Long live the king
Doomscroll 3.3.2024
Hi there - Welcome back to another edition of Doomscroll, your favorite newsletter about all things digital on the right! This week I learned that if you eat a spicy chick-fil-a sandwich in front of New York Times staffers, your life will be over. Basically. So let’s get to some scrolling!
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about who should - or will - be Donald Trump’s VP pick. I know you’re all dying to know who won so I’ll get straight to it: With a whopping 23% of the vote, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is who you all think Trump SHOULD pick. I get the appeal. I do. He’s African American, he’s evangelical, his happy-warrior vibe is a nice contrast to the Donald and his 90 million indictments…Tim Scott checks a lot of boxes. And according to my older sister who teaches art at a public school in North Charleston, the senator regularly works out at her gym. Treadmill, in case you’re wondering. So: he’s also a man of the people. What a guy!
The second place spot is tied between New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and former 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. And there you have it. Shout-out to whoever wrote in Doug Burgum! Xoxo
As far as who you think Trump will actually pick…Tim Scott and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem led the pack there. Everyone else was a little all over the place. Glenn Youngkin, Tulsi Gabbard, Ramaswamy and Stefanik all got nods. Still, at the end of the day, 61% of you said it doesn’t really matter who he picks. I tend to agree. Trump voters will vote for him no matter what. Never-Trump voters will never vote for him no matter what. Case closed.
Ok! How about we do this again? Instead of picking VP’s though, let’s move to the Hill. This week’s One Question is not one I was planning per se, but in the name of being flexible, here goes: Who should replace Mitch McConnell as the Republican leader in the Senate? Let’s keep the prognosticating going!
Who’s Doing What
—The new King of Content?
Move over, Vivek? Wisconsin senate candidate Eric Hovde has been killing it on the content front lately. You all know I respect anyone who puts out anything that’s even remotely creative or unusual….so while I’m not sure I ever needed to see the chest hair of a future United States Senator, I’m giving Hovde a pass because his cold plunge video is just that good. Why? A few reasons. It’s funny. It’s unique. It’s content OF the candidate BY the candidate. And best of all, it addresses head-on, one of the biggest hits the left has been throwing against him since he announced. Bravo. See the cold plunge video and an axe-throwing video here and here. Content: It ain’t rocket science! You just gotta do it.
—Political Ads, Community Flags
At least one Congressional Leadership Fund on Twitter got hit this week with a community note. Check it out:
You mean this is not a real poll!?!??!? jk jk.
Yikes, yikes, yikes. Definitely something to think about when considering Twitter ad buys. According to CLF’s digital director, the group had to switch out the creative since the platform doesn’t remove community notes. They were also told their’s was the first political ad to get noted. Is this the start of a new trend? Wouldn’t be surprised, but I hope not. Woof.
H/t to the loyal reader who flagged this for me!
—Fundraising woes
Yes, we’re here again. Republican fundraising efforts are getting more *glowing* press coverage - this time in CNBC:
Every so often, Matthew Hurtt receives concerning emails. The subject lines are each slightly different: “Stop charging my account,” “Urgent!” and “Donation not approved,” but the people who send them all want the same thing: to halt the Republican political contribution platform WinRed from making any more automatic, recurring withdrawals from their accounts.
…
“Cancel account and stop billing my credit card,” Oklahoma resident Samie Elliot wrote in a January email that landed in Hurtt’s inbox. She later explained to him that neither she nor her husband, who are both retired, recalled ever signing up for recurring monthly political donations and that these charges have been occurring for at least a year.
Federal Election Commission records, however, paint a very different picture of the Elliots. According to campaign finance reports, WinRed processed $14,300 in political contributions from Elliot and her husband, Orin Elliot, between 2020 and the end of 2023.
These donations all appear to have been small, recurring contributions. Exactly the kind that Elliot said they did not recall signing up for. Samie Elliot did not respond to requests for comment.
Ya’ll: I hate reading stuff like this. And I KNOW the left uses the same tactics, so boo CNBC for just zeroing in on Republicans and WinRed. That said, many on our side have been saying for years now that we can’t keep treating voters like endless ATM machines, tricking them into recurring donations, and not expect some blowback. And I’m not pointing fingers here; we’re ALL guilty - myself included. But there’s no way a donor who feels like he or she has been conned into giving away thousands of dollars is ever going to be open to clicking on a WinRed link again. We’re all just hurting ourselves here.
2024 Roundup
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week.
Newt Gingrich endorsed Nancy Mace primary challenger Catherine Templeton. Read about it here.
West Virginia Senate candidate - the non-NRSC chosen one - released a new ad solidifying his conservative credentials. See it, and his nice WinRed page, here.
Vivek endorsed Sandy Pensler in the Michigan senate race! See the tweet here.
Saw a bunch of Twitter ads this week for Libertarian presidential candidate lars Mapstead and so I thought I’d give him a shout-out this week and link his website here.
Who’s Spending Where
From February 21 -27, the top conservative spender on Facebook ads was PragerU, which spent about $124,00 on ads mostly around lead-gen and promoting Prager content. The Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism spent almost $103,000 on ads, while AIPAC came in a close third at $102,000. A group called American Patriot United $72,000 on ads hawking “free” Trump flags and other pro-Trump content. Coming in fifth place this week was Liberty Defender Group, which spend $57,000 and whose page is, curiously, now deleted.
During that same time period, the anti-Trump Republican group Defending Democracy Together was the top spender on Google, with $475,000 promoting an ad that features some of the negative things Nikki Haley has said about Trump over the years. Honestly at this point, I’m not sure what they’re getting out of spending this much money on an ad that uses Haley to attack Trump. But sometimes when you got money to burn, you gotta burn it? Second place goes to SFA Inc. and their $348,000 spend. AFC Victory Fund continued their spending with $139,000, while Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee spent roughly $86,000. Rounding out the top five was Secure Our Border Now - a group registered in Texas that spent $46,000 on conservative candidates in Texas.
P2P
Industry Watch
Several items to note this week!
First, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case about social media and free speech. From where I sit, it seems like SCOTUS is worried about the power of social media companies, but is also skeptical that states can pass laws that prohibit these companies from banning users or content they don’t like. Read more about it for yourselves here.
Axios attempted to explain why campaigners can’t stop and won’t stop with the political text messaging. Per Axios:
The big picture: In 2022, Americans received 15 billion political texts, an unprecedented record, and 2024 is gearing up to be a bigger year for the messages. The amount of texts in 2022 marked a 158% increase from 2021, according to data from Robokiller. At the same time, there was a 57% decrease in political calls. State of play: Alex Quilici, CEO of call-blocking company YouMail, said that based on data observations, he anticipates political text messages will "go nuts in 2024" as the November election approaches.
Groundbreaking prediction! Read the whole thing here.
Last but not least, the AAPC put out a statement denouncing the AI Robocall-Joe Biden incident. “This alleged act, leveraging artificial intelligence to fabricate a misleading communication for political gain, stands in stark opposition to the principles of honesty and integrity that are fundamental to our democratic process,” says the AAPC statement “The claims involved in this incident blatantly contravene the dedication to integrity that the AAPC upholds, posing a significant threat to the trust inherent in our democratic electoral processes.”
The Grapevine
Trump guru Susie Wiles got the profile treatment this week. Read it here.
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Fav brownie recipe? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
We all know N.C. Rep. Jeff Jackson as our favorite Dem Tik-Tok user and Substacker, but he’s also got some pretty great Facebook ads too. Maybe nothing earth-shattering here, but these just seem extra clean and polished to me, so take a look:
From the other side of the tracks:
Buffer analyzed data from 1 million tweets to find the best time to post on the platform. Their findings? Tweeting at 11 AM on Monday and Friday are the absolutely best times to get good engagement rates. Duly. Noted. Read the whole blog post here.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!