Every candidate gets asked the same question in the first week: why are you running? If the answer takes more than a breath, people stop listening before you reach the part you care about. Three issues, each in one sentence, is the answer that fits in a breath.
Why three
One issue makes you a single-cause candidate, and the people who disagree on that one thing have nowhere to land. Five or six turn into a list nobody remembers, including you at the end of a long forum. Three is enough to show range and few enough that a neighbor can repeat them at the grocery store, which is the test that matters in a local race.
Where to find yours
Start with what made you decide to run. There is usually one thing: a road, a school decision, a budget vote, a zoning fight. Write it down in plain words, the way you said it to your spouse, not the way a press release would say it.
Then go outside your own head. Spend an afternoon reading the last six months of minutes from the body you want to join. Ask ten people in the district what bothers them about the office you are running for, and listen for the complaint that comes up three times. Knock a few doors before you decide, even before you announce, because what voters say on the porch is often different from what shows up on Facebook.
You are looking for the overlap between what you already care about and what people keep bringing up. An issue in that overlap sounds like you and sounds like them at the same time.
The test each one has to pass
Before an issue goes on the website, it should pass four checks.
- The office can do something about it. A school board candidate running on property taxes set by the county is making a promise they cannot keep, and someone at a forum will say so.
- You can state it as a change, not a value. "Fix the drainage on the east side before the next flood season" is a change. "I believe in infrastructure" is a mood.
- You can explain it to a twelve-year-old in under a minute. If it needs a chart, it is a position paper, not an issue.
- You would still want it if it cost you a vote. The issues you hold under pressure are the ones that read as real.
Write the sentences
For each issue, write one sentence that says what you would change and why it matters to the person hearing it. Say it out loud. Cut any word that does not do work. Then put all three on an index card and carry it until you do not need it anymore, which is usually about a week.
Those three sentences become the middle of your website, the second paragraph of your announcement, the back of your palm card and the answer to the question at every door. Pick well and you will not have to think about messaging again for months.
A note on the rest
You will have opinions on more than three things, and people will ask. Answer honestly and briefly, then bring it back: "That's worth talking about. The three things I'm running to change are..." The discipline is in what you lead with, not in pretending you have no other views.
Rules about money, disclaimers and reporting depend on your state and your office. Check them on Campaign Compliance Hub before you act.