In January 2014, the Centre for Cities – an independent, non-partisan think tank focusing on economic development and urban policy in UK cities – took our first steps into the unchartered territory of campaigning, with the launch of ‘Think Cities’. While the Centre has long been involved in the political and policy-making spheres, this was the first time we had sought to build an election campaigning platform that sits outside of our core research programme, and our own manifesto.