Have you ever volunteered for a political campaign?

[Anna Komnene]

So, does volunteering for campaigns really pay off in the end?

If you look at it as a team effort, yeah definitely.  Unless the race is super local, you're probably not going to be the difference between a win or loss, but if everyone decided not to volunteer because of that, it would make a huge difference.  Plus, there's just the nice feeling of being a part of something that you care about.