How to Research a Candidate
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Chapter of Leading Women of Tomorrow held an event featuring political strategist and commentator Symone Sanders earlier this year.
The purpose of researching a candidate is to obtain a full understanding of her experience, her voting records, and her position on key women’s issues.
Go to the candidate’s website: A good place to start is to go directly to the candidate’s website where you can find more information about her experience and her political agenda. Pay close attention to see if the candidate discusses key issues involving women.
Do a quick search: You can search your candidate’s name and an issue regarding women to find some basic information on your candidate and her position. Be wary of politically biased information from news sources. A quick google search can help point you in the right direction for the rest of your research.
Look at the candidate’s voting record: Looking at the candidate’s voting record if she is an incumbent helps predict how she will vote in the future. Congress.gov allows you to search a particular candidate’s voting record or search a topic and find related legislature. For example, you can search women and find recent legislation such as Women's Global Development and Prosperity Act of 2020 and see who supports this bill.
Compare candidates’ positions: Vote411.org allows you to put in your address and see upcoming elections and candidates. You can then select two candidates and compare their positions against each other.
Check the candidate’s claims: Factcheck.org allows you to search your candidate and see if her statement or claim was correct. You can submit any questions about the candidate’s policy regarding women to Fact Check and they will research and post an answer on the issue.
Look at the candidate’s financing: Researching a candidate’s financing will give a good idea about how she will be influenced when elected. Look to see if any women’s groups support your candidate and then visit the specific group’s website to discover their political agenda.
Get in touch with your candidate: Candidates want your support and your vote so do not be afraid to contact them for more information. Once you have done the above steps, use this opportunity to fill in gaps from your research or clarify any issues you discovered. Speaking to your candidate, her representative, or submitting a question to her campaign is a good final step to round out your research.