Looking to win some votes? Whether you’re running for political office or student council, it’s not enough make flyers and yard signs. To really communicate with your voters, you need a website.
Searches for political-themed websites and WordPress themes have been on the rise (we think it probably has something to do with today’s political climate). In 2016, I dissected the web design of Clinton and Trump’s websites to analyze which had the better site, and what modern web design trends they were employing in their own websites. Building a serious political campaign website doesn’t mean you have to avoid bright colors, parallax scrolling, full-width video, or unconventional layouts—even for a presidential election.
If you’re launching a campaign website, here’s a quick checklist of features and pages your website might need:
- A landing page with a call-to-action based on what you’re focused on
- A newsletter sign-up
- Information about voting and upcoming elections
- A way for voters to get involved, such as through volunteering
- A donation page
- A page about the issues, and where you stand on them
- A blog or media section
- A shopfront—for hats, t-shirts, stickers, or other merchandise
- Social media feeds and follow buttons
A Collection of the Best Political WordPress Themes
1. Campaign
One of the most modern WordPress themes on this list, this theme features flat design and a bold color scheme. It puts a newsletter sign-up front and center, and blog content features prominently on the homepage. There’s a section for issues, a shop, events, and social media feeds.
2. Nominee
Created by elite theme designer TrendyTheme, this WordPress theme comes with Visual Composer, Slider Revolution, and a multilingual plugin. You’ll also find PayPal donations, blog posts, and advanced typography.
3. Campaign
A super simple theme that’s great for getting your site up and running fast. Minimal design, video embeds, testimonial quotes, and blog articles on the home page—but it still feels uncluttered.
4. MCKinney’s Politics
MCKinney’s Politics stands out for the unique layout and serif fonts, which appear professional and polished. The timeline for upcoming events and elections is a useful feature. This would also make a great political party theme, since the design is adaptable and not necessarily focused on any one candidate or campaign.
5. Right Way
Designed for politicians, social movements, political parties, and nonprofits, this theme has an average 4.82/5 rating. It’s mobile-optimized, has multiple menu styles, a bookmarks panel, and a blog. The portfolio feature is great for photo galleries or campaign-related imagery.
6. Political Press
Want to break out of that American-flag-centric color scheme? This theme comes with four color skins (okay, two of them are red and blue). Custom widgets, gallery templates, an event calendar, and a landing page template make this one super-customizable.
7. Candidate
One of the best candidate websites, this theme is made for politics, but it also has demo sites for charity and church websites. It works with WooCommerce, visual composer, events, and has three homepage varieties. It’s also sold in Drupal, Photoshop, and HTML5/CSS3 versions, in case you’re a code-tinkerer and want to play around with the site design.
8. Politicize
A responsive WordPress theme made for politicians. It’s built with pages for crowdfunding and WooCommerce, and the options for unlimited color customization and multiple blog layouts.
9. PoliticalWP
Another top-seller in the politics category, this theme focuses on goals, achievements, and numbers. It also has 600+ Google fonts, one-click importer, Ajax contact forms, and more.
10. Political WordPress Theme
Of all the themes on this list, this one gets my vote because it is one of the few to feature women as candidates for their demo websites. (C’mon, folks, representation is important—a little diversity, please!) I also like that this one has different layouts for various positions, like mayor, judge, and student council.
11. Politica
A top-rated political WordPress theme of the year, Politica stands out for it’s support, the clean design, and easy installation. I also appreciate their approach to lorem ipsum text (“post-ironic authentic drinking vinegar chambray quinoa, VHQ letterpress sriracha, tacos skateboard migas farm-to-table artisan kombucha”).
See also: Multipurpose WordPress Themes
The themes above are tailor-made for political sites, but that doesn’t mean you have to stick to this list exclusively. Venture outside of the category and check out multipurpose themes for more variety, especially if you want something a little less traditional and outside of the red-and-blue scheme (remember, color schemes are usually customizable anyways!). This list curates eleven of the most customizable WordPress themes. Here are a few I think would be particularly adaptable for a campaign or political website:
- DynamiX - Business / Corporate WordPress Theme
- Oshine - Multipurpose Creative Theme
- ALBIST - Creative Multipurpose WordPress Theme
- Sartre - Creative Multipurpose WordPress Theme
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