Winning elections matters. What we build around them matters too.
RAD NH connects elections to long-term organizing so that people can influence who holds public power, shape what happens after Election Day, and build durable relationships between communities and elected leaders.
Elections are one part of a larger strategy to build organized people who can contest, exercise, and hold public power accountable.
Public decisions shape people’s lives every day.
Elections determine who has authority over budgets, laws, public institutions, rights, and resources. Organizing helps people understand those stakes, act together, and remain involved after the votes are counted.
Our goal is to build lasting political power, not temporary campaign activity.
Electoral work creates opportunities to meet new people, deepen political understanding, recruit volunteers, develop leaders, and build relationships in communities.
Those relationships should carry into legislative fights, local campaigns, public accountability, and future elections.
Engage voters
Help people understand what is at stake, connect issues to public decisions, and participate in democracy.
Build relationships
Use voter contact and community outreach to begin organizing relationships that continue beyond a single campaign.
Develop leaders
Create meaningful roles in outreach, turnout, storytelling, communications, team coordination, and public leadership.
Contest public power
Support leaders who align with community priorities and organize around how they govern once elected.
Listen, organize, elect, govern, and hold accountable.
Governing power grows when communities remain organized through every stage, rather than appearing only during election season.
Start with people’s lives.
Hold conversations, gather stories, identify shared concerns, and understand what communities want government to do.
Build a public demand.
Develop leaders, connect people around shared priorities, and create a base capable of coordinated action.
Contest who holds office.
Engage candidates and voters, make strategic endorsements, and support aligned leadership within legal guidelines.
Turn commitments into action.
Maintain communication, share community priorities, advance policy, and create opportunities for members to participate.
Evaluate and apply pressure.
Track decisions, recognize progress, organize around disagreements, and hold leaders accountable to public commitments.
Co-governance does not mean giving up independence. It means staying organized enough to collaborate, negotiate, and apply pressure when necessary.
An endorsement is a strategic relationship and a public commitment.
RAD NH evaluates candidates based on values, issue alignment, leadership, governing commitments, political conditions, and the opportunity to build lasting power with communities.
Endorsement can include meaningful support and ongoing expectations.
RAD NH may engage endorsed candidates through voter contact, member communications, public events, volunteer recruitment, and other approved activities.
Endorsed leaders are also expected to remain in relationship with members and be accountable to the values and commitments that shaped the endorsement.
Values and issue alignment
Candidates should demonstrate meaningful alignment with RAD NH’s organizing pillars, public priorities, and vision for New Hampshire.
Relationship with communities
We consider whether candidates listen, build trust, engage working people, and remain accessible beyond campaign events.
Commitment to governing together
Candidates should be willing to continue communication, hear member concerns, and engage around policy after the election.
Strategic impact
Endorsement decisions also consider political conditions, organizational capacity, legal requirements, and where RAD NH can have meaningful influence.
Organized communities should help shape how public power is used.
Co-governance is an ongoing relationship between organized people and elected leaders. It creates channels for communication, policy collaboration, public participation, and accountability.
Elected leaders govern. Organized people continue to advocate, participate, and hold power accountable.
RAD NH may bring member leaders, stories, research, public priorities, and organizing capacity into the governing process.
Staff coordinate these relationships so that public engagement remains strategic, consistent, legally appropriate, and connected to the organization’s priorities.
Regular communication
Create reliable opportunities for members and elected leaders to share information, concerns, and emerging priorities.
Policy collaboration
Bring lived experience, organizing analysis, and community demands into policy development and public decision-making.
Member participation
Prepare members to testify, meet officials, tell public stories, analyze proposals, and participate in campaigns.
Independent accountability
Maintain the ability to disagree publicly, organize pressure, and respond when commitments are delayed, weakened, or abandoned.
Accountability is a relationship, not a single scorecard.
RAD NH evaluates how leaders communicate, make decisions, use power, respond to organized communities, and act on public commitments over time.
Track commitments
Document public promises, endorsement commitments, votes, policy positions, and governing actions.
Communicate directly
Raise concerns, seek clarification, share member experiences, and create opportunities to resolve disagreements.
Organize publicly when needed
Use member outreach, testimony, public communications, meetings, and collective action to move decisions.
Recognize progress
Acknowledge leaders who act with courage, maintain relationships, and use public power in alignment with community priorities.
Reassess support
When necessary, RAD NH may reconsider the nature of its political relationship based on actions, commitments, and organizational strategy.
Keep building the base
The strongest accountability comes from organized people who can act together, not from access to elected leaders alone.
There are meaningful roles before, during, and after elections.
Members can participate through voter engagement, candidate conversations, public education, leadership development, policy work, and accountability. Activities are coordinated with RAD NH staff and organizational guidelines.
Talk with voters
Canvass, phonebank, hold relational conversations, share information, and help people understand what is at stake.
Engage candidates
Participate in interviews, public events, issue conversations, endorsement processes, and community forums.
Support campaigns
Help with turnout, events, communications, storytelling, volunteer leadership, and other approved electoral activities.
Govern and hold accountable
Join policy meetings, testify, track commitments, organize public pressure, and help maintain long-term relationships.
Electoral participation should move people into deeper organizing relationships, not disappear when the campaign ends.
Democracy becomes stronger when organized people stay involved.
Take part in voter engagement, join an organizing team, or connect with RAD NH to help shape what happens before and after Election Day.
Electoral and governing activities vary by campaign, legal structure, current priorities, and organizational capacity.