By Derek Dufresne (Partner)
If there’s one thing I’ve learned after enough campaign cycles to measure my life in yard signs, it’s this: your team will make or break you long before voters do. Candidates obsess over messaging, polling, yard signs, and TV ads— but the real difference between a campaign that runs smoothly and one that’s in a total meltdown by July is who you hire on day one.
Here’s the truth most candidates don’t hear early enough: you don’t need the flashiest resume, the biggest X persona, or the person who’s been “thinking about working in politics for a while.” You need people who show up, tell you the truth, and doesn’t panic when something catches fire at 9:47 p.m. on a Wednesday — because at some point, something will.
Start with your general consultant. If they won’t tell you “no,” “don’t do that,” or “that’s dumb,” you’ve hired the wrong people. You want strategists who understand your district, know how votes are actually won, and aren’t afraid to drag the campaign back on track when everyone else is chasing shiny objects. Avoid anyone who seems to be over-promising connections or name-dropping their way through the first meeting.
Then build around doers, not talkers. Every cycle, I meet three types of staff: workhorses, show ponies, and people who mysteriously vanish the second doors need knocking or call time needs prepping. The workhorses are worth their weight in gold — the ones who solve problems before they hit your radar and somehow run field, fix a printer, and rewrite a press release in the same afternoon. If someone’s most significant contribution to the campaign is generating internal drama or asking “whose job is that,” you already know the answer: not yours.
And please, if you value your sleep, your budget, or your blood pressure, scale your team to your race. I’ve seen local candidates hire like they’re running for Senate, and Senate candidates hire like they’re running for VP of the student council. A competitive congressional operation needs a GC, finance, comms, a paid media team, polling, field (although paid door knockers and call centers replacing much of this), and compliance — with the rest added as budget and reality demand. Hiring a pollster before hiring a finance director is like buying a boat before checking if you live anywhere near water.
Now, let me add something that Republicans, especially, fall into too often: the “but they’re local and know the district” trap. Every district is different, and relying on local knowledge is crucial — absolutely. But a talented, experienced operative can learn a district quickly by listening to local leaders, earning trust, and doing the damn work. I’ve seen it over and over again. What doesn’t happen is magically turning an untested friend-of-a-friend into a seasoned operative just because that person has a local zip code. Local activists are great, but “nice guy whom everyone likes at the county GOP breakfast” is not a job qualification.
I say this as someone who started in New Hampshire, worked on Capitol Hill, and has run races and multi-million dollar operations from Florida to the Midwest to the Mountain West: the best teams blend local knowledge with professional expertise. Your field director should know the neighborhoods. Your general consultant should know how to win the election. Those aren’t the same skill sets, and pretending they are gets a lot of Republican candidates into unnecessary trouble.
Chemistry matters too — far more than anyone admits. You’re basically building a small family that lives in a pressure cooker. If your team doesn’t trust each other, they won’t trust you, and if they don’t trust you, things spiral fast. You want the adults in the room: people who can take a punch, give one back, laugh it off, and move on: ego-free, low-drama, high-output. If someone’s already irritating you five months before the filing deadline, imagine what October will be like.
And here’s the closer: at the end of the day, you’re not just hiring talent — you’re hiring judgment, trust, and stamina. Campaigns are long, messy, emotional, unpredictable, and unforgiving. The people around you will see you tired, stressed, annoyed, elated, and sometimes all of the above in twelve minutes. Hire the team you’d want in the bunker, not the team that gives you constant self-affirmation.
Because the truth is, I’ve seen long-shot candidates win because they surrounded themselves with disciplined, experienced pros… and I’ve seen “favorites” crash and burn because they handed the keys to someone who talks much talk about whom they know or how many followers they have on X. Talent matters. Experience matters. Judgment matters. And the campaigns that get that right — win.
At Ascent, we help campaigns build the right team at the right moment — recruiting experienced professionals, coordinating vendors, aligning message and operations, and keeping the entire machine moving in the same direction: no drama, no fluff, just a disciplined, focused team built to win Republican races. Let us know if we can help you achieve victory.
