Position Summary

The Political Director leads the organization’s political and electoral strategy to build power for our communities and advance GROWW’s policy agenda. This role is responsible for designing electoral strategy and overseeing candidate endorsements, voter engagement, and legislative advocacy in ways that expand our base, develop committed local leaders, and build organized constituent power that can shape governing outcomes year-round, not just on election day.  The Political Director works closely with the Co-Executive Directors, organizing staff, top grassroots leaders and coalition partners to influence elections and policy outcomes that impact our members and communities. The ideal candidate is an experienced field strategist who believes that voter turnout is one piece of a larger constituent-based power puzzle and that the measure of a successful electoral program is not just how many doors get knocked but how many people are brought into deeper civic life. This role is ideal for someone who is ambitious, wants to experiment and be creative in inviting Western Wisconsinites into building a democracy and an economy that works for us no matter the color of our skin, where we live or how much money we have. This position will report to Co-Executive Director, Jenelle Ludwig Krause. 

Responsibilities

Political & Electoral Strategy

At GROWW, electoral work is not separate from organizing. Elections are opportunities to expand our base, develop leadership, build power and set up policy wins. The Political Director designs field programs with the understanding that voter turnout is an entry point, not an end point, of a person’s leadership.

• Develop and execute the organization’s political strategy, including electoral campaigns, endorsements, and referendums, in alignment with the organization’s long-term power-building goals.
  
• Lead member-driven candidate endorsement processes, including questionnaires, interviews, and member decision making, treating endorsements as opportunities for political education and leadership development, not just tactical choices.
  
• In cooperation with the organizing team, design and oversee values-aligned political field operations (canvassing, phone/text banking, digital outreach) that meet daily, weekly, and overall campaign goals and prioritize contact with constituencies often overlooked by conventional field programs including infrequent voters and people not currently in our base.
  
• Evaluate the effectiveness of plans and tactics, not only by voter contact numbers but by how well electoral work is building committed, repeating leaders who stay engaged after the election.
  
• Ensure all activities comply with campaign laws, reporting requirements, and internal protocols.
  
• Track political opportunities and threats, providing regular analysis to organizational leadership and organizing team members.
  
• Organize candidate training to equip our members and leaders to run for all levels of office.
  
• Take full ownership of GROWW’s VAN administration including cutting turf, designing targeted voter universes, and managing all list-pulling for canvassing and phone programs ensuring that voter contact is strategic, targeted, and administratively efficient.

Legislative & Policy Advocacy

The Political Director helps ensure that the power we build through elections translates into concrete material wins for our members and regular people in Wisconsin.

• Participate in designing and leading in organizational processes, such as GROWW’s Assembly and other member-driven agenda-setting spaces, that surface legislative priorities, build shared understanding across our bases, and produce collective buy-in of our membership.
• In collaboration with the organizing team, develop our goals, tactics, and plans to advance an integrated policy agenda at the local, state, and federal levels; grounded in what members and bases say they need, not just what seems politically expedient.
  
• Lead all policy-related research, analysis, and tracking across GROWW’s issue areas, which includes the areas of housing, agribusiness, healthcare, democracy and others that may emerge with an eye towards identifying where organized constituency pressure can move officials.
  
• Produce policy documents to ensure our staff and members have the tools they need to maximize impact.
  
• Build and maintain relationships with elected officials, government agencies, and political allies that are rooted in GROWW’s constituency and ensure that officials are accountable to our members.

Coalition & Movement Building

• Be an external representative of the organization, including meeting with elected officials, doing interviews with the media, and presenting at conferences.
  
• Build strategic alliances with aligned organizations, labor, and advocacy groups to strengthen collective impact grounded in our members’ shared self-interest.
  
• Support grassroots leaders in political education, advocacy, and public leadership roles.

Organizational Leadership

The Political Director builds a field program where people grow through the work, understand the connection between the doors they knock and the power GROWW is building and leave more committed than when they started.

• During electoral seasons, hire, orient, manage and develop a team of up to 8 canvass coordinators who hold balance between mobilizing and organizing. This would include deep canvassing, GOTV canvassing.
  
• Build a culture of care, discipline, and joy within the canvass team; address conflict and burnout with compassion and rigor.
  
• Partner with organizing and communications teams to ensure political work is integrated with grassroots campaigns and storytelling.
  
• Work closely with the organizing team to design electoral programs that create onramps for volunteers to become committed members and leaders not just one-time participants.
  
• Train and support members to take active roles in political and electoral programs.

Fundraising

• Collaborate with the co-Executive Directors and Operations team to secure funding for political and electoral work.
  

GrassRoots Organizing Western Wisconsin (GROWW) is a 501c4 power organization: a vehicle for people to come together around shared values and self-interest to change systems of power over time. Unlike service or advocacy organizations, our purpose is not to provide charity or “raise awareness”, but to organize members to act collectively in the public arena. GROWW is owned and governed by its dues-paying members, who take responsibility for the direction of the organization rather than acting as spectators or “volunteers”. We intentionally cultivate a culture of leadership where people take risks, hold one another accountable, and grow through action, tension, learning, and development.

GROWW works alongside its sister organization GROWW Education, a 501c3 which focuses on leadership development and winning our agenda through training and civic engagement.

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GROWW provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. Selection for roles will be based on individual merit and qualifications alone.