ActBlue: Where there's smoke there's fire?

Doomscroll 4.27.2025

Apr 27, 2025

Welcome back to another edition of Doomscroll, your favorite newsletter covering all things digital on the right! Hope everyone had a good Easter and you were able to spend a day swapping out your protein and cottage cheese for some Peeps and Reese’s eggs. Now let’s make up for lost time and get to some scrolling.

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One Question

Thanks to everyone who answered the One Question from a couple weeks ago about who you’d like to see launch a political podcast. I got some good answers, including Ron DeSantis, Katie Britt, Kelly Ayotte, and JD Vance (second!). A few people said Rand Paul, and someone nominated “state legislators in swing states.” I’d listen to that! As for the “why?” portion of the question, here are some of the explanations:

I think Ron DeSantis would be an interesting choice - I would love to see him let his guard down and see what his "natural" personality would be outside of the governor's spotlight. Podcasts offer the opportunity for people to have long-form discussions in a genuine way. Not everyone, especially politicians, is capable of doing podcasts because it can't be scripted. (Hence, why Kamala refused to go on Joe Rogan because she would have been an utter failure). But, I think Ron might have it in him to be genuine and show that in a podcast setting. My reasoning for Katie Britt is just biased in that I like her haha.
Ayotte: Working mom, former prosecutor - just a lot of interesting perspectives from a very relatable media friendly candidate
JD with Theo Von. When they did the episode together before the election, it was absolutely hilarious and seemed so genuine. That's what I want to see more of out of politicians. I think a lot of people would (and have) benefit from seeing politicians as normal human beings instead of seeing them as these untouchables in an ivory tower
A Podcast from State Legislators in Swing States would be helpful. I would listen to both sides of the aisle to hear the nitty gritty of what the grassroots close to the front line are saying …How do you take away the talking points of others if you don’t know what they are doing? Pennsylvania and Georgia would be good starting points. If they do not have them, maybe nudge some along the way.
Rand: He’s one of the most consistent legislators we have and he’s not afraid to take on either party. Hearing his take on issues on a regular basis would be great

Ok, this week’s One Question is about…mental health ::looks around the room slowly.:: Bear with me. A new report from Pew about mental health and social media caught my eye this week. The long and short of it? About half of kids ages 13-17 think that social media has a negative effect on compadres, but only 14% think it has a negative impact on them personally. Weird. But here’s another stat: 55% of parents say they are extremely or very concerned about how social media impacts their kids’ mental health. Here’s my question: As digital operatives…should we care? How much should we be thinking about mental health and social media, if at all? Should this play a role in how we plan our media buys? I know we don’t advertise to teens, but we certainly target their parents. And if they’re becoming more and more concerned about social media, it makes me wonder if it’ll start to shift their consumption habits away from these platforms. Maybe - maybe not. I’m just asking questions here!

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One Quote

One Thought

The above quote is from Jose Cornejo, Executive Director of the Higher Ground Institute, who guest-wrote in the FWIW newsletter this week. Yes, he’s a Dem. No, I don’t think it matters. It’s a good quote. I rail about the GOP’s tech stack all the time: we don’t have enough tools! They’re not enough! We need more! Etc etc etc. This is a good reminder to not lose the forest through the trees. We can’t get so focused on tech for tech’s sake that we forget we’re actually in the business of building connections and relationships. Just a thought!

Who’s Doing What

—Trolling FTW

Huge kudos to the NRCC and NRSC for how they trolled their Dem counterparts this week! Sometimes we (the collective we) miss the mark when it comes to internet trolling. Not this time! The NRSC’s 40-second ad is perfect. The NRCC’s offer to pay for flights as long as any Dem takers agree to film themselves was amazing. ::Chef’s Kiss::

—Freely Feely
Political newcomer (to me, anyway) Jay Feely just announced his bid to replace Andy Biggs in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District. I don’t know a whole lot about this district or how this race will shape up, but Feely’s announcement stood out to me. He’s a former NFL player turned total MAGA Republican, and his campaign is relying heavily - HEAVILY - on the football thing. I don’t hate it, though. A lot of times campaigns can take the sports analogy TOO far (think Steve Garvey in California. Woof). I hope Feely doesn’t fall into that trap. So far, I’m getting good vibes though. His campaign website is tasteful, and I love that there’s an Issues page - just sayin’! The logo, while obviously drawing on football imagery, isn’t over the top. The announcement/hype video is ok. I mean, it’s fine, but not having candidates speak directly into the camera is starting to become a huge pet peeve. Like, how hard is it to have the principal look directly into the camera and say “Hi, I’m Jay Feely, and I’m running for Congress,”? Answer: Shouldn't be that hard. Anyway, I like everything else! Welcome to the crazy world of electoral politics, Mr. Feely!

—Raising the Barr

Andy Barr’s announcement video? Now that’s a video I can get behind! The script is a little clunky, the music a little mushy, but by George - the candidate is speaking TO US. Andy Barr may not be the happy warrior we deserve, but he’s the happy warrior we need. And yes, I know this primary is going to get UGLY so TBD on how long this happy thing lasts.

—Virginia is for…political ads
If you’re not paying attention to the Virginia gubernatorial race yet…you should be. Here’s a snippet from the indispensable Virginia Political Newsletter Substack that stood out to me this week:

As [Matt] Moran put it, the media landscape today is the “most fragmented” it has ever been.
The challenge for campaigns is not just to be seen but to be strategically visible in a way that resonates with the right voters at the right time.
“The key to reaching voters in a fragmented environment is frequency, consistency and synergy with topics they talk about every single day,” Moran said. “Whatever people are talking about outside of politics, the synergy between that, in addition to the consistency and the frequency, that's how you reach voters at a strategic level.”
Moran emphasized the importance of strategically aligning political ads with the everyday habits of voters, stressing that reaching them requires constant and consistent presence across various platforms.
“You have all kinds of tactics available – when someone turns on football in the fall on CBS, they've got to see your ad, and when someone is on Hulu catching up on The White Lotus, they've got to see your ad. When they pick up their phone and doom scroll at 11 pm, they've got to see your ad,” Moran said.

—More Virginia

Speaking of Virginia, the RSLC has partnered with the Virginia House Republican Campaign Committee to launch a new six-figure digital ad campaign targeting state Democrats. The ad talks about GOP policies and notes that Virginia Democrats “are copying their friends in Washington.”

Merch Shout-Out

This week I gotta give it to Winsome Sears! As a former Virginia resident…I LOL’ed at this. Love me some good state-on-state dunking. IYKYK. Get yours here!

Who’s Spending Where

Facebook

Google

P2P

This week’s P2P shout-out goes to Sen. Lindsey Graham! I haven’t been getting a ton of texts from the good ol’ Graham, so when I saw this one it stood out. I like the use of the gif. I like that he id’s himself and that the copy is short and sweet. Overall, nice.

Industry Watch

🧑‍🏫 Google published some nice tips and best practices for ad campaigns. Check ‘em out here.

👩‍💻 Want to convert long-form video into YouTube Shorts? Get some helpful insights here.

🛍️ A new report from Emplifi has some interesting stats about consumer behavior on social media. Of people who made purchases in the last 90 days from social platforms, 60% did so because of a promotional offer. Other takeaways: Posts should be visually appealing AND funny.

🎙️If you have time, read this report on the current state of podcasting.

🤳 Instagram’s Edits is here! Yay!

2025-2026 Watch

JD Vance’s brother is running for mayor of Cincinnati. AP has all the deets.
Iowa State Sen. Mike Bousselot is mulling a bid for governor.
Pres. Trump has endorsed Andy Biggs for governor of Arizona…after already endorsing Karrin Taylor Robson.
Steve Hilton is running for Governor of California.
South Dakota House Speaker Jon Hansen has jumped into the gubernatorial race, with State Rep. Karla Lems as his running mate.
Speaking of governors…the New Mexico gubernatorial race is also taking shape!
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville is mulling a bid for governor of Alabama.

The Grapevine

IMGE is hiring for a number of positions:
- Advertising Strategist - Primary responsibilities here would be creating digital ad plans, executing buys across channels, optimizing campaigns, and analyzing performance data. Ideally, we would like someone with experience placing ad buys on Meta, X, Google, and/or programmatic networks.
- Content Strategist - Early career copywriter with solid AI prompting chops. We will need them to churn out a high volume of content, so must be comfortable leveraging AI to maximize output.
- Creative Strategist - Similar to the above, but someone who is more of a Swiss-Army knife creative who can handle both content and design projects using AI tools.
- AI Prompt Engineering Fellow - College student or recent grad who is all-in on AI. We want someone who can train GPTs, test and iterate prompts, and build templates other team members can use to more efficiently leverage AI in their current workflows.
ICYMI: Watch Adam Wise talk about the future of political advertising with RCP.
Virginia LG nominee John Reid maybe has some scandalous photos on the internet? And Gov. Youngkin asked him to withdraw from the race? But Reid is denying the allegations and says he’s “mad as hell”? Can you tell this is a S-T-R-A-N-G-E story?

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:

Ok, by now I’m sure we’ve all heard that President Trump is kinda-sorta(?) going after ActBlue. Here’s more from Politico:

The memo will direct Bondi to “investigate and take appropriate action concerning allegations regarding the use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions and to make foreign contributions to U.S. political candidates and committees, all of which break the law” and report results to the president and his general counsel, according to the fact sheet.
Democrats had been bracing in recent days for potential action from the White House against the platform, casting it as an unwarranted attack on their fundraising efforts.

What do I think? Where there’s smoke there’s probably fire. While I haven’t seen any evidence of widespread fraud on ActBlue’s platform, I know House Republicans have dug up some pretty sketchy stuff during their investigations. So…let’s just see what happens. But! I do find it kind of hilarious/interesting that Dem groups are sending fundraising and lead-gen texts on this issue.

From the other side of the tracks:

I’m not a huge Zaxby’s connoisseur TBH, but I liked this interview with the company’s new CMO about how they’re trying to break through the very crowded chicken fast food category. The decision? Don’t focus on chicken. Focus on the sauce. Is there a lesson here for us? Maybe, maybe not. But it is another reminder that we’re ALL trying to find ways to stand out from the pack. Even chick fast food chains. :)

Anyway, read the interview here if you’re interested!