Putting ICE on ice
Doomscroll 2.1.2026
Hello and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll - your favorite newsletter covering all things digital on the right! Hope everyone survived last week’s winter storm. I for one, would like the weather to stop being so winter-y right on top of my house, thanks. Ok - less complaining, more scrolling! Let’s get to it.
Thank you to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about whether you’ll run ads on X during the Super Bowl. Pretty much all of you said no, and I have to admit…I’m a TAD surprised! When I’m watching a televised event (which to be fair is pretty rare these days) I am definitely also scrolling X on my phone. At the same time. Without fail. So to me, this seems like a good opportunity to make some noise. Then again, we Republicans are always slow to spend money on ads (to our detriment, IMO) so maybe I shouldn’t really be surprised…
Ok, let’s go back to one of our favorite topics this week: online fundraising. Let’s get a show of hands. Who’s worried about Republicans’ fundraising lagging behind the Dems this year? Very basic question. With Q4 numbers being in the news lately, it’s hard not to get the sense that we’re going to have a…um…tough year with small-dollar donors. In North Carolina, ex-Gov. Roy Cooper reportedly raised $9.5 million, with more than 90% of that coming from donations under $100. Republican Michael Whatley brought in $5.1 million. Rob Sand, a Democrat who’s running for governor in Iowa, reported raising $9.5 million last year, with 97% of donations being less than $100. He outraised all his GOP competitors’ totals COMBINED. Alexander Vindman raised $1.7 million in the first day of his Florida Senate campaign, with 99% of donations under $100. And yes, while those are three cherry-picked examples, there are others. So this week’s One Question is simple: Is it time to get nervous yet about our small-dollar donations this cycle or is it too early to hit the panic button?
Ok. I KNOW this week’s One Quote really has n-o-t-h-i-n-g to do with digital or Republican politics. Not really. But have you ever come across a random story on the internet and then had it live rent-free in your head for days. This story was that for me this week. The above quote comes from ::sigh:: a social media influencer named Sierra Campbell who talked to the New York Post about her analog bag. Yes, her analog bag. The “toy box for your attention span.” I’m sure you can guess what goes in an analog bag (Crossword puzzles! Knitting needles! Magazines!), but suffice to say…I’m fascinated by this? I’ve mentioned before about the return of IRL events as a trend in the corporate marketing world, so here’s my lame-ish attempt to tie this bizarr-o-world analog bag to our 9-5: If the youths are looking to get off their phones, maybe it’s time to think less about whether to get on TikTok and more about how you’re going to design your campaign’s official crossword puzzle. Just a thought!
—Cracks in the ICE
I’m always curious to see how our side handles and responds to big events in the news. Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The L.A. fires. The capture of Maduro. Etc etc etc. Do you try to capitalize no matter what? Only if it fits your brand? All of us are forced to make these calls at some point - which is why I was interested this week to see how our side would shift our messaging on ICE (if at all). Well from what I can tell, a shift did happen. Big time. After the Alex Pretti shooting, ICE went from being a ubiquitous topic in my inboxes to being the ultimate third rail. Practically radioactive. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a topic have a bigger or faster fall from grace. And I get the calculus. Even if you were sending ICE petitions 2 weeks ago because they were working, if there was ever a time to pivot topics…the last 7 days were it. Still, there were a few exceptions.
The Stop Newsom PAC - from sender “GOP Headquarters” - sent out a “Stand with ICE” petition. Bold move. (Couple side notes because I can’t help myself: The first line of the email had so many typos though, I almost didn’t make it through. The email promises “we want your voice, not your money,” and then links to a donate-to-submit form. Blah. It also links to a petition page on PSQ Impact, which is…interesting). On the one hand, if you’re trying to list build, I could see doubling down on ICE if it activates a certain section of the base. On the other hand, I feel like pivoting away from ICE and to “the Dems created this crisis in the first place,” is a no-brainer. But that’s just me. I also saw Elise Stefanik send out a “say a prayer for Tom Homan” email (definitely ICE adjacent), while Alabama Sen. Katie Britt sent out a straight-up ICE survey. Interestingly, Rep. Zach Nunn sent out a Kristi Noem approval poll. Yes, really. But at the end of the day…that was pretty much it. (Oh yeah I guess there was this too) But like I said - it looks like most of us took an ICE break this week. How long will it last? Only time will tell, but here’s my silver lining: Maybe we were getting a little too reliant on ICE in our messaging, and it’s a good thing we’re being forced to TRY NEW THINGS. Turn over some new leaves, and all that.
—No love lost in the Lone Star State?
Ummm… Looks like there might be some animosity flowing from Sen. John Cornyn - who’s stuck in a heated primary battle - toward fellow Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. I mean, why else would you tweet this?
The gist? The Dallas Morning News did a write-up (how kind of them) of how Cruz is fundraising off keeping Texas red in 2026, even though he isn’t on the ballot. His pitch promises to help Texas GOP candidates, but 99% of the split goes to his own war chest. Here’s the deal, ya’ll. In a perfect world, would we label this as a stupid, deceptive tactic? Sure. But we’re not operating in a perfect world, and let’s not pretend we don’t ALL do this - or that Cornyn wouldn’t be doing the same thing if the roles were reversed. In our struggling, Republican small-dollar ecosystem, we’re all competing for scraps and of course Cruz is going to try and take advantage of a high-stakes race IN HIS STATE. To me, the more interesting question is why Team Cornyn is posting about this on X at all. It’s a little whiny and like…why throw shade when you need all the help you can get? Maybe there’s more to this story (and Texas political dynamics) that I don’t know, but for right now? Pretty sure I’m #TeamCruz on this one.
—Team Dooley
Ok, I know he got dunked on a little bit for it, but I actually like this video from Georgia Senate candidate Derek Dooley. Why? I love the storytelling aspect. He’s not just getting up and talking sack about Jon Ossoff (although that would be easy to do). He’s telling a story about a conversation he had with a voter. I like that framing. And guess what? His delivery is great, and there’s no ominous background music to distract. I’m just saying…whatever you think of Dooley or his candidacy, this is a good content play.
A couple stories caught my eye this week!
🧵 If you care about Threads (do we? I can’t tell yet?)...Here are some insights into that platform’s algorithm
⚖️ The New York Times wrote about some lawsuits facing social media platforms
🧐 OpenAI is reportedly rolling out ChatGPT ads at a $60 CPM. Would I take that deal? Probably, yes.
Perry Johnson is running for governor in Michigan and in true Perry Jonhnson style, he has…an interesting announcement video. And also…Trump is kind of supporting him? Is anyone really sure?
Businessman Doug Turner is running for governor in New Mexico
Chris Dudley is running for governor in Oregon
Trump endorsed Stacy Garrity for governor in Pennsylvania
Trump also endorsed Tom Tiffany for governor in Wisconsin
Steve Daines has a primary challenger in Montana
Bill Casidy has launched his first TV ad.
Austin Rogers is running for Congress in Florida’s 2nd congressional district
Congrats to Direct Persuasion for 9 years in the business!
Congrats to Sarah Phillips for joining Foretell!
Also some interesting insider-y news: PSQ Holdings’ Michael Seifert has stepped down as CEO and resigned from the company’s board of directors. This strikes me as kind of a big deal, especially since we’re talking about a company (PSQ Impact) that’s responsible for housing GOP donor data. If anyone has any interesting insights into this, HMU!
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
From the other side of the aisle:
Lots of anti-ICE, anti-Kristi Noem content circulating from the Dems this week. This one, from Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman caught my eye. Short, simple, and to the point.
From the other side of the tracks:
Ok, here’s an argument for investing more in digital, no matter what industry you’re in: You get to do more fun things on digital! A Dollar Shave Club ad that was made for the Super Bowl was rejected by NBCUniversal because it used profanity (ok, fair). So what did the Dollar Shave guys do instead? Rather than send over a censored version, they decided to pivot toward CTV, social, and “other targeted digital platforms.”
Nice. The spot is pretty good, too.
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Really sharp observation about that ICE mesaging pivot. The speed at which it went from universal to radioactive is kinda wild even for politics. I've seen this patter with donor fatigue before where over-reliance on one issue creates brittleness. The forced diversification might actualy be the blessing in disguise here tbh.