The document provides background information on the Harris County Commissioner Precinct 3 election and assigns the reader to develop a campaign strategy memo as the virtual campaign manager for either a Republican or Democratic candidate. Key details include that Precinct 3 has over 1.2 million residents and nearly half live outside city limits, relying on county services. The candidate must win the party primary by a majority to avoid a runoff election in May. The memo should outline the campaign strategy, fundraising goals and plans, key issues, and methods for getting the candidate's message out to target voters.

1. Campaign assignment
After 11 years as a police officer and 4 as a county constable,
Steve Radack was elected to represent Precinct 3 on Harris
County Commissioners' Court in 1988, and has served there
ever since. On the last day for candidates to file in December,
2019, Commissioner Radack announced he would not seek
reelection, setting off a scramble of candidates for one of the
most powerful positions in government.
The voters of Precinct 3 have leaned Republican over the past
30 years or so, but growth in the area's minority population
combined with the unpopularity of President Donald Trump
among suburban and exurban voters have made this a
competitive seat in a general election. Republican Donald
Trump carried this area in 2016, despite losing Harris County,
but Democrat Beto O'Rourke carried it in the 2018 senate race.
Before even getting to the general election, though, candidates
have to compete in party primary elections to become their
party's nominee.
For this assignment. You are now the virtual campaign manager
for a candidate for Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 3. If
your client is a Republican, they're trying to win the Republican
Primary. If your client is a Democrat, they're trying to win the
Democratic Primary. Don't worry about the November election
yet. If you were in charge, what would you do to help your
client get elected to this office?
Choose one of the candidates and design a campaign to win the
primary election.
Write this assignment as a 2 - 5 page
memorandum (memo)

2. (with cited sources) from you, the campaign manager, to your
candidate. Outline the race for them, how much money you
think they need to raise, how you will raise it for them, what
you propose to spend it on, what issues they should talk about,
how you want to deliver their message, etc.
Some things to keep in mind:
Remember, party primaries are only for that party's voters. If
your candidate's a Republican, you're only campaigning to
Republican voters. If your candidate's a Democrat, you're only
campaigning to Democratic voters.
Precinct 3 is huge - geographically and demographically. At 1.2
million, it has more people than Montana.
Nearly half the population is not in the city limits of any city,
meaning county government is the only source of many
government services like law enforcement, parks, libraries and
code enforcement.
If nobody in your primary race gets a majority (50% plus one)
of the vote, the top two finishers will go to a runoff election on
May 26. Will any voters still be paying attention on May 26?
Not everybody who lives in Precinct 3 will vote in this election.
Some are under 18 years old, or they're not U.S. citizens. Some
simply won't register or show up. Some voters just don't vote in
party primaries. How do you target people who are going to
vote in this election?
What sort of people live in your candidate's district. What
motivates them?
What is your candidate's background and experience? What will

3. be his or her key issues?
How much money will you need? How will you raise it? How
will you spend it?
How will you get your message out? Be cautious about
television. Remember - anybody who lives outside Precinct 3
can't vote for or against your client. You'll waste a lot of money
if you use TV. Same with radio, although radio is a lot cheaper,
so some candidates think it's worth considering. If you use
direct mail, you can mail only to people who are registered to
vote. Or, you can be more surgical - only people registered to
vote who voted in the 2018 general election, for example.
This can be a challenging assignment, but it can also be a lot of
fun. Keep in mind that campaigning is more art than science,
and that there are few absolutely right or wrong answers. If I
asked five campaign professionals to do this assignment for the
same candidate, I would probably get five totally different
campaign strategies (and they'd charge me a lot of money).
Hint: Remember, this is a memo to your client, not an
essay about your client. Talk to your client. Do not spend the
first page telling them where they were born, where they went
to college or how many kids they have - they know this already.
Talk to them about your strategy to win the election for them.
Submit in Word. Cite your sources.
Additional Resources
Wait...what's a "memo?"
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professiona
l_technical_writing/memos/sample_memo.html (Links to an
external site.)

4. Here are the candidates:
Republicans
Tom Ramsey -
https://votetomramsey.com/ (Links to an external site.)
Susan Sample -
https://votesusansample.com/ (Links to an external site.)
Brenda Stardig -
https://votebrendastardig.com/ (Links to an external site.)
Democrats
Diana Martinez Alexander -
https://www.dianaalexander2020.com/ (Links to an external
site.)
Zaher Aisa - (no website yet, but he has a Facebook page)
Erik "Beto" Hassan -
Michael Moore -
https://mooreforcommissioner.com/ (Links to an external site.)
Morris Overstreet - (no website yet, but he has a Facebook
page)
Kristi Thibaut -
https://kristithibaut.com/ (Links to an external site.)

5. Some facts about Precinct 3:
http://www.pct3.com/Portals/45/about/about-
pct3.pdf?ver=2019-10-14-085414-447 (Links to an external
site.)
This Harris County Population Report has some useful
information about Precinct 3:
https://budget.harriscountytx.gov/doc/Budget/fy2020/approved_
budget/FY20_Population_Report.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Here's a more detailed map of Precinct 3 with all the county
facilities:
http://www.pct3.com/Portals/45/about/maps/pct3_map.pdf?ver=
2019-10-14-085347-443 (Links to an external site.)
Liberal blogger Charles Kuffner spends a lot of time covering
local elections, including posts of interviews with candidates:
http://offthekuff.com/mt/
Another local blog, Big Jolly Politics, has a lot on local
elections:
http://www.bigjolly.com/
Campaigns and Elections Magazine
editor Ron Faucheaux has an article called "Writing your
campaign plan: the seven components for winning an election":
http://books.google.com/books?id=hWa9QYkFYe4C&lpg=PA66
&ots=fPoZLGe3m2&dq=campaign%20plan%20Faucheux&pg=P
A66#v=onepage&q=campaign%20plan%20Faucheux&f=false