Campaign Leadership Academy
Applications are Due July 7, 2024 (deadline extended!)
Want to run for office or serve as paid staff on local campaigns?
LA Forward Institute’s Campaign Leadership Academy (CLA) will recruit and train LA County residents to be effective potential candidates and campaign leaders, positioning participants with the knowledge, skills, and vision to apply in their community contexts during upcoming election cycles. This is a non-partisan program, free to all community members.
CLA is a two-week intensive experience from July 17-29, 2028, and will:
Provide almost 20 hours of in-person and virtual learning opportunities to build or practice skills key to any successful electoral campaign
Support participants to apply their learning to a mock campaign they hope to run in the future
Prospective applicants should be available during all of the following dates:
In-person - Friday, July 17 6pm-8pm
In-person - Saturday, July 18 10am-5pm
Virtual (Zoom) - Monday, July 20 6-8pm
Virtual (Zoom) - Tuesday, July 21 6-8pm
During these dates, participants will build community with campaign professionals and (current or former) candidates; deepen their awareness of the many moving pieces of a successful campaign (including fundraising, direct voter contact, endorsements, campaign planning, and team structure); and strengthen their vision for their own future campaign involvement.
Applicants must also be available for at least one of the following dates (all three encouraged):
Virtual (Zoom) - Monday, July 27 6-8pm
Virtual (Zoom) - Tuesday, July 28 6-8pm
Virtual (Zoom) - Wednesday, July 29 6-8pm
During these dates, participants will apply everything they’ve learned to build and present (at a high level) a mock campaign they might really execute in a future election cycle. Every participant will work either independently or with others to build a brief presentation and answer questions from other academy participants; they’ll also exchange feedback with each other based on their learnings from the previous week, helping iron to sharpen iron.
Between the final Zoom workshop on July 21st and the first day of campaign presentations on July 27, prospective applicants should expect to work independently (or collaboratively) as they prepare to present – a mock campaign. Participants can expect that this independent or collaborative work will minimally take 4-5 hours of preparation time outside of our workshops.
We will not be able to admit candidates who cannot make (a) all four dates between July 17-21; (b) at least one of the dates between July 27-29; or (c) cannot make the time outside of workshops to prepare for their mock campaign.
Apply by 11:59pm Tuesday, June 30, 2026.