New Supports

No one has unlimited resources. While you want everyone to feel included in your campaign, it is unrealistic, and impossible to target every individual. When you are campaigning, you need to choose your audience, and focus on certain groups of individuals.

Every party has a base of voters. Those are the individuals who rarely vote outside of the party lines, and are unlikely to vote for an opposing candidate. Wellstone tells us that what we want to focus on is growing out base. Increase the amount of people who vote for you every time, the voters who are likely to stay with you throughout your Presidency, and then later through reelection.

The split for individuals (according to Wellstone) is normally:
40% Supporters 20% Undecided and 40% Opposed

Your goal is to focus first on those Undecided. Look specifically at new voters, and the individuals who are looking for a party to support, and an candidate to endorse. This includes: young/first time voters, new Americans, communities who normally do not come out to vote, sporadic voters, and states where released felons can vote.

These people are looking for someone who includes them, and appeals to their needs. We've talked about inclusion a lot, and this is where you put that equality based focus in the spotlight.

In the next post, we will focus on how we include and grow our New Supports.

Expand the base.