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{{Short description|Administrator for a political candidate's campaign}}
[[File:Campaign Managers' Meeting, 25-26 April 2016, Sofia, Bulgaria (26544013272).jpg|thumb|Campaign Managers' Meeting, 25-26 April 2016, [[Sofia]], [[Bulgaria]] ]]
{{More citations needed|date=January 2024}}

{{Political campaigning}}
A '''campaign manager''', '''campaign chairperson''', or '''campaign director''' is an individual whose role is to coordinate a [[political campaign]]'s spending, broad tactics, and hiring.<ref name="caprara"/> They lead operations such as [[Campaign finance|fundraising]], [[advertising]], [[Opinion poll|poll]]ing, [[getting out the vote]] (with direct contact to the public), and other activities supporting the effort, directly.

Apart from the candidate, they are often a campaign's most visible leader. However, modern campaign managers, particularly at the presidential level, are mostly concerned with executing strategy, not setting it. The senior strategists are typically outside [[political consulting|political consultants]], primarily pollsters and media consultants.

Particularly for large, well-funded campaigns, campaign managers often manage a huge number of [[Political campaign staff|staffers]] and [[volunteering|volunteers]] in a variety of departments; while also coordinating closely with the candidate and outside consultants. 

In the United States, increasingly, campaign management has been a speciality occupation. The top-tier of managers will move throughout the country working on a different campaign each election cycle.  The challenges of building a successful operation from scratch in less than 2 years makes experienced professionals increasingly valuable.<ref name="caprara"/><ref name="plasser"/>

In addition to their past experience, experienced campaign managers also bring with them knowledge of [[campaign management tools]] and relationships with [[political consulting|political consultants]].

The pay ranges for a campaign manager differ depending on the scale of the political race.

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="caprara">{{cite book |last1=Caprara |first1=Anne |chapter=Campaign Management |title=Campaigns and Elections American Style |date=9 August 2023 |pages=149–174 |doi=10.4324/9781003166375-8|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]}}</ref>
<ref name="plasser">{{cite journal |last1=Plasser |first1=Fritz |title=Parties' Diminishing Relevance for Campaign Professionals |journal=Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics |date=September 2001 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=44–59 |doi=10.1177/108118001129172332 |publisher=[[Sage Publishing]]}}</ref>
}}
{{politics-stub}}
[[Category:Campaign managers|*]]
[[Category:Elections]]