Volunteer for the job nobody wants and you’ll collect votes you never campaigned for.

Credit follows visible willingness far more reliably than it follows talking. Taking the unwanted job gets you noticed by everyone who was dreading it, and their goodwill is real in a way that persuasion never is. It also puts you where the actual problems live, which teaches you things no campaign would. The usefulness is the campaign.

Find the task everybody is quietly hoping somebody else picks up, and pick it up this week. Do it properly rather than loudly. Then say nothing about it afterwards, because the people who matter already saw.