Introduction
Introduction: The Candidate’s Mission
Accepting Your Nomination
Part I: Deciding to Run
Next Steps After Acceptance
Part II: Building the Campaign
Building Your Campaign
Part III: Strategy and Budget
The US Worker Pledge
Part IV: Outreach and Media
The People’s Primary
Part V: Timeline and Survival
Part VI: Winning and Governing
Exploiting Major-Party Primaries
Clean Slate 28 Strategy
The 99-Cent Revolution
Movement Defense
Your Role in the 2029 Congress
Participants1
Chapter 5: Campaign Budgeting and Realistic Costs
RandellHynes July 20, 2026
Chapter 5: Campaign Budgeting and Realistic Costs
Lecture slides with audio narration — self-paced. Click “Launch Slides” to begin.
Read from the Book
- The full chapter text is included below on this page — scroll down to read.
- Candidate Survival Guide by Randell S. Hynes — Chapter 5
Take the Lesson
Opens a full-screen slide viewer. The AI narrator reads each slide’s script aloud. Use the arrow keys or Next/Prev buttons to navigate. Toggle auto-advance to move automatically when each script finishes.
Go to Team Chat
After reading and taking the lesson, join the discussion in the community.
Lecture Topics
- Building a line-item campaign budget from scratch
- Cost projections by race type: competitive vs. safe vs. long-shot
- Burn rate management and cash flow planning
- The 70/20/10 allocation model: field, media, and operations
- Budgeting for compliance, legal, and reporting costs
- When and how to adjust the budget mid-campaign
Discussion Section
What is a realistic total budget for your race, and how did you arrive at that number? Apply the 70/20/10 model to your budget — what goes into field, media, and operations? Discuss how burn rate changes from the primary to the general election.
📖 Full Chapter Text
The complete chapter from the Candidate Survival Guide by Randell S. Hynes is included below for your reading.
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Campaign Budgeting and Realistic Costs
Congressional races are expensive, but the small-dollar model changes the math. From 2024 data: Median incumbent raised ~$2.1M; competitive challengers often $1M–$3M+. In our movement, we win with less by focusing on efficient ground game, digital, and earned media — and by having District Teams do much of the heavy lifting for free.
5.1 Sample Budget for a Competitive House Primary Challenge (Small-Dollar Focused)
Total Goal: $750,000 – $1,500,000 (adjust for district competitiveness)
Key Insight: In a pure small-dollar campaign, you can run leaner on TV (which is expensive and often inefficient for House districts) and heavier on digital + field. District Teams from the Field Manual can cover 30–50% of field costs via volunteers. Adjust numbers based on your district’s media market costs.
5.2 Cost-Saving and Efficiency Tips
- Leverage the movement’s shared tools (peopleprimaries.com style platform for donor management, training).
- Use free/cheap earned media: Candidate as authentic worker voice — podcasts, local news, social virality.
- In-kind from aligned groups (printing, space, volunteer coordination).
- Track every dollar — small-dollar campaigns live or die on efficiency.
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