Complacency will get us wrecked

Doomscroll 5.25.2025

May 25, 2025

Welcome to another edition of Doomscroll, your favorite newsletter covering all things digital on the right! As this is a long weekend in which we will be observing Memorial Day…let me take a moment to A) thank our men and women in uniform and B) honor those who lost their lives while defending this great country of ours. Freedom truly is not free. Being willing to put on a uniform and risk your life? Yeah…that’s courage.

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One Question

Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about why the Dems lost in 2024. Was it because of their lack of social media expertise? Was it? WAS IT?? 100% of you said no, which settles it. 83% of you also said the Dems are focusing way too much on their social media game right now as a way to win big in the Midterms. And when it comes to the left’s new strategy of embracing platforms like Snapchat and going on non-political podcasts, I did get a few interesting comments:

It’s where the minutes of media consumed and they are finally realizing it. After having decades of an advantage with legacy media amplifying them they are now realizing they can’t rely on that built in advantage and need to compete by being where the attention is today.
Are they going to be authentic? I bet a few are and it will be fine but most won't
They lost because they have no coherent message and still don't. Twitch and Snapchat will just point that out some more.
I remain unconvinced that social media is a fix to the Dems problems. A good look in the mirror would lead them to reconsider their policy platforms and candidate recruitment first.
It’s important to use the medium you understand and are natural engaging on - not being everywhere all the time. The last thing we need is a Twitch stream of Tom Emmer playing Fortnite on Twitch.

Also, someone used the One Question form to ask about the best local fast food in D.C. Totally off topic, but I hey - I ain’t mad. This particular Doomscroll reader (everything is anonymous) needs our help, goshdarnit. So let’s be good neighbors and help! I don’t know if this qualifies as “fast food” in the traditional sense, but I’ve been known to enjoy some Little Sesame in my day. And Taylor Gourmet? Yes, please. Don’t @ me. I love Taylor for a good sammy, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’ll include a question box in this week’s One Question form for you all to make your own recommendations. Speaking of which...

This week’s One Question is also about the Dems. Well, one Dem. Biden. He’s the Dem. It’s very sad that he has cancer, but it’s not sad that the timing of that announcement is more than a little sus. I’ve literally been obsessed with this WHOLE story (the Biden cover-up) for the past couple weeks, as I’m sure many of you have been as well. So here’s the question: Will the Biden cover-up be an effective message for Republicans going into the 2026 Midterms? Very simple yes or no.

Answer here.

One Quote

One Thought

The above quote is from ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones, who just did the softball-iest of softball interviews with Politico. And yet…the entire thing is giving me major Kamala word-vomit vibes. Like…what is she actually trying to convey? Who the heck knows, and friends, I read Every Word. The quote I chose (it was hard to pick just one) was in response to a question about how ActBlue plans to remain a trusted platform for donors in light of the vicious attacks coming from Republicans ::insert eye roll here:: If anyone can suss out what she’s saying, please let me know.

Who’s Doing What

—Palmetto Fight

South Carolina Sen. Lyndsey Graham’s primary challenger is out with his first ad of the cycle. Titled “Backbone,” the 30-second spot is more of an introduction than anything else, though it does make a couple not-so-subtle swipes at Graham (IYKYK) before calling him a “traitor.” Watch it here.

—Maryland Mystery?
Has anyone else noticed how much former Gov. Larry Hogan likes to tweet about his successor, Wes Moore? Just this week he called out Moore for flip-flopping on whether he inherited a budget surplus or a deficit. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s doesn’t seem to be much else going on in Hogan-Land so here’s what I will tell you. I know from my years of experience, that when politicians want a little break but still want to stay relevant, they do it via social media. They hire a consultant to post on X and Facebook (at a minimum) with a clear directive to focus the fire in a way that could potentially aid a future run. Just saying. And oh yeah - Hogan is eligible to run for a third term as governor.

—Email Wars
The NRSC and NRCC are calling on the FTC to investigate Google and whether or not the company is suppressing conservative emails. The letter, signed by Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Richard Hudson, is extremely compelling. Will an FTC investigation yield anything? The cynic in me says no, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want them to try. All week we’ve been talking about how the Dems and mainstream media repeatedly told the American people that they were wrong about what they were seeing with their own eyes: That Joe Biden wasn’t fit to be president. Well, guess what? A bunch of us Republican digital operatives have been seeing WITH OUR OWN EYES for a while now that our emails just don’t reach Gmail inboxes the way they should. We’re not idiots. And there’s a lot of really smart people on our side who are GREAT at email. So…this is definitely worth looking into and I applaud the committees for not giving up the fight.

—Oops

Ok. Sometimes I call out bad P2P texts. Rarely do I call out bad emails. But sometimes, one comes through that I just can’t help but call out. If you’re reading this and you’re responsible for the email I’m about to put on blast…well, don’t take it personally. We all make mistakes.

A couple days ago I got an email from “Republican Grassroots HQ” at info@gop-maga.net. It’s an email all about how the left is coming after Trump. Then it asks eleventy-million times for you to vote in a poll to say whether or not you support the president’s executive orders. Ok…At this point the reader has no clue who’s doing the asking. But the call to action is simple and straightforward enough that I can take a couple seconds to vote in a poll. EXCEPT…every link and button clicks through to a WinRed page that only has a donation form. No poll in sight. And there’s nothing about Trump either. In fact, it’s a pretty generic donation page for Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas.

Here’s the deal: Either this was a genuine mistake and the email was sent linking to the wrong WinRed page (test your emails and buttons, people!) or Team Arrington really did mean to send an email designed to entice readers to click on a link - any link - and don’t actually give a shit about what anyone thinks about the left suing Donald Trump. They’re just banking on an open WinRed tab generating enough donations to make the dishonesty worth it. Either way - woof.

Industry Watch

The length Gen Z is willing to go to earn a buck is mind-boggling. Case in point: They’re way more willing to share their personal data - so much so that polling company General Lab sensed an opening in the market and launched a tracker that users can download onto their phones - and get paid to do it! Here’s more from Axios:

We think corporations have extracted user data without fairly compensating people for their own data," says Cyrus Beschloss, CEO of Generation Lab. "We think users should know exactly what data they're giving us and should feel good about what they're receiving in return." …Generation Lab offers people cash — $50 or more per month, depending on use and other factors — to download a tracker onto their phones. The product takes about 90 seconds to download, and once it’s on your phone, it tracks things like what you browse, what you buy, which streaming apps you use — all anonymously. There are also things it doesn't track, like activity on your bank account. Verb then uses that data to create a digital twin of you that lives in a central database and knows your preferences.

Potentially useful? Yes. Potentially very creepy? Also yes. Data lovers rejoice.

2025-2026 Watch

Ohio AG Dave Yost has suspended his campaign for governor, clearing the way for Vivek. Vivekheads rejoice!
Business man David Jones is running for governor in Maine.
Florida State Sen. Jay Collins is thinking about running for governor in Florida
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville is supposedly going to announce his run for governor next week.
And Republicans are doing everything they can to defend Sen. Thom Tillis’ seat in North Carolina. Godspeed.

The Grapevine

Wes Donehue has stepped down as CEO of Push Digital and has launched Donehue Campaigns. Congrats, Wes!
Speaking of Wes…
Congrats to everyone who won the AAPC’s 40 Under 40 Award, including Doomscroll super pals Andrew Mullins, David Haas, and Greg Butcher.
Elon Musk is stepping back from politics. Reason #12905 why we can’t keep relying on big, mega donors to fuel our campaigns.

Lastly: Everyone needs to read this piece about how Democrats are looking to thwart “GOP Clout Online.” I know it’s easy to think that what we’re doing right now is GREAT(!) because of how we won big in 2024, but I’m telling you complacency is going to get us wrecked next year and beyond. Here’s a particular snippet I want to highlight:

Aides to the liberal donors George Soros and Laurene Powell Jobs held an idea-a-thon in February in Washington. This month, about 50 digital operatives presented their proposals at a hotel in Austin, Texas, at an event organized by Civic Resolve, a think tank backed by a Walmart heir.

Scoff all you want, but when was the last time our side held an idea-a-thon? Are there even 50 digital operatives who could pitch proposals to major donors right now? Do we have 50 new ideas on our side? I know we have some…and those moving the needle know who you are! If you have the answers to these questions, please hit me up: itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com.

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:

How many of you read the Time piece about the Democrats’ post-2024 soul-searching? There were several bits that stood out, including one whole paragraph quoting anonymous Democrat lawmakers talking about how the party went too far to the left on social issues like trans rights and abortion (have the courage to attach your name to your quotes, people!). And then there’s Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego talking about how it’s not about the messaging itself, it’s about the ART of the messaging (deep). But I digress. The real clincher was the closing:

Democrats are coming around to a new mantra: winning the argument is less important than winning elections. If the path to victory means embracing economic populism, they’ll do it. If they have to make room for new faces, then sayonara, old friends. If they need to tack to the center on some social issues, so be it. If winning requires doing more podcasts, or embracing Instagram influencers, or campaigning on permitting reform, they’ll give it a try. Because now that Democrats have seen what a second Trump presidency looks like, they’re relearning the lesson they should have known all along: only winning is winning.

What’s the takeaway here? That in the midterms and in 2028, Democrats are going to do ANYTHING to win. Anything. And we need to do everything we can on our side to make sure voters realize that this new brand of Democrats - the ones that claim to be moderate, common-sense, American-dream-type normies - are just putting up a facade in order to win an election.

From the other side of the tracks:

A lot of non-political influencers are taking advantage of a reel/TikTok trend that’s tailor-made for politics. Read about it in the NYT here.