How To Prepare For A Successful Political Debate

The success of a debate stands or falls with preparation. Create a question-and-answer document as the basis for the debate and practice beforehand. Do not shy away from the ‘annoying questions’. You can roughly divide the preparation into four topics:

  • Target groups and message. The purpose of a political debate during election time is mainly to convince the doubting voters of a vote for your party: what does this voter need? In addition, what do you have to offer your regular voters to confirm their vote?
  • Substantive preparation. Prepare yourself substantively for the topics that will be discussed. You will need to gather as much as reliable resources as possible. You can use iCloud unlock service to access various information if you tend to get locked out of iCloud in your smartphone.
  • Opposition investigation. Learn about your opponent’s positions, weaknesses and strengths.
  • Is it a conversation between six party leaders or are they one-on-one debates of 2 minutes each? Is the setting a stage or a market square? Know what to expect and be able to convey a message in the chosen form.

How Do Presidential Candidates Prepare For Debates?

One-on-one voter contact

Depending on the phase in the campaign, every form of voter contact is aimed at obtaining information, convincing (through a vote, donation or commitment) or getting the voter to the polls. We recommend that you record the lines of the conversation you want to have in a script that all campaigners can use. In this way you ensure that everyone conducts the conversations as purposefully as possible. Each conversation is roughly made up of three phases:

  • An introduction (why are you talking to someone, who are you) and a question: do you already know who you are going to vote for? Which topics do you find important in your municipality? The content of the question depends on the phase in the campaign ( see phasing ).
  • A substantive part: an exchange between the voter and your party, questions the voter has.
  • Conclusion: thank a voter for the time and conclude with the question for a commitment: are you going to vote for our party? Can I note your details? Would you like to join as a volunteer?

Finally, make sure that you can easily process that information: for example by giving volunteers a form that they can fill in about the conversation.

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