How to Win an Election

The 2019 Australian election produced a surprise result showing, not for the first time, that every election is there for the winning — including the next one.

Labor's surprise loss in 2019, like the Liberal and National parties' defeat in the so-called 'unloseable' 1993 election, showed how careful attention to basic political craft can yield big dividends – and how inattention to it can turn apparently certain favourites into losers. With the vast challenges of climate change and social and economic equity in the post-pandemic world ahead of us, Australia cannot afford any more costly election accidents.

How To Win An Electionspells out the ten things a political leader and their party must excel at to maximise the chance of success, and against which they should be accountable between and during elections.

Better performance in even a few of the areas canvassed in this book can change an election outcome, so full attention should be paid to each of them, all the time, every time, without fail, Wallace argues — in real time when it counts. How To Win An Election is a crucial insurance policy against overconfident leaders imposing learner errors on their supporters over and over again, and for getting the best results from Australia's democratic system.

'Journalist and biographer Chris Wallace's How to Win an Election can be read two ways. Firstly, as an autopsy of Labor's shock 2019 defeat, and secondly as a witty yet Machiavellian explainer of how to win at contemporary politics. While the book's tone is often playful and tongue-in-cheek, its aim is deadly serious...How to Win an Election is essential reading for politicians and their staffers; it will also greatly appeal to voters of all ages and persuasions.' — Chris Saliba, Books+Publishing

'Elections in Australia are often decided by remarkably tight margins – a few thousand votes shift in some key seats and you get a different outcome. The campaigns parties run are complex and yet need to coalesce around strong, simple core messages. From the inside they are high-wire acts, often winner-take-all-bets. Chris Wallace brings original thinking and clarity to understanding the dynamics of elections and offers practical suggestions on how to win — including some that could probably only have come from an astute outsider.' — Geoff Walsh, ALP National Secretary (2000–2003), former adviser to Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and Premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby, veteran of nine Australian election campaigns and journalist

'Scott Morrison believes in miracles, but this book suggests 10 commonsense rules could do the job for Labor.' — Laurie Oakes