Every campaign website should include a candidate biography page. It’s a section where you can tell voters about yourself and why you are running for office.
Start with an introduction
Who are you? Begin with some background information about yourself. Try to include some qualities that separate you from your opposition. Keep it positive and perhaps touch on some issues that are of concern to voters.
- Are you a dedicated parent who’s been advocating for local education reform? Mention it.
- Have you served in the military, gaining a deep understanding of national security concerns? Highlight it.
- Perhaps you’re a small business owner who knows the challenges faced by local entrepreneurs? Emphasize it.
Dig deep to into your background reveal what truly makes you unique and qualified for the position.
Describe your experience
What experiences in your personal, professional or political life have helped shape you and made you the person you are today? Discuss your education, job titles, community and civic work, awards and other offices you’ve held. How do those experiences translate into being a better candidate for the position you are running? Don’t just create a laundry list of accomplishments, but work your experience into a larger narrative. Make your biography statements informative and educational.
For example, if you’re running for city council and have successfully lobbied for environmentally friendly policies in the past, this sets you apart as a forward-thinking candidate.
Opt for a positive tone. This isn’t the place for mudslinging or making negative comments about your opponents. Focus on your own accomplishments and vision.
Add personal details
A little bit about you personally goes a long way. Voters want to know about you, but maybe not every detail of your life. Include some photos and even video for the page. Include both personal and professional content that helps provide a rounded idea of who you are.
You may want to include any endorsements you’ve secured. Have you won awards or been recognized by community organizations. Use those outside sources to help sell you. It’s easy to say great things about yourself, but when someone else does it, it carries a lot more weight.
What is it that you want to accomplish?
What do you want to accomplish during your time in office? Perhaps your goals can relate to previous accomplishments in your life. Use some examples if you can. Take a situation, describe how you handled it, and use it as a template for this section.
Take an issue profile and expand on it. What are your solutions or plans for tackling the issue? How do your plans differ from your opponent or the way the issue is being handled presently? Draw connections between your past accomplishments and your current goals:
- Building on Past Successes: Link your goals to achievements from your personal or professional life. “Just as I turned around [Previous Initiative] to benefit our local schools, I aim to revitalize our economy post-pandemic.”
- Tangible Examples: Use specific situations you’ve encountered to highlight your ability to solve problems. It makes your goals more relatable. “When faced with a budget crisis at [Previous Position], I rallied a diverse team to find innovative solutions, a strategy I’ll bring to our district’s financial challenges.”
- Issue Profiling: Dive deep into critical issues. Explain your solutions and how they differ from current approaches or your opponent’s stance. “On the issue of healthcare, my plan emphasizes preventative care and streamlined access, distinct from the status quo.”
- Differentiate Yourself from Your Opponents: Highlight what sets you apart. Show how your vision contrasts with your opponent’s. “While my opponent favors top-down approaches, I believe in empowering local communities to shape their own futures.”
End on a strong note
Finish your candidate biography with a strong statement about your purpose for running and what you hope to accomplish in the office you seek. Be inspirational. Be specific in what issues you hope to tackle. Leave the reader knowing that you deserve their vote.
Write in first or third person?
Some candidates prefer to write about themselves in the third person. Other prefer a first person narrative (“I” and “me”). While first person may come across as more personal, that format is not very useful if you are trying to optimize your content for the search engines.Writing in the third person gives you plenty of opportunity to use your full name, which can help your material appear in search engine results for your name.
Have your candidate biography proofread
Have others that you trust read drafts of all your site content to check for grammar, spelling and content. Others will see your work with fresh eyes and be able to provide valuable feedback.
Create an elevator pitch to sell yourself
The candidate biography you finished writing should now be broken down. You’ll need a more succinct version, or an “elevator pitch”. Your elevator pitch will be a succinct summary of who you are and what you intend to accomplish in office. It’s just enough so that someone will quickly know the bare minimum about you. Make is very short and easily memorizable, so it shouldn’t be longer than 20 seconds or so.
You can also take portions of your biography and rewrite them as information for your campaign material, such as brochures, mailings, and your website.
If you have a detailed resume, use our Resume to Bio Tool to write a fleshed out candidate biography based on your work history and experience.
