What You’ll Learn
- Use storytelling to create a stump speech
- Draft a standard three-minute version of a stump speech
Why This is Important
Your stump speech is one of the first and most important opportunities your campaign has to introduce voters to your candidate. Listeners should walk away from your candidate’s stump speech with a clear understanding of who your candidate is and the positive impact their positions will have on the community they hope to represent. While this course is geared toward candidates, it’s also imperative that communications staffers understand this process to help guide their candidate’s story.
Key Resources
- Finding Your Why Worksheet
- Finding Your Stories Worksheet
- Stump Speech Example
Related Trainings
- How to Craft a Core Political Campaign Message — Develop a clear and concise core message for your campaign
- Using Personal Stories to Connect — How to identify the building blocks of a personal story that is responsive to your audience
- How to Write Political Campaign Messaging for Your Candidate — Incorporate your candidate’s voice and story into campaign messaging
Erin Vilardi
Trainer
Founder & Executive Director, VoteRunLead
Erin Vilardi is the Founder and Director of VoteRunLead, a national organization leveraging technology and training to accelerate the number of women in civic and political leadership. She first launched VoteRunLead as Vice President of Program and Communications at The White House Project, establishing the largest national political training program readying women for public office and civic life, training over 15,000 women.
Erin has served as a leadership development consultant for a range of clients, including the Yahoo! Business and Human Rights division and Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, where she developed the Athena CORE10©, an innovative set of leadership competencies for 21st century women leaders based on the latest research and gender analysis. She has worked with a diverse range of clients including Fortune 100 companies, global girls initiatives and the U.S. Department of State, reaching women leaders in a dozen international cities.
Erin serves on the Advisory Boards of Girl Meets World, the New American Leaders Project, Democracy.com and is on the Leadership Teams of Vision2020 and Political Parity. She is an Executive Producer of Ann Richards' Texas, a documentary about the late pioneering governor. She has appeared on CNN, BBC, and Fox News and her work was featured in O, The Oprah Magazine as well as numerous international and domestic articles on women and leadership.