The Final Countdown
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll - your favorite newsletter covering all things digital on the right! How’s everyone doing? Hanging in there? Surviving? Remember to hydrate and marvel at the fact that being a Dem administration doing basic things on social media gets you a deep dive in Digiday. (A White House official confirmed they’ll be posting a series of videos sometime soon, but wouldn't get specific plans or timelines!). GASP.
This week’s Doomscroll is sponsored by RumbleUp!
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about why our GOP candidates are being outraised by the left. First off: 44% of you said you’re “pretty worried” about it and 33% said you’re “really worried.” As far as your theories and comments… here are a few that stood out:
As mentioned in previous newsletters, we don’t care about donor fatigue. Bad messaging and donor fatigue = less donations.
We need to stop treating the donors like idiots. Asking one more time with now 15X match until tonight!!! is not going to cut it. The donors know the game and they are not playing anymore. I think if campaigns are more creative and genuine, they will get further. And the other thing I see with Republican candidates, they do not manage to present themselves as part of a joint effort or movement. The money is not for the candidate, it is for the movement.
The pain will continue until the big committees decide they’re tired of being taken advantage of by their agency “partners”. The incentives are misaligned with agencies/list brokers being rewarded for dollars raised (or messages sent to hit GCPD benchmarks). In addition, most committee staff come from the agency world or hope to get a job with them after the current cycle, which means they don’t want to rock the boat too much. All of this leads to bad tactics, burned donors, and poor fundraising. On another note, I’ve noticed the past few weeks that Trump team started pre-checking Weekly Recurring Donations, after not using pre-check all year... In addition, all their pages have 2 money pledges usually set to process in the near future (One time it was the next day, and the day after that). The cash crunch seems to be real and I imagine they’d rather have that cash now, and deal with refunds from donors who didn’t intend to give more than once after the election. The whole practice is gross, but if you believe 2021 NYT reports, it’s what they did in 2020 so not far fetched to run that playbook again.
NRCC continues to rely on one vendor…instead of bringing in the best for each thing. It’s crazy. They get killed each month/quarter and nothing changes.
The honest answer is Gmail and inboxing. Some are better than others on the right but being tallest midget doesn’t make you tall. Democrats can inbox because Gmail algorithm allows it. Take that advantage away and see the numbers even out.
Trump changed his digital team and they are raising 40-50% less. Money has nowhere to flow downstream from with that to start.
Ok, so….lots to unpack there. No matter what happens on November 5, it seems like there’s going to be a lot of finger-pointing and jockeying going on (I did predict last week there’d be a major vendor shake-up!). But here’s my call for UNITY (lol). Normally, I’m a glass-half-empty kinda gal, but let’s try and regroup and rebuild while remaining friends, ok? And P.S. MOST OF THE TIME when a particular agency or vendor or person is singled out in these responses, I take them out. Why? I love a good piece of gossip (duh), but we’re all just trying to do our best here and I don’t want anyone going to bed on Sunday night seething over what they read in this here newsletter. #transparency.
Ok so this week’s One Question is pretty freaking simple: Who do you think is going to win on Election Day? Trump or Harris? I want to know where everyone stands! :)
Who’s Doing What
—A Tale of Two Committees
So…in light of Q3’s fundraising numbers, I decided to pay extra close attention to the NRSC’s and NRCC’s email fundraising pitches this past week. And boy oh boy was it an alarming seven days. Seriously. We had Elon Musk sounding the alarm about how we’ll never have elections again if Donald Trump loses. We had “battleground assessments” with literally 42 survey questions and then a requirement to donate to submit. We had pre-checked recurring donation boxes and pre-checked money bombs. We had emails with ginormous font and emails with tiny font. Emails that were miles long and emails that were 4 lines long. We had match promises and requests for $25 without any $25 donation button (still trying to figure that out). I was told I had “failed” and lost my GOP “support streak” but could get it back if I donated. I was told I couldn’t think about Election DAY, but Election MONTH (clever) and had to invest in the ground game. I was asked to sponsor volunteers and help keep ads on the air. I. Could. Go. On.
If I’m being honest, part of me is impressed with the sheer volume of sends and all the different ways you guys have figured out how to ask for money. I mean, it’s kind of stunning. On the other hand…woof. We spend all this time talking about donor burnout and treating voters with respect and not like ATM machines, but behind the safety of our keyboards we’re still lighting our hair on fire (well, THEIR hair on fire).
I’m not trying to be a Scolding Sharon (yes, I just made that up). I get the stakes are high. Genuinely, I do. AND, I understand that the current teams won’t be judged on the copy they sent out on a random Wednesday in October. They’ll be judged on whether we flipped the Senate and held onto the House majority. Tactics be darned. I sympathize with that. We’ve all seen what happens when post-Election Day it seems like winnable races were lost. So…ok. So consider these musings just observations for now, and we’ll do the hand-wringing later.
—Mo’ Money, Mo’ Friends
The Sentinel Action Fund - a Super PAC associated with Heritage Action - has been running Facebook ads encouraging people to download the Numimar app with its relational organizing too. What’s more, they’re promising to pay people $2 for every single text they send to a friend reminding them to vote. Looks like they’re running the ads in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, but the $2 offer is only available in Virginia. Still, I LOVE seeing this.
—2024 and the Pro-Choice Republican
Doomscroll readers know I’ve had a bit of a fascination this cycle with Republican candidates who have chosen to be pretty vocal in their advertising about being pro-choice. It’s not enough anymore to say “let the states handle it,” which is kind of sad if you ask me. Earlier this week, NOTUS profiled Republican Tom Kean from New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, and how he’s on the ground telling voters about his pro--choice stances. I’ve written before in Doomscroll about GOPers in tough races doing the same: Larry Hogan, Kelly Ayotte, Kari Lake (sort of), Nella Domenici, Matt Gunderson, John Deaton and many others. Most, if not all of them, have cut ads detailing their pro-choice positions (see this latest one from Deaton). I get the strategy to an extent, but my guess is 2024 is simply too early for messaging like this to work. Voters aren’t gonna buy it (says the cynic). Are these genuine beliefs or are they a campaign tactic designed to try and neutralize the abortion issue? You better believe I’ll be following up on this post-Election Day.
—Content Shout-Out
I feel like I’m always talking about how our side needs to up our organic content game. These two posts really stood out to me this week:
This, from John James, is nice. Really nice.
And this video, posted by Team Trump’s Margo Martin, is excellent! Hashtag love. Hashtag heart eyes.
Who’s Spending Where
P2P
This week’s text shout-out goes to Virginia Rep. Jen Kiggans. I like the tone here. It couldn’t come at a better time in the campaign cycle. I don’t even care that it’s on the almost-too-long side. I think the copy does a good job connecting with donors and communicating exactly what their money will be used for: her campaign (so many asks neglect to mention this basic fact). And what’s more - no guilt trip! Good stuff.
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Industry Watch
Some nice stats here about reach and engagement on Instagram. Carousel posts get more engagement, while reels get more reach. Here’s what I think is the best takeaway for campaigns:
If your account is on the newer side, or you’re looking to boost your following, reels should be a firm fixture in your content calendar. The increased odds of your content appearing in non-followers feeds makes them a no-brainer.
To boost those chances further, Instagram has been clear that shares via DMs, what the platform calls “sends per reach,” carry the most weight in the reels algorithm.
“If you’re trying to evaluate how your videos (or anything else) are performing on Instagram, one of the best things to look at is the sends,” Mosseri said in an interview. “Out of all the people who saw it, how many people sent it to a friend? Shareable content tends to perform the best because it drives the most value for the overall community.”
2024 Watch
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week.
New Jersey Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw has a good ad tying his opponent to Kamala Harris. Watch it here.
Pennsylvania became a “toss-up” race this week. Read more here.
Eric Hovde does a LOT of videos and ads speaking directly to the camera, and honestly I love them. Here’s another good one.
This Trump “Always” ad is really good. Watch here.
Even Nikki Haley is getting into the ad game right now! I’m happen to believe she absolutely still has a future in the Republican Party, and I like this message from her. Watch.
SLF is spending in Nevada to help Sam Brown. Read more here.
The Grapevine
Lots of grumbling in this NOTUS piece about how the NRSC is spending its money (or not) and staff salaries… Read it here. P.S. If you’re one of the five consultants quoted anonymously in this piece…my DM’s are open! :D
In which C&E asks if the fact that the GOP doesn’t have a competitor to WinRed is part of our fundraising problem. I think this is a complicated question…but for the moment, I would say no. That said, I do sometimes think WinRed needs a way to explain to donors that_all_they_do_is process payments. The reality is there’s a lot of negative feelings about the platform from the grassroots, and that needs to change ASAP.
So…I’m sure you all read CNN’s deep dive into fundraising text messages this week. If not…grab a stiff drink and go here.
Speaking of texts, RumbleUp’s Thomas Peters was also quoted in this Washingtonian piece about texting. Definitely worth a read.
Ascent’s Michael Biundo is calling for a complete overhaul of the GOP post-election. (Vendors, start your engines!!!).
Let’s all give Red Spark’s Austin Boedigheimer a high-five.
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
Americans for Public Trust has filed complaints against left-leaning Star Spangled Media, which set up a fake news website called The Morning Mirror. I’ve written about them before. Here’s from the APT press release:
The complaints highlight how The Morning Mirror masquerades as a “news outlet” while using verbatim political copy from Democrat candidates’ campaign content in their “news stories,” producing attack ads on Republicans and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to bolster their campaign-like content.
I’ll be interested to see where this goes. Here’s a look at some of the ads The Morning Mirror has active on Facebook right now:
From the other side of the tracks:
In honor of Halloween, enjoy Geico’s Horror Movie commercial, which they brought back this year for the ad’s 10th anniversary. 👻👻👻🖤
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!