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Doomscroll 6.1.2025

Jun 01, 2025

Welcome to another edition of Doomscroll, your favorite newsletter covering all things digital on the right! Let’s get to some scrolling.

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One Question

Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about whether the Biden cover-up will be an effective message for Republicans going into the Midterms. 66% of you said, which I have to admit, I find a tad surprising. The rest of you were evenly split. I think I put myself in the “maybe” camp. I think it could be effective in certain races/districts/states. On the other hand, I totally get why so many of you said no. I remember running HARD against Dems with COVID messaging in 2022 and we still got clobbered. There’s something to be said about voters’ desires to just move on and bury certain chapters of our collective memory. I get it. In 2022, no one wanted to re-litigate COVID shutdowns at the ballot box. Will voters want to re-litigate Dems covering up for Biden’s decline in 2024? Seems the consensus is no.

Anyway, I got some interesting comments with some really good points. Here they are:

Part of me wants to say yes but I feel like anyone with eyes already saw it last time.
Only those on record calling Biden “sharp as a tack” or “best Biden ever” will feel the consequences.
Communications and PR has always been a GOP/Conservative weakness. To counter the Dems' 24/7 "Politics as Forever War" mentality, which mimics that of Lenin, the RNC, State GOPs, and conservative groups must commence a continual PR/messaging campaign -- not only for the 2026 mid-terms and elections in general --, but as a propaganda/truth device in order to force the public to confront the never-ending crimes of the Democrats and their affiliated Comrades. This would include substantive issues such as trade, but also the political angle of everything relevant to a campaign nationally, and in the key States and districts.
If there wasn't a backlash to Covid lockdowns we wont see a backlash to the Biden cover-up
We had our run at Biden. And he sucked (cancer aside, don’t wish it on anyone). We dodged a Kamala bullet. But the ones who care will be GOP voters who were voting GOP anyway. Swing, moderates, and Indy’s will be wondering why we can’t get any new material.
The DNC is crumbling. They've spent the past decade making their message "orange man bad" while simultaneously ignoring reality around them; they wouldn't listen to other points of view and went as far as to alienate men by saying things like "meat eaters are right-wing". 2026 won't be so much about the Biden cover-up, but rather that Democrats have pushed a radical platform that's so far out of touch while gaslighting American's into believing their narrative.
Can't win an election complaining about a failed candidate who dropped out. Even if it was for president. Voters won't find it appealing. Focus on the future!

One of these commenters, who signed his name (#respect) but I will nonetheless keep anonymous, also opined on Sens. Tillis and Tuberville. Not digital-related, but I figured I’d include them anyway because why the heck not. Here goes:

On another matter -- that of Sen. Tillis of NC --, as a NC native, but not based there now, I cringed at your wish of "Godspeed" for that one-of-the-worst RINOs in the Senate. As a Senator, his act is a sequel to his tenure as Speaker of the NC House -- he is an absolute whore for Big Business and Wall Street. All of his major actions or announcements flow from this reality. In short, as with Cornyn in TX -- and hopefully soon with Cassidy in LA -- there must be a substantive primary challenger to him. It's bad enough that we have to deal with the Eskimo (Murkowski) and the Lobster (Collins); we should not have to deal with RINOs in the South.
Finally, the last thing we need is for Sen. Tuberville to leave a substantive position for -- at least in this day and age -- a much less important role as governor of a Deep Red State. As a States'-Rightist I view the States as more important than the federal government, but we have few true conservatives in the Senate; we cannot afford to lose any of them. Alas, Tuberville likely feels like a fish out of water in the God-forsaken Swamp, and seeks a return to the normalcy of Real America. Perhaps we can entice Judge Roy Moore out of retirement.

Woof. Roy Moore? The guy who was so bad he handed a solidly-Republican Senate seat to Democrat Doug Jones? Surely you’re joking.

If that isn’t a joke, let me say this: I have my personal conservative convictions, but when it comes to electoral politics - or my job as an operative - I like to win. What’s more, I believe the country is better off if Republicans are in the majority - even if that majority includes a few squishes. I don’t like purity tests, and I won’t settle for losing an election just because our guy was a “true conservative.”

One more thing: I also remember that time Susan Collins came through for Brett Kavanaugh and slapped a giant target on her own back. So, she deserves some respect IMO. No disrespect to this commenter - I appreciate the dialogue and the engagement.

OK BEFORE WE MOVE ON. Let’s talk about fast food joints in D.C. A promise is a promise. So, here are some recommendations:

Taco Bamba
I don’t know about fast food, but Maydan is delicious if you want a Michelin level dining experience that won’t break the bank.
Chickfila
Not fast food but amazing pizza at Pupatella
Listen, it’s not DC, but I would hike through all kinds of weather for a sandwich from The Italian Place in Old Town Alexandria.
There's this great hole-in-the-wall establishment with the best quesadillas called Mission Navy Yard
Z-Burger is pretty good

LMAO whoever said Mission, and I second the Pupatella shout-out.

Ok. This week’s One Question is about advice. My timelines have been blowing up lately with commencement addresses and life advice for graduates. I figured: you guys are a smart bunch. I’m sure you have some advice. So spill. What piece of advice would you give a member of the class of 2025 who wants to A) move to DC and B) do something in the digital field?

Share your wisdom

One Quote

One Thought

The above quote is from social media / marketing guru Jack Appleby. In his newsletter this week, he tackled the question of whether or not brands should block their competitors if they start throwing bombs (big or small) in the comments. He argues that brands should absolutely block AND delete snarky comments. Generally, I think his advice is spot-on for the corporate world, but it got me thinking about politics. Do the same rules apply? I’m not so sure. If one of my candidate’s opponents starts attacking us in the comments, I’m sure as heck gonna tell my candidate to engage. A) Voters like the drama - even if they say they don’t. B) Voters want a fighter to represent them. So….yeah. While I get what Appleby is saying, I think some things just don’t apply in the political world. Also, blocking your opponent is kind of a bad look…right? Just a thought!

(If you disagree, lmk over email: itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com).

Who’s Doing What

—Put me in, Coach!

Ok so this week’s biggest announcement was the shocking (not) launch of Tommy Tuberville’s gubernatorial campaign. So let’s talk about it. First of all, I love the launch video. It’s only 60 seconds, he’s talking directly to the camera, and it’s light-hearted. Dare I say…fun? I don’t know. I like the vibes. Also, his website is…darn-near perfect? I don’t really know what to say, ya’ll. It’s clean and simple. It has a sign-up form at the top. It has an issues section, and best of all - it has a merch store! The only negative thing I can think to say is that I’m not terribly in love with the logo - or the “Coach for Governor” slogan. Now that he’s got a Senate term under his belt, I would have advised him to go with something like “Tommy for Governor.” But that’s just me! Overall, nice stuff here.

—Here’s a story…
Let’s talk about another campaign website. Adam Schwarze is a former Navy Seal running for Senate in Minnesota. I don’t remember how or why I stumbled across his website, but it immediately made me pause. How do we feel about full-screen video players like the one he has? I’ll be honest, at first I wasn’t so sure, but now that I’ve chewed on it for a few days, I’m going all-in on this. Why? With as much as I rail about candidates needing to brand themselves and tell a story, how can I be mad at a candidate that takes his storytelling to this level? The video is spectacular. You can tell this team invested a lot into making it. I constantly tell candidates: you have to brand yourself. You need to tell a story that explains who you are, where you come from, and how you arrived at this moment - running for political office. This video tells a story; it doesn’t just make promises and ask for votes. The only thing I don’t like about the functionality is there’s no way to pause it, but that’s a small detail. Anyway, the rest of the website is just ok, and again - not loving the logo here. (Is anyone else not loving the campaign logos we’re seeing lately? Just me?). P.S. Whoever’s doing his online fundraising may want to do a spell check on the page disclosure.

—New ad, who dis?

This Buddy Carter ad is….just, wow. Amazing. I’ve seen some people on the internets slamming this ad. If you don’t like it - you’re not the target audience.Georgia primary voters will eat this up.

Who’s Spending Where

Facebook

Google

Industry Watch

👫 Always good to have a refresher: 10 tried-and-true tactics for growing your Facebook audience.

🏷️ Another nice refresher: What the fluff is attribution modeling? Find out if you don’t know.

🛜 Wired wrote about how Bluesky is apparently planning ot take over the internet. Read it here.

🤖 Yes, most political consultants are using AI. Read more in C&E here.

✍️Are 2026 and 2028 going to be the Substack Elections? Maybe…

2025-2026 Watch

Former CIA officer Anthony Sabio has filed to run against Rep. Don Beyer in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District (my former district, whatup!?).
Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl might run for Tommy Tuberville’s senate seat…If he does, he’ll join what will likely be a very crowded primary field. A former Navy Seal named Jared Hudson has already jumped in.
Businessman Toby Doeden is running for governor in South Dakota.
Georgia State Sen. Colton Moore is mulling a bid for Senate.

The Grapevine

Nancy Mace (groan) got the Wired treatment this week. I’m LOL’ing at the thought that she told her staff to create burner accounts so they could help her blow up on social media. I don’t NOT believe it. On the other hand, I gotta give mad props to any congresswoman who puts this much effort into her online presence. I mean, really:

“You need to know that Nancy Mace is quite the—when I use the word ‘nerd’ or ‘geek,’ it's always favorable, but a computer nerd or a computer geek,” Donehue said in the deposition, first reported by FITSNews, a conservative-leaning South Carolina outlet. “She programs her own bots. She sets up Twitter burner accounts. This is kind of a thing she does. She sits all night on the couch and programs bots, because she's very, very computer savvy. She controls her own voter database, she programs a lot of her own website, she programs Facebook bots and Instagram bots and Twitter bots. It's what she does for fun.”

John Hall, who recently left Apex to start his own shop, has a new Medium post about the right’s online fundraising. Definitely worth a read.

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:

More Perfect Union, the non-profit founded by Bernie Sanders advisor Faiz Shakir, is running lead-gen ads on Facebook asking people to sign petitions to save our National Parks from DOGE cuts. In the last seven days alone, the group has spent $162,000. That’s a lot, considering the group has only spent $462,000ish since 2018. (Someone just got an influx of cash! ahem). I bet it’s paying off, too. The ads are pretty. Families are about to embark on their summer travels. Who doesn’t want to save our national parks? So….yeah. Not much else to say here. These aren’t the last DOGE ads we’ll see this year. Not by a long shot.

From the other side of the tracks:

Shoe mogul Steve Madden did an interview recently on “The Cutting Room Floor” podcast that went viral. So viral, in fact, that it caused his company’s stock price to go up! Aside from that, however, this is a great study in how to take long-form content and repurpose it for social. As the Axios piece points out, the full interview is behind a paywalled Patreon account, but the podcast host took clips (like this one) and posted them across various social media platforms, enticing people to pay to access the whole thing. Good stuff.