Let’s be real: the most stressful job you don’t get paid for is probably parenting, and we might put things like cleaning up after a hapless spouse on the list, too. But given the season, today we consider a tough and typically unpaid campaign job: that of surrogates, the people who go out on the campaign trail to represent presidential candidates — think Bernie Sanders for Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson for Donald Trump.

Surrogates do the dirty work for candidates: speaking at rallies, going on TV, gathering together the wealthy to pitch them at private fundraisers. And they range from politicians and the spouses and children of candidates, to citizens at large picked out by parties because of their useful campaigning qualities.