M.A. in Elections and Campaign Management Learning Goals

Do you want to work on campaigns, poll the public to assess public opinion, or cover elections as part of the media? If you complete our M.A. Program you will develop the skills and substantive knowledge that will allow you to become a professional in the field of Elections and Campaign Management. The program strikes a balance between theory and practice. You will study about elections in courses taught by both leading political science researchers as well as from practitioners who are on the front line of election campaigns. The program is designed to appeal equally to mid-career professionals as well as recent college graduates. Many of the students who enter the program have some political experience, but even if you don’t, you will have the opportunity to gain experience as part of our required internship. If you like politics and think you would enjoy working in this field, you would be a natural for the program.

To help you accomplish your career aspirations the program emphasizes the following learning goals:

• You will master the skills needed to communicate with, persuade and mobilize voters including the knowledge of how to use free and paid media to accomplish these tasks. You will learn how to utilize technology, micro-targeting, and social media in a campaign environment.
• You will learn how construct and manage a campaign including how to design a campaign strategy for a candidate running for elected office, construct a campaign budget that includes a detailed description of the sources of campaign finance as well as the different outlays, devise a tactical plan that will allow your candidate to win on election day
• You will acquire technical skills in quantitative analysis, data analytics and survey research including how to construct a survey questionnaire and appropriately analyze the survey results you obtain
• You will gain knowledge of the different theoretical models utilized to explain political behavior. You will develop a better understanding of the factors that affect the behavior of key actors (i.e. parties, interest groups, the media, politicians, and voters) in the electoral process.
• A career in Elections and Campaign Management requires you to effectively work in a team environment. As part of the program you will demonstrate the ability to effectively communicate your ideas to clients and colleagues, both in writing and in oral presentation, using state of the art technologies.