Your Complete Guide to Leading and Volunteering in the Movement That Returns Power to American Workers

Whether you want to build a District team from scratch or simply help elect one good candidate, this manual shows you exactly how. The most current version is maintained online at PeoplePrimaries.com, where you will find updates, training modules, and district-specific resources beyond what fits in these pages.

Why This Manual Exists — And Why You Matter

For decades, the people who work for a living have watched both political parties answer to corporate donors, lobbyists, and foreign labor arbitrage instead of the 170 million American workers who actually keep this country running. People Primaries is the practical, district-by-district system that ends that capture — without waiting for either party to reform itself.

This Field Manual is written for every American who is ready to do something about it. You do not need a political science degree, a big bank account, or prior campaign experience. You need only the willingness to show up for your neighbors and the conviction that the people who represent us should actually work for us.

There are two equally powerful ways to participate, and this manual walks you through each one:

• As a Leader: Form or join a District team, recruit volunteers, vet candidates, and run the local People Primary that will nominate the next generation of worker-first representatives.
• As a Volunteer: Give whatever time you have — an hour a week or an hour a month — to canvass, phone bank, host house parties, manage data, create content, or simply talk to your co-workers and neighbors about why this matters.

Both paths are essential. Both paths are open to you today. And if you are not sure yet which one is yours, keep reading. Most people start as volunteers and discover they want to do more. There is no wrong door to walk through.

How We Operate: Fully Distributed. Bottom-Up. Independent.

This is the most important section in the entire manual. Read it twice.

People Primaries is an entirely distributed operation. We are not building a top-down national hierarchy. We are providing the engine, the tools, the education, and the vision. Everything else belongs to you and your neighbors.

District Teams Are Independent

Every District team is an independent organization. Its members decide:

• How the team is structured
• Who its leaders will be
• What its priorities and tactics will be
• How it spends its time, energy, and resources

No national office makes top-down decisions about leadership, strategy, or operations inside any District.

Multiple Teams Are Allowed and Welcomed

There can be — and often should be — multiple independent teams operating inside the same congressional district. Different neighborhoods, workplaces, age groups, or communities of interest may form their own groups. That is healthy. Multiple teams make the overall effort stronger, not weaker.

Residents Can Act Independently

You do not need permission from any District team to take action. Any District resident can register as a District Member, talk to neighbors, host a house party, canvass, or support a candidate who has signed The WORK FOR US! Promise — with or without joining a formal team. The tools on PeoplePrimaries.com are open to individuals as well as groups.

How Elevated Access Is Granted

The platform at PeoplePrimaries.com has elevated access levels — for example, the ability to create official District events, manage larger membership lists, access advanced candidate-vetting tools, and coordinate multi-team activity. Elevated access is not granted by a national headquarters. It is granted based on votes made by the teams operating in a district. When those teams vote to recognize a particular group or set of leaders as ready for elevated tools, those tools are unlocked.

In short: we provide the platform and the education. You decide who gets the keys.

1. Getting Started — Your First 30 Minutes

Step 1: Become a District Member (5 minutes)

Go to PeoplePrimaries.com and click JOIN THE US MAJORITY to register in your Congressional District. You are now a District Member. No dues. No loyalty oath to a party. Just a commitment that the people who represent your district should actually represent the people who live there.

Step 2: Decide Your Role (10 minutes)

Ask yourself honestly:

• Do I want to organize other people and help decide how our district operates? → Read Section 2: Leadership Opportunities.
• Do I want to help but keep my time flexible? → Read Section 3: Volunteer Options.

Many people start as volunteers and later step into leadership. Both are needed. There is no wrong answer. And remember: you can always act independently even if you never join a formal team.

Step 3: Connect — or Start Something (15 minutes)

Check whether one or more District teams already exist in your district. If they do, introduce yourself and ask how you can help — or simply start working alongside them. If none exist, you may be the person who starts the first one. Either way, you have just moved from spectator to participant.

2. Leadership Opportunities — Build Independent Power

District teams are the heart of People Primaries. A healthy team is not a hierarchy of professional politicians. It is a group of ordinary Americans who live in the district, care about the district, and refuse to let corporate money decide their representation.

Critical reminder: Your team’s members choose the leaders. No national office, no headquarters, and no outside group gets to appoint or remove your leadership. You decide.

Who Can Lead?

Anyone who lives in the district, is a registered District Member, and is willing to put in the work. Age, party registration, education level, and prior experience do not matter. Character, reliability, and a genuine commitment to worker-first representation do. Leadership is earned by the trust of the people who live there — nothing else.

Core Leadership Roles (Examples — Your Members Decide the Structure)

These are common roles that work well. Your team is free to invent different ones, combine them, or create entirely new structures:

• Chair / Co-Chairs: Overall responsibility for the team. Runs meetings, keeps the group focused on the mission, and serves as a public face of the district effort.
• Recruitment Lead: Finds new District Members and volunteers. Organizes house parties, workplace conversations, and community events that grow the base.
• Candidate Vetting Lead: Manages the process of identifying, interviewing, and recommending potential candidates who will sign and live by The WORK FOR US! Promise.
• Field Organizer: Builds the volunteer lists, schedules canvassing and phone-banking shifts, and makes sure the ground game is real.
• Communications Lead: Handles social media, local press, flyers, and the stories that remind neighbors why this fight matters.
• Data & Systems Lead: Keeps the membership rolls clean, tracks volunteer hours, and makes sure the team can measure what works.
• Finance / 99-Cent Lead: Coordinates the district’s participation in the 99-Cent Revolution so the campaign is funded by thousands of small contributions rather than a handful of big donors.

How to Form a New Independent District Team

1. Register yourself as a District Member if you have not already.
2. Find 5–7 other people in your district who are ready to commit. They can be friends, co-workers, neighbors, church members, or people you meet through the national network.
3. Hold a founding meeting (in person or by video). Decide together how you will organize. Choose temporary leaders by vote of the members present. Agree on a first 90-day goal (usually “reach 50 active members and identify 3–5 potential candidates”), and set a regular meeting cadence.
4. Notify the broader People Primaries network so your team can appear in the district directory and begin collaborating with other groups if you choose.
5. Begin recruiting. Use the tools on PeoplePrimaries.com. Aim for a working team of 50–100 people; that is the size that can run a real primary and a serious ground game. Other independent teams can and should form alongside you.

What Success Looks Like for Leaders

You will know the team is working when (1) every serious candidate for Congress in your district feels they must seek People Primary support, (2) your volunteers can put 200 doors or 500 phone calls on the board in a single weekend, and (3) the people in your district start saying “our District team” the same way they used to say “our party.” That is real power — and it belongs entirely to the people who live there.

3. Volunteer Options — Every Hour Counts

Not everyone can or wants to lead a team. That is fine. Most of the work that wins elections is done by volunteers who give a few hours a week or a few hours a month. Your contribution is not “less than” leadership — it is the reason leadership succeeds.

You can volunteer with an existing District team, start your own informal group, or simply take independent action. All three are legitimate and powerful.

High-Impact Volunteer Roles

• Canvasser: Walk neighborhoods, talk to voters, leave literature, and gather contact info for new District Members. The most powerful form of persuasion is still a face-to-face conversation with a neighbor.
• Phone / Text Banker: Call or text registered District Members and voters from home. Perfect for people with limited mobility, parents with kids at home, or anyone who prefers working remotely.
• House Party Host: Open your living room, backyard, or video room for a 60–90 minute gathering. Invite 8–15 people, show a short video or give a 10-minute talk, and ask them to register as District Members and volunteer.
• Workplace Organizer: Talk to co-workers (legally, on your own time, without using company resources). Share why People Primaries matters to people who still have jobs they are afraid of losing.
• Content Creator: Write short posts, record 30-second videos, design simple graphics, or translate materials. If you can make something that makes a 22-year-old or a 62-year-old stop scrolling, you are valuable.
• Data Entry / List Manager: Keep membership and volunteer lists accurate. Quiet, essential work that prevents wasted effort.
• Event Support: Set up chairs, greet people, pass out clipboards, take photos. The people who make the logistics run smoothly are the ones who make the big nights possible.
• Mentor / Buddy: Pair with a new volunteer for their first canvass or phone bank. Nothing grows a movement faster than experienced people teaching newcomers.
• Legal / Compliance Watchdog: If you have experience with election law, FEC rules, or nonprofit compliance, help keep the effort clean and defensible.

How Much Time Is Expected?

There is no minimum. A single two-hour canvass shift once a month is useful. A weekly phone-banking hour is powerful. A weekend a month as a field organizer is transformative. Tell any team you work with what you can realistically give — or simply act on your own schedule.

Volunteer Rights and Respect

You will never be pressured to donate money beyond the 99-cent level if you cannot. You will never be asked to do anything illegal or unethical. You will always be free to step back without guilt — or to start your own independent effort. The people who built this movement were workers who got tired of being disposable. We do not treat our own volunteers that way.

4. The 70-Volunteer Structure — A Proven Model for Teams That Want to Win

If you are building a District team and want a concrete structure that has been shown to work, this section gives you one. You are free to use it, modify it, or invent something entirely different. But if you want a starting point, here it is.

Why 70?

Every District team that aims to win builds an organization of roughly 70 volunteers. This is not arbitrary. It is calculated:

• One volunteer per precinct in the average congressional district (approximately 70 precincts per district)
• A manageable span of control (7 teams of 10 volunteers each)
• Enough coverage to knock every door, staff every polling place, and turn out every vote

The Seven Teams

Team Coordinator Selection

From each team of 10, the members choose one Team Coordinator. Your 7 Team Coordinators form your core leadership group. Meet with them weekly. Remember: these are coordinators, not commanders. They keep the work organized. The team members — including every volunteer in this manual — are the ones who do the winning.

5. The Recruitment Playbook

Whether you are a leader building a team of 70 or a volunteer bringing in your first neighbor, the conversation is the same. Here is how to have it.

The Recruitment Conversation Guide

1. Connect on the problem: “Did you know that Congress has a 12% approval rating but a 94% re-election rate? The system is rigged.”
2. Present the solution: “We’re replacing as many members of Congress as possible who have not signed The WORK FOR US! Promise with candidates who sign it — no corporate money, no party loyalty, just workers first.”
3. Make the ask: “I’m organizing in this district. We need people. Can you give a few hours a week?”
4. Close: “Great. Our team meets [day/time]. Can you make it?”

Start with people you know. Friends, family, co-workers, neighbors. People who share your anger at the system and your commitment to change it. Then each of your first recruits finds a few more. Your job is to train them to make the ask.

Recruiting Existing Organizations

Individual volunteers are the foundation of your team. But you are not building from scratch. Your district already contains organizations that share our goals — unions, VFW posts, church groups, community associations, issue advocacy groups, and local political clubs. Many of these organizations have been fighting for workers for years. They have members, mailing lists, meeting spaces, and credibility. They simply lack a unified national strategy. Your job is to align these existing organizations with People Primaries.

Why Organizations Join

• They want to win. Most worker advocacy groups have been fighting defensive battles for decades. People Primaries offers an offensive strategy with a clear finish line.
• They want relevance. Many local organizations struggle to attract younger members. Aligning with a national movement gives them something to offer.
• They want impact. A local union chapter or VFW post cannot pass a constitutional amendment. But 435 districts working together can.
• They want leadership. Many organizations have members who want to do more than write checks. This gives them a vehicle for action.

The Organization Recruitment Conversation

Approach organizational leaders with respect. They have been fighting for workers longer than you have. Acknowledge their work. Then show them how alignment amplifies their impact.

1. Acknowledge their work: “Your [organization] has been fighting for workers in [issue area] for [X years]. That matters.”
2. Present the opportunity: “We’re building a coalition to replace Congress with representatives who pledge to pass the US Majority Amendment. This is the first strategy with a realistic path to permanently ending corporate capture of our government.”
3. Show alignment: “Your members already believe in what we’re fighting for. We’re not asking them to abandon your mission — we’re asking them to add their votes to a coordinated national strategy.”
4. Make the ask: “We’re asking [organization name] to formally endorse People Primaries and encourage your members to join their district’s team. In return, we’ll coordinate with your leadership, feature your organization in our materials, and ensure that your priorities are represented in our platform.”
5. Address concerns: Be honest about what you can and cannot promise. You cannot guarantee specific policy outcomes beyond the Amendment. You can guarantee that organized workers will have a seat at every table.

Types of Organizations to Recruit

Maintaining Organizational Relationships

Once an organization aligns, maintain the relationship:

• Invite their leaders to your team coordination meetings
• Feature their events in your communications
• Coordinate on shared initiatives
• Give credit publicly for their support
• Never compete with your allies — amplify them

The goal is not to subsume existing organizations into People Primaries. The goal is to create a coalition where each organization retains its identity while contributing to a shared victory. When the US Majority Amendment passes, every aligned organization can say: “We helped make that happen.”

6. Training — What Every Volunteer Needs to Know

Before you recruit a single volunteer, complete the courses at the US Workers Academy on PeoplePrimaries.com. The platform, built on an e-learning framework, provides structured learning paths that team members complete to demonstrate progress and earn access to organizing tools. You will learn the organizing framework, connect with team members from other districts who have already formed, and — most important — you will be visible to the workers in your district who are looking for a team to join. They are out there. They are waiting. PeoplePrimaries.com is where you find each other, organize, and claim your district’s page. Once your team has been confirmed as legitimate and prepared, elevated access is granted by vote of the teams in your district.

The Narrative (30 minutes)

Every volunteer must be able to tell the story in 60 seconds:

• $30 trillion stolen from American workers since 1973
• Corporate personhood and money-as-speech created the most corrupt government in history
• The US Majority Amendment strips corporations of constitutional rights, makes money not speech, and protects human labor
• People Primaries is the start of the push — targeting every member of Congress who has not signed The WORK FOR US! Promise, across the 2028 and 2030 election cycles

The Promise (30 minutes)

Every volunteer must be able to explain The WORK FOR US! Promise:

• No corporate money
• Pass the Amendment
• Protect workers
• No foreign money
• Serve people, not party
• Transparency and accountability
• Term limits commitment

The Process (30 minutes)

Every volunteer must understand how elections work:

• Primary elections (when, how, who can vote)
• General election mechanics
• Early voting and mail-in ballots
• Polling place locations

Team-Specific Training

7. Candidate Recruitment — Finding the Person Who Will Run

The full mechanics of how People Primaries runs the People Primary — the nomination process, the vetting standard, the promise-signing sequence, what to do when no one steps forward — are detailed in Appendix G: The People Primary. This Field Manual and Appendix G work together: Appendix G finds the candidate; this manual elects them. What follows here is the field-level summary every team member should understand.

Finding Your Candidate

The right candidate is:

• A resident of your district
• Willing to sign The WORK FOR US! Promise publicly
• Not a career politician
• Willing to serve a maximum of 3 terms (House) or 2 terms (Senate)
• Able to articulate the movement’s message

The Candidate Conversation

Ask: “Will you run for Congress on The WORK FOR US! Promise?”

Explain:

• No corporate money — small-dollar donations only
• You sign the promise publicly
• You commit to pass the US Majority Amendment in the first 100 days
• You serve a maximum of 3 terms
• We provide the ground game: volunteers knocking doors

If They Hesitate: “What’s your concern?” Address it directly. If they won’t sign the promise, move to the next prospect.

When No One Will Run

If you cannot find a candidate willing to sign the promise, you have two options:

• Run a write-in campaign for “None of the Above” to send a message
• Run yourself — team members can become candidates if necessary

8. The Campaign — Running the Ground Game

The Ground Game

Canvassing (Team 2)

• Knock every door in the district at least twice
• Script: “I’m a volunteer with People Primaries. Our candidate has pledged to pass the US Majority Amendment and take no corporate money. Can we count on your vote?”

Phone & Text Banking (Team 3)

• Call every voter in the district at least three times
• Text banking for event reminders and GOTV

Events (Team 5)

• Minimum 4 town halls before Election Day
• Candidate meet-and-greets in every major community
• Visibility events: rallies, parades, farmers markets

Media (Team 6)

• Social media: daily posts, shareable graphics, video clips
• Local press: letters to the editor, op-eds, interviews
• Earned media: make your candidate newsworthy

Data-Driven Decisions

Weekly Metrics to Track:

• Doors knocked
• Calls made
• Texts sent
• Events held
• Volunteer hours
• Donations (small-dollar only)

Monthly Targets

9. Get Out The Vote — The Final Six Weeks

Early Voting (Weeks 1–2)

• Team 7 coordinates rides to early voting locations
• Teams 2 and 3 contact every identified supporter with early voting info
• Daily tracking of who has voted

Election Week (Week 3)

• Final push: contact every supporter who hasn’t voted
• Poll watchers at every location
• Ballot curing: help voters fix problems with their ballots

Election Day

• 6 AM: Poll watchers deployed
• All day: Rides to polls, troubleshooting
• 7 PM: Polls close
• 8 PM: Watch party

10. Your 90-Day Action Plan

For New Leaders Starting an Independent Team

• Week 1–2: Register yourself + 5 friends. Hold founding meeting. Members vote on temporary leadership and structure. Notify the broader network.
• Week 3–4: Launch first house-party / workplace conversation wave. Goal: 25 District Members.
• Month 2: Reach 50 members. Identify 3–5 potential candidates. Begin basic vetting interviews. Consider requesting elevated access via vote of the teams in the District.
• Month 3: Hold first public People Primary forum or town hall. Publish a simple district scorecard of who is willing to sign the Promise.

For Volunteers Joining an Existing Team (or Acting Independently)

• Day 1: Register as District Member. Introduce yourself to any existing teams — or simply start talking to neighbors on your own.
• Week 1: Complete the short online orientation. Sign up for one concrete shift (canvass, phone bank, or house party) or organize one yourself.
• Month 1: Bring one new person. Ask for a slightly larger responsibility if you want it — or keep acting independently.
• Ongoing: Track your hours. Tell the people you work with what is working and what is not. Stay human — this is a movement of people, not a machine.

11. The Weekly Routine

12. Troubleshooting

13. Guardrails — Staying True to the Mission

People Primaries succeeds only if it remains what it claims to be: a worker-driven, non-corporate, cross-partisan, fully distributed effort. Every District team and every volunteer agrees to these simple rules:

• No corporate PAC money. Ever. The 99-Cent Revolution is the funding model.
• No purity tests that exclude workers. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and people who left both parties are welcome if they put American workers first.
• No personal enrichment. Leaders and candidates do not use the movement as a stepping stone to consulting contracts or lobbying gigs.
• Transparency. Membership numbers, finances, and candidate questionnaires are open to District Members.
• Independence. No national body appoints local leaders or dictates local tactics. District teams and individual residents own their work.
• Focus on the district. National strategy provides the vision and the tools. The real power lives at the district level — and is exercised by the people who live there.

14. Your Resources

From the Platform

• Campaign materials (flyers, brochures, yard signs)
• Data access (voter file, phone numbers)
• Training webinars and e-learning modules
• Legal guidance (FEC compliance, state election law)
• Messaging guidance

Network Connections

• Share updates with other District teams on PeoplePrimaries.com
• Coordinate with nearby teams for joint actions
• Learn from successful strategies in other Districts
• Connect with resources and expertise across the network

15. The Invitation

You have already done the hardest part: you opened this manual and read this far. That means you still believe ordinary people can take their government back.

Whether you become the leader who helps build a thriving independent team of 70 people, or the quiet volunteer who knocks on 40 doors every other Saturday, or the resident who simply registers and talks to five co-workers — you are part of the same project. The project is simple: make sure the next person who represents your district works for the people who live there — not the people who write the biggest checks.

You are not organizing a campaign. You are organizing a movement. The goal is not to elect one representative. The goal is to elect 435 representatives who will pass the US Majority Amendment and restore the republic. Your district is one of 435. If you succeed, you change Congress. If all 435 Districts succeed, we change history.

Start today.

• Join your District at PeoplePrimaries.com
• Find or form an independent District team — or simply begin acting on your own
• Choose one role — leader or volunteer — and take the first action listed above
• Tell three people what you just did

That is how movements that actually win elections begin. Not with a celebrity or a billionaire. With a worker who decided the status quo was no longer acceptable — and then did something about it.

Welcome to People Primaries. You are no longer waiting for someone else to fix this. You are the someone.

The People Primaries Field Manual is a project of Buildup Cooperative 501(c)(4), The COOP, operated through the People Primaries initiative. The COOP is not a membership organization. It is not a union. It is not a political party. The relationship of workers to the US Majority is like a declaration by voters of their association with a political party — you stand with the US Majority, but no one “owns” you or dictates your vote. For more information, visit PeoplePrimaries.com.