications staff and press secretaries
Opposition research and rapid-response professionals
Candidate development and campaign training staff
Political consultants and campaign strategists
County, state, and local party leaders
Conservative nonprofit and advocacy professionals who work with candidates or campaigns

Why It Matters

Your opponent is researching your candidate. The press may be researching your candidate. Activists, outside organizations, and social media users may also be searching for information that could damage the campaign.

The question is whether your campaign will discover those vulnerabilities first.

A Candidate Vulnerability Assessment does more than identify potential problems. It allows the campaign to verify the facts, evaluate the political risk, prepare the candidate, develop an effective response, and determine whether an issue should be addressed proactively.

Whether you are planning to run for office, advising a candidate, managing a campaign, developing communications, or preparing a rapid-response operation, this workshop will help you identify potential vulnerabilities and create a plan before a problem becomes a crisis.

Reserve your spot today!