How to Budget a $100K Campaign

Many candidates who are running for the first time need help budgeting for smaller campaigns. This post is for those candidates, their staff, family and friends. My goal is to provide some clear principles for building a campaign budget and give folks a clear idea of what a $100K budget should look like. I choose $100K since that is a frequent number for school board, city council, small mayorals, state representative, and primary races.

Disclaimer: Every campaign is different. The office you're running for, size of the electorate, fundraising capability, etc. I'm not suggesting everyone follow this budget proposal to a tee nor any idea in this post. But this should give folks some clear guidance and a reference point as they work to build a budget of similar size.

Guiding Principles

Regardless of size and context there are some guiding principles I use to build and manage budgets.

Direct voter contact (DVC) vs. Overhead

It's easy to overspend on overhead when money is tight. Offices, full-time staff, signs, shirts, and swag feel good—but on a small budget they're nice to-haves, not necessities.

• 70/30 rule: Put 70% of the total into DVC (mail, digital, field) and 30% into overhead (staff, data/VAN, software, event costs, sponsorships, etc.).
• Stretch goal: 80/20. Start your first draft budget at 80/20, then add overhead only if it helps deliver voter contact.

Staffing a $100K Campaign

At this size, one full-time hire can swallow your entire overhead. Example: $5k/month × 4 months ≈ $20k—that's 20% of the total budget.

• When a full-time manager or finance staffer makes sense: they unlock significantly more fundraising (i.e., they more than pay for themselves).
  • A call time manager or finance staffer who is part-time can be a good hire since they won't eat up a lot of the budget and they'll be helping you raise money.
  • If your campaign is going to be doing a lot of field, hiring someone to help manage the data, train volunteers and execute the field plan can be worthwhile. My cautionary note here is to be 100% sure you'll be doing lots of field before making the hire.
  • Supplement other work with paid interns, that can eventually be brought on full-time if you raise the money and they're ready for the next step.
• Otherwise, consider a general consultant on a monthly retainer to build the plan, manage the big items, and organize vendors—then use part-time staff and volunteers for day-to-day help.

Deciding what type of race it is

Every race is unique, but most budgets fall into two workable lanes. Once you pick the lane, spending the DVC 70% gets much clearer.

Race Type: Broad Reach (Low Contact Intensity)

• What it is: Larger electorates, higher turnout, fewer candidates, or simply low dollars per voter.
• The Houston Controller race is a good example: When I was managing the city controller race there were 4 candidates and over 216,000 voters. Our City Controller budget was ~$1.5M. Given the budget and how many voters we had to talk to, our strategy was definitely a broad reach one. We prioritized getting on TV and doing broad Digital instead of field and mail.
• How you execute on $100K: More mail to large universes and broad digital to build name ID. For field, phones and texting become a priority instead of knocking doors.
• When to pick it: You need wide coverage, and depth per voter is less important than steady repetition.
• Tradeoffs: More total touches, shallower individual contact or what I am coining, contact intensity.

Race Type: Precision (High Contact Intensity)

• What it is: Higher dollars per voter, or a noisy, multi-candidate primary where the goal is to make the runoff (≈25–30%), not 51%.
• The Houston Mayor example: When I was managing the Mayoral race we had a $4-5M budget and our goal was to make the runoff, needing ~30% or ~75,000 votes. The race was very crowded with 19 candidates. This was the opposite of the Controller race where we had $1.5M and needed ~109K votes.
• How you execute: Targeted mail with more pieces to a smaller universe and prioritization on field especially knocking doors.
• When to pick it: You can afford depth and repetition with the exact voters you need.
• Tradeoffs: Fewer total conversations, deeper per-voter contact.

The budget

Since there are two different broad approaches to strategy for campaigns, we will take the extreme of both and look at what I'd recommend for each budget.

Broad Reach Race Budget

Assumptions

• Total budget $100,000 → $70,000 to Direct Voter Contact (DVC)
• Two-way State Representative primary campaign
• 15,000 votes
• Target universe = 16,800 voters ≈ ~12,000 households (assume 1.4 voters/HH)

Execution notes

• Mail: Larger universe with fewer pieces
• Digital: Digital is easier to target to a broader universe
• Field: Utilize texting and phone banking since they're easier to scale for larger universes. Avoid paid canvassing given the budget and total number of voters needed to reach.

Why this works (and the tradeoff)

• Pro: Maximizes reach and repetition in a large audience with modest dollars per voter.
• Con: Shallower individual contact; less ability to persuade 1:1.
• When to pick it: Big electorate, two-way race, goal is broad name ID + steady reminders.

Precision Race Budget

Assumptions

• Total budget $100,000 → $70,000 to DVC
• Eight-way State Representative primary campaign
• 8,000 votes
• Target universe = 4,500 voters = 3,200 households

Execution notes

• Goal: Make the runoff (you need ~25–30%, not 51%)
• Mail: Smaller universe, but more pieces
• Field: Implement a paid canvassing program and increase 1:1 contact with more phones.
• Digital: Cut digital budget and push those funds into more 1:1 contacts.

Why this works (and the tradeoff)

• Pro: Deeper, higher-quality contact with the exact voters you need.
• Con: Fewer total conversations overall since you're betting on precision and repetition.
• When to pick it: Crowded primary, noisy info environment, clear path to runoff with a smaller must-win slice.

Overhead (read this before you buy anything)

On a $100,000 campaign, the 70/30 rule leaves $30,000 max for overhead. That bucket fills fast, and overspending here is the most common way small campaigns starve voter contact.

Overhead includes: staff, office, compliance, VAN, software, event costs, food, yard signs/shirts/swag, sponsorships and dues.

Do this:

• Cap overhead at $30,000 (or $20,000 if you're aiming for an 80/20 split).
• Fund DVC first; add overhead only if it helps deliver or measure voter contact.
• Favor temporary tools over fixed costs (e.g., pop-up workspace > long lease).

Don't do this:

• Don't open a storefront office or hire full-time staff before your DVC plan is funded (with the exception of finance staff).
• Don't sink money into signs/shirts/swag unnecessarily.
• Don't make "sponsorship/donation" spends that don't map to actual voters.

Final Notes

There's no cookie-cutter budget. Start with the 70/30 rule, estimate your Contact Intensity (CI = DVC ÷ likely voters), and pick the approach that fits: Broad Reach when CI is lean, Precision when CI is balanced or rich.

If you're running or helping someone who is, send a message with the budget questions you have.