(CNN) When Terri McKinnon decided to take the plunge and run for office for the first time, she quickly felt like she was trying to climb an insurmountable wall.

McKinnon, inspired by President Donald Trump's election, wanted to get more involved. After a few consultations with friends and family, she decided she was going to run for an open seat in the Michigan statehouse. She had little money, wasn't prepared to pay a campaign staffer and had no idea how to get her name on the ballot.

"The learning curve was huge," said McKinnon, who is now running to represent District 65 in the Michigan House, a sliver of land between Eaton Rapids and Jackson that backed the Republican House candidate by 26% in 2016. "I thought I was pretty well informed on how things worked. What I discovered really early on was that I didn't have a clue all of the things that were going on when people are running for office."

McKinnon's story is not unique and represents a welcome challenge for Democrats in the Trump era. While the President's election inspired countless Democrats to step up and put their name on ballots across the country, many of these first-time candidates were entirely unaware of what it actually takes to run even the smallest political campaign -- from getting on the ballot to actually figuring out the number of voters needed to win.

Enter the National Democratic Training Committee, a group that has spent the last two years training Democrats across the country, including those in areas often not considered hot beds for Democratic politics.

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