Political Press – Responsive WordPress Theme

For the candidate or political blog that works from the Customizer, not from a visual builder

Building a campaign website usually means three things at once: tight deadlines, a lot to tell (proposals, biography, events, press) and nobody on the team who wants to fight with code. Political Press is designed for that case: websites and blogs related to politics. It can also work for a general-purpose site.

It is not for anyone who wants to lay out every page by dragging blocks in a page builder: the homepage is managed from the Customizer settings and the rest with page templates and meta boxes. And several pieces do not work on their own, they need a separate plugin:

• The events calendar uses The Events Calendar.
• The landing page subscription form relies on Simple Subscribe, and the subscription widget next to the homepage slider relies on WP Email Capture.
• The Twitter feed in the footer requires Display Tweets.
• If you need more forms besides the contact one, they are created with Contact Form 7.
• Publishing in several languages requires WPML.

Countdown and subscription: what you keep once the event or election day has passed

What a campaign keeps when it ends is not the visits, but the people who raised their hand: supporters, volunteers, journalists who want to keep getting news. A political website that only shows proposals loses that opportunity. Political Press includes a landing page template with a jQuery countdown timer and a subscription form, useful for a specific date: a rally, an announcement or the election itself.

The contact template comes with an Ajax form and its own Customizer settings, and Contact Form 7 remains an option if you need additional forms.

Campaign Trail, events and galleries to show where the candidate is

The homepage is built from the Customizer with the pieces you choose:

• A featured quote in the header, which can be shown or hidden.
• Three slider types, with a full-width variant and support for shortcode-based sliders.
• Featured posts below the slider.
• Posts in a wide or grid layout.
• The Campaign Trail section and an events slider.

For the rest of the content there are 2, 3 and 4 column gallery templates, plus biography, testimonials and full-width templates. It adds its own widgets for tabs, gallery, video and testimonials, several shortcodes, four color skins and customizable background.

Events with a calendar (each event's detail page and a sidebar widget) depend on The Events Calendar: without that plugin there is no events calendar.

Political Press code, hand-written and ready to translate

The HTML is hand-written with h1, h2 and h3 tags, and the primary content comes before the secondary content in the markup. Sidebar widgets help link content together. That makes ranking work easier, although it does not guarantee it: the result depends on your content.

It includes .po and .mo files to translate the interface, it is compatible with WPML and it comes with a child theme, a sample content XML file and documentation. The responsive design is built on Bootstrap 3, so it adapts to large screens, tablets and phones.

Questions before building your campaign with Political Press

Is it only for election campaigns?

No. It suits websites and blogs related to politics, and it can also be used on general-purpose sites.

Can I run the site in several languages?

Yes, with WPML (a separate plugin) and the .po and .mo files to translate the interface.

Can I import sample content?

Yes, it comes with an XML file of sample content, useful to see the structure before adding your own.

Can I design the homepage with a page builder?

The homepage is configured from the Customizer with the pieces the theme provides; it is not designed to work with a page builder.