How to Adjust Your Online Campaign for a Primary, Runoff, and General Election

To win office, even local candidates sometimes need to campaign twice: once in the primary and again in the general election. If no candidate reaches the required vote threshold, there may also be a runoff.

The audience and immediate priorities change at each stage. Your website, email, advertising, and campaign messaging should change with them.

But that doesn’t mean you should wait until after the primary to take your online campaign seriously. A primary is not a trial run. It’s an election you must win before you can move on to the next one.

Primary, Runoff, and General Elections

A primary election is used to select the candidates who will advance to the general election. In a partisan primary, voters choose a party’s nominee. Nonpartisan primaries may narrow a larger field to two or more candidates who advance, regardless of party.

A runoff is an additional election held when no candidate reaches the vote threshold required to win. Depending on local election rules, the two candidates receiving the most votes may advance to the runoff.

A general election determines who will hold the office. The electorate is usually broader than it was during a partisan primary, which means the candidate may need to reach voters who were not part of the original primary audience.

Election rules vary by state, party, jurisdiction, and office. Before planning your online campaign, confirm who can vote, how many candidates advance, whether a plurality or majority is required, and what happens if no candidate receives enough votes to win.

Do Not Wait Until After the Primary to Campaign Online

Some candidates hedge their investment. They wait to see if they win the primary before getting aggressive online, launching a campaign website, building an email list, or putting serious resources into voter outreach.

That leaves the campaign underexposed during the election it must win first. If you need to win a primary, give your campaign every reasonable advantage from the beginning.

A website should not be treated as something you earn the right to launch after securing the nomination. It is one of the tools that can help you secure the nomination in the first place.

Waiting until after a primary victory means losing months in which you could have:

Introduced yourself to voters.
Established your positions on local issues.
Built name recognition.
Learned which messages generate the strongest response.

A website and online campaign presence also help establish that you are a serious candidate. Voters, donors, volunteers, journalists, and community organizations will look for information about you long before Election Day.

In our experience working with political candidates, campaigns are better served when they establish their online presence early. Candidates who wait until the race is well underway often find themselves rushing to prepare content, build an audience, and correct information that has already been defined by someone else.

In a competitive primary, that delay gives opponents more time to build search visibility, collect supporters, publish issue content, and attract donations.

Candidates for lesser-known offices face an additional challenge. Before voters can support a candidate for county commissioner, fire commissioner, or another special district position, they may first need to understand what the office does, what area it represents, and why the election matters.

Even if you are unopposed in the primary, early outreach gives you more time to build relationships with the wider community. It also allows you to enter the general election with an established website, supporter list, donor base, and campaign message.

Related: Why Starting Your Political Website Early Makes Sense

What Your Online Campaign Should Do Before the Primary

Your primary website should do more than announce that you are running. It should help voters understand who you are, what office you are seeking, why you are qualified, and what action you want them to take.

At a minimum, prominently display your full ballot name, office sought, district or municipality, election type, and exact election date. “Smith for Commissioner” is not enough if voters cannot tell whether the candidate is running countywide, within a numbered district, or for a special authority.

The site should also explain what separates you from the other candidates. You do not need to attack your opponents, but voters should understand why you are running and why you are the better choice for the nomination.

The right emphasis depends on the office. A mayoral or county executive candidate may present a broad agenda for the city or county. A sheriff candidate may focus on management experience, public safety, and accountability. A county commissioner candidate may concentrate on roads, taxes, development, budgets, and services within the district.

For less familiar offices, the website may also need to explain the position. A candidate for fire commissioner or water district trustee should not assume that voters understand the board’s responsibilities, how it is funded, or who is eligible to vote. The campaign may need to educate voters before it can persuade them.

Know Who You Need to Reach

The primary electorate is not simply a smaller version of the general electorate. Primary voters may have different priorities and voting histories, so identify who is eligible to participate and who has turned out in similar elections.

Review previous results for the same office and district. Take a look at total ballots cast, the votes received by each candidate, and the percentage of eligible voters who participated. A county commissioner district, school board zone, or special district may have very different turnout from a countywide sheriff or district attorney race.

Your primary outreach may place greater emphasis on:

Issues that motivate likely primary voters.
Endorsements that matter within the party or local political community.
Differences between you and the other candidates competing for the nomination.
Direct turnout messaging aimed at those voters who regularly show up for primary elections.

Once you understand likely turnout, estimate how many votes you need to win and build your digital outreach around reaching more than that minimum.

Related: How Many Votes Do You Need to Win?

Build Assets That Continue After the Primary

Your primary campaign should produce more than votes. It should also help you build resources that remain useful if you advance.

Use your website, email, social media, fundraising, events, and offline outreach to develop:

A list of supporters who have agreed to receive updates.
A donor base that can be contacted again.
Volunteers who can help with the runoff or general election.
Photos, videos, endorsements, and press coverage.
Data showing which messages and issues generate interest.

You don’t want to build a primary campaign that must be replaced from scratch after Election Day. Build a campaign organization that can adapt and continue.

Choose your domain name, website structure, email system, donation platform, and social accounts with the next stage of the race in mind. Avoid names tied only to a particular election year or office if you may need to use them again.

What If the Race Goes to a Runoff?

A primary runoff is a second election held to determine which candidate will receive the nomination or advance to office. A runoff campaign is not simply an extension of the first primary. It is a new election with a new date and a compressed timeline.

One of the biggest runoff challenges is awareness. Some voters may assume the original primary settled the race. Others may support you but fail to realize that they need to vote again.

Online, the first job is simple: make sure supporters know that the election is not over and that they must vote again.

As soon as your runoff is confirmed:

Replace the old election date everywhere and make the runoff date prominent. Update the homepage, donation page, social profiles, email templates, digital ads, and printed material still in use.
Make the runoff date the main message. Do not bury it on a calendar or voting-information page.
Explain that the election is not over. Tell supporters directly that they need to return and vote again.
Contact previous supporters immediately. Reach out to donors, volunteers, email subscribers, event attendees, and known supporters.
Reach out to voters who supported eliminated candidates. Identify areas of agreement and give them a reason to join your campaign.
Promote early, absentee, and mail-voting information. Link voters to the appropriate official election authority for dates and requirements.
Adjust fundraising language. Explain the shortened timeline and what additional contributions will allow the campaign to do.
Repeat the message. A single email or social post is not enough to establish awareness of another election.

For example, a county commissioner candidate advancing from a five-person primary should no longer communicate as one candidate in a crowded field. The runoff message should focus on the two remaining choices, the new election date, and why supporters of eliminated candidates should now join the campaign.

You’ve Won Your Primary—Now What?

Winning the primary is an important milestone, but it is not the end of the campaign. The shift from a partisan primary to a broader general election means you must adapt your message and reach a more diverse electorate.

Prepare the transition before Primary Day so updates can be made quickly if you win.

Update Your Digital Campaign Immediately

Review and update the following:

Homepage headline: Replace primary-election language with a general-election message.
Election date: Update the date anywhere it appears.
Calls to action: Revise donation, volunteer, email signup, and voting language for the next phase.
Candidate status: Identify the candidate as the party nominee when appropriate.
Issue content: Review whether the existing emphasis speaks to the broader electorate.
Endorsements: Add new support and consider endorsements that demonstrate a wider coalition.
Social media profiles: Update cover graphics, biographies, pinned posts, and election dates.
Email sequences: Replace primary-specific welcome messages and automated content.
Advertising: Review targeting, creative, landing pages, and disclaimers before restarting ads.
Press materials: Publish a primary victory announcement and make updated information available to local media.

Old primary dates and outdated “vote in the primary” language make a campaign look neglected. They can also confuse supporters at the exact point when you need to build momentum.

Prepare your replacement headlines, graphics, email copy, and website updates before Primary Day. That way if you advance, the campaign can shift its online presence within hours—not weeks.

Adjusting Your Message for the General Election

A general election usually requires reaching beyond the voters who supported you in the primary. That does not mean abandoning your positions or pretending to be a different candidate.

During a primary, messaging may focus heavily on differences between candidates seeking the same nomination. In the general election, the campaign must present a broader case for why the candidate is qualified to hold office and how voters will benefit.

For example:

Primary: “Vote Jane Smith in the August 4 Republican primary.”
Runoff: “The race is not over. Vote again on August 25.”
General: “Vote Jane Smith for County Commissioner on November 3.”

The change should go beyond replacing the election date. A sheriff candidate may move from party-focused language to a broader emphasis on department leadership, public safety, staffing, and accountability. A county commissioner candidate may shift toward roads, development, taxes, budgets, and services affecting the entire district.

General-election content may place more emphasis on:

Shared local concerns.
The candidate’s experience and qualifications.
Specific plans and expected outcomes.
Community support and broader endorsements.
Contrasts with the opposing candidate.
Persuading undecided voters while retaining primary supporters.

Even voters who supported another candidate in the primary may be open to your campaign. Give them a reason to reconsider rather than assuming they will automatically fall in line.

The goal is continuity. Keep the audience, visibility, and campaign material built during the primary, then adjust the message for the voters now deciding the race.

Online Candidate has provided political campaign websites and digital campaign tools for local, state, and federal candidates since 2004. Shane Daley is a founder of Online Candidate and the author of Running for Office as an Online Candidate.