Launch

1. 1

   Controlled launch

   The launch uses the approved audience, message version, links, timing, conversation rules, suppression controls, and follow-up ownership from Step 7. Changes after launch should be controlled and documented rather than improvised inside a live program.

2. 2

   Live conversation management

   Replies are treated as campaign interactions, not as isolated inbox messages. Each response should move through an approved path: classify the signal, answer from approved knowledge when appropriate, escalate when required, capture useful information, and define the next action.

3. 3

   AI-assisted handling

   AI can help classify replies, retrieve campaign-approved answers from the Candidate Knowledge Base, identify relevant voter signals, and route the conversation. It should operate only within the rules approved in Step 7 and escalate unsupported, sensitive, or campaign-specific questions that require human judgment.

4. 4

   WhyIVote engagement

   WhyIVote extends the SMS conversation when a voter wants more information. The live program can route recipients to the approved mobile candidate profile, issue content, or voter Q&A experience defined in Step 7, allowing the opening SMS to stay concise while giving interested voters more depth.

5. 5

   CRM capture and follow-up

   Useful live responses are written back into the Voter CRM according to the approved capture rules. Supporter status, issue interest, volunteer or donor intent, event interest, questions, and follow-up needs become structured campaign data that can be acted on and analyzed in Step 9.

1. 1

   Final go-live approval

   Confirmation that the approved audience, message, timing, candidate content, WhyIVote destinations, and response rules are ready to activate.

2. 2

   Live escalation contacts

   Named campaign staff who can receive questions, requests, or situations that fall outside approved AI and knowledge-base handling.

3. 3

   Time-sensitive campaign updates

   Any event changes, candidate schedule changes, policy updates, fundraising deadlines, GOTV changes, or other information that can affect live voter conversations.

4. 4

   Follow-up ownership

   Clear assignment for volunteer, donor, event, supporter, issue, and other high-value responses that require campaign action.

5. 5

   Pause / stop authority

   The person authorized to pause, modify, or stop a live program when the campaign needs to change direction or resolve an issue.

6. 6

   WhyIVote content readiness

   Confirmation that the candidate profile, issue pages, Q&A, and campaign-approved destinations used by the program are current and approved.

7. 7

   Campaign availability

   Reasonable availability during launch and early live operation so urgent escalations or newly discovered knowledge gaps can be resolved quickly.

• Run the final pre-launch check against the approved Step 7 program version, audience definition, suppression rules, messaging number, initial message, AI rules, WhyIVote destinations, CRM fields, and follow-up routes.
• Activate the approved campaign audience and send the initial outreach through the configured political messaging workflow.
• Monitor message processing, delivery activity, replies, opt-outs, suppression behavior, and live conversation queues.
• Use the approved AI conversation layer to classify replies, retrieve campaign-approved answers, identify useful campaign signals, and route questions that require human review.
• Route voters to the approved WhyIVote candidate profile, issue content, or Q&A experience when the messaging program calls for deeper voter education or engagement.
• Write approved response classifications, issue interests, supporter signals, conversation history, and follow-up needs into the Voter CRM.
• Route volunteer, donor, event, supporter, unresolved-question, and other follow-up tasks to the campaign-defined owner or workflow.
• Apply opt-out and suppression controls to the live program and keep those states synchronized with the campaign messaging workflow.
• Identify early operational issues, missing knowledge, weak routing, broken destinations, or unexpected reply patterns and coordinate an approved correction when needed.
• Prepare the messaging and conversation data that Step 9 will use for dashboard reporting, analysis, and optimization.

1. 1

   AI is bounded by approved knowledge

   AI may use only the campaign-approved Candidate Knowledge Base and the conversation rules approved for the program. When a reply is not covered, requires campaign judgment, or falls into an escalation category, the conversation should be routed rather than answered by improvisation.

2. 2

   WhyIVote is used when it improves the voter journey

   WhyIVote should not be inserted into every message automatically. It is used where the program objective benefits from a mobile candidate profile, deeper issue information, approved Q&A, or another voter-facing experience that cannot be communicated efficiently in a short text thread.

3. 3

   Live engagement creates follow-up signals

   A reply, issue question, WhyIVote interaction, volunteer interest, event intent, or other defined signal may create a CRM update or campaign follow-up task when the program is configured to capture that information. The objective is to turn interaction into usable campaign memory rather than letting valuable responses disappear inside a message thread.

• Approved Step 7 messaging-program brief and current version
• Final launch audience / Voter CRM segment and exclusion rules
• Approved initial SMS and any approved variants
• Active messaging number and completed launch prerequisites from Steps 1-3
• Approved Candidate Knowledge Base from Step 6
• AI reply-classification, approved-answer, escalation, and next-action rules
• Approved WhyIVote candidate profile, issue pages, Q&A destinations, and working links used by the program
• CRM fields, tags, statuses, and follow-up rules to capture from live conversations
• Opt-out / suppression state and any campaign-specific eligibility exclusions
• Campaign escalation contacts and expected response coverage during launch
• Follow-up owners for supporter, volunteer, donor, event, issue, GOTV, or other program-specific responses
• Pause / stop authority and process for approving live program changes
• Time-sensitive event, policy, candidate, fundraising, or GOTV information that may affect live conversations

• The campaign has approved the initial SMS but has not finalized who will handle escalations or high-value follow-up responses.
• The launch audience changes immediately before send, requiring suppression, eligibility, or segment logic to be revalidated.
• An issue, policy, event, or candidate question appears in live replies but is not covered by the approved Candidate Knowledge Base.
• AI is asked to answer outside the approved knowledge or conversation scope instead of escalating the question.
• WhyIVote profile, issue page, Q&A, or destination link is incomplete, outdated, or not aligned with the live message.
• Campaign staff update candidate information or messaging direction but do not communicate the change before live replies begin.
• Follow-up responsibilities are unclear, so volunteer, donor, event, supporter, or GOTV interest is captured but not acted on.
• Opt-out or suppression status from another approved campaign data source has not been reconciled before audience activation.
• Links, routing, CRM capture, or escalation paths were not tested end-to-end with representative records before launch.
• Campaign changes are made inside the live program without version control, making it difficult to understand later which message or rule produced a result.

Questions