It was a SuperSOTU
Doomscroll 2.12.23
Hello and welcome back to Doomscroll - your weekly Sunday-evening rendezvous with all things Republican digital.
One Question
As I’m sure you’re aware, a bunch of Twitter execs were grilled in Congress this week about how, when, and why the platform censors content. I highly recommend Katie Harbath’s Substack for insight on all things tech policy. In the meantime, I’d love if you would answer me this: Has there been a time when Big Tech Censorship actually hurt one of your campaigns or clients? Yes, I’m looking for all your anecdotes and war stories. It’s Doomscroll Story Time.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday, and thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question! 50% of you said you would consider banning the use of match promises in fundraising copy. 33% said “never,” and 16% said only if you see others doing it first. One of you all left this comment: “There are far greater fundraising ethics issues than this. We should ban default monthly giving radio buttons/checkboxes if we are going to ‘ban’ anything.” I appreciate the honesty.
P.S. I have to say, I got zero internet high-fives for my meme last week, and it left me feeling like no one appreciates my art. Sad.
Who’s Doing What
--Republicans POUNCE on Biden’s SOTU
The big political news this week was obviously Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night. If you, unlike me, stayed up past 9:30 to watch the entire thing, I applaud you (seriously). I however, trained most of my attention on how GOPers prepped for the speech and responded to it afterwards. Ev-er-y-one tweeted (duh). I saw a few P2P messages around Gov.Sarah Sanders’ GOP response: a couple for fundraising, and one asking me to “wish her luck by signing the card now!” Classic. On the email front, I was expecting a little more TBH, but to be fair I’m also not on every list out there -even if it feels like it MOST OF THE TIME. Alex Mooney for Senate sent a fundraising email on Wednesday (I would have been a little worried if he hadn’t!). Sarah Sanders sent an email to a rental list asking for “input” before her big response. And that, folks, is all I got.
--Speaking of Nikki Haley
Who’s ready for 2/15/23? I know I am. How could I not be? The date has been practically tattooed onto my frontal cortex. (Team Haley: Your campaigns are working!). But it’s all good; I appreciate a good wind-up. Hers continued this week with the release of a 90-second video. Get ready for launch!
--Asa Hutchinson dips a toe in the 2024 waters
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has launched lead-gen Facebook ads through his PAC, America Strong and Free. It’s no secret he’s thinking about jumping into the 2024 primary race. He’s spending a pretty decent sum, too - around $30,000 from February 1-7. Kudos to them.
--Ron DeSantis explains it all
America’s favorite governor hosted a roundtable discussion this week on media defamation. From what I can tell, it looks like the event was live streamed on Facebook and Twitter, and posted to Youtube. This isn’t the governor’s first foray into this format. Remember when he hosted a roundtable on COVID-19 and a clip of it was taken down by YouTube? Good times. TBH I hope he does more of these. They’re great for his brand. Why watch Tucker when you can watch the anti-woke master himself. Also fwiw, The Fifth Column’s Michael Moynihan, who was a guest on the roundtable, talked a little about the experience here (around the hour-ish mark).
--Throwing the baby out with the bathwater…or the issue advocates out with the candidates.
Shout-out to GOP digital operative extraordinaire Eric Wilson’s podcast, The Business of Politics. You should listen if you don’t already. His latest episode is with Tyler Brown of Hadron Strategies. Brown and Wilson spend some time commiserating over Facebook’s political ad guidelines (don’t we all). Specifically, how it ropes in issue advocacy campaigns. I had the same thought this week when browsing Facebook’s political ads library. Why on earth, for instance, is The Coca-Cola Company in the library? Are they running ads for or against a candidate or to influence legislation, I wondered? Hard no. Their ads are all about the “Dole Master” soda dispenser, but they mention how it offers low-sugar options and reduces CO2 emissions. So, boom. I guess if you mention anything about low sugar or CO2 Facebook considers it an issue of national importance? Weird, IMO.
--The cold, hard truth.
Wesley Donehue and Guy Short (Push Digital Group) have an op-ed in RCP about where Republicans are failing on the digital fundraising front. Le excerpt:
“Declining ROI is caused by three factors. First, Republican candidates and consultants are refusing to invest in new email and text donor pools. Second, Big Tech is censoring political messaging (especially Republican messaging), limiting deliverability and in-boxing. Third, a lacking commitment to high-quality digital fundraising favors a quantity-over-quality model with more aggressive, questionable creative copy.”
--Here’s my obligatory mention of Sen. Steve Daines getting kicked off of Twitter for tweeting a hunting photo with a dead animal. We had some good fun with this one, but after a few hours all was restored and so I have nothing else to add. Haters gonna ALWAYS hate those hunting pics.
Who’s Spending Where
From February 1-7, the largest center-right spender on Facebook ads was Newsmax ($172,000). Can we talk for a second about how much Newsmax is spending on Facebook ads week after week? In the last 30 days, they’ve spent almost half a million dollars to drive traffic to their website. Either they’re just awash in cash, or they’re not getting traffic any other way.
Following Newsmax is Judicial Watch ($46,000), PragerU ($42,000), LiveAction ($29,000) and The Daily Wire ($21,000).
On Google, the top Republican spenders were Judicial Watch, Friends of Ron DeSantis, Federation for American Immigration Reform, Building a Better Economy PAC (to attack Leanna Cumber in the Jacksonville mayoral race), and JAX First (with a pro-Cumber spot).
P2P
Once again, I am imploring you: id yourselves in your texts!
Lifetime achievement award = RNC
Joe Biden lied repeatedly = Tim Scott for Senate
51st State = Marsha Blackburn
Industry Watch
ICYMI: FTX is asking recipients of its political donations (mostly Dems, lol) to return the money. Oops.
Also: i360 released its 2022 Impact Report. Read it here.
And: In DC? Brace yourself for a flood of fired Silicon Valley-types. We should all say a prayer that those lefty unemployed software engineers find a place to land in D.C. tech circles. No doubt it’ll be a difficult journey for them.
The Grapevine
Congrats to Andi Swee (former Deputy Digital Director at the Republican Governors Association) for joining Apex Strategies!
Prosper Group is looking for a digital strategist to embed with the Kelly Craft campaign in Lexington, Kentucky.
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Documentary recommendation? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
I’m weirdly fascinated by all the USPS-related content I get from Dem groups - especially the Democratic Governors Association. I mean, it must work for them. But why?!
From the other side of the tracks:
So de-influencing is becoming a thing on social media. That’s where, like, influencers employ some reverse psychology by telling you “eh maybe you shouldn’t buy this product I’m nonetheless hawking to my millions of followers.” (Do we REALLY think they don’t want you to buy this stuff? Come. on.) Anyway, it’s a trend, so I’m pretty much waiting for the candidate who’s going to cut an ad in which he/she says to camera “Eh, maybe you shouldn’t vote for me!”
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading? Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!