Hello and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll, your favorite newsletter covering all things digital on the right. What’d we all think of that Ted Cruz-Tucker Carlson interview? I’m gonna side with Ted on this one. TBH I don’t know the population of China off the top of my head (eleventy-billion?) but that hasn’t stopped me from thinking the country needs some SERIOUS reforming.
Let’s get to some scrolling!
Today’s edition of Doomscroll is sponsored by Advocacy Lab. Keep scrolling for a Q&A with founder Kevin Rose!
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about the future of P2P texting in light of Apple’s latest announcement. Two-thirds of you said that yes, you are worried. The rest of you are split between “maybe” being worried and not worried at all. To those not worried: Can I get whatever pills you’re taking. Here are a few interesting comments:
Political texting is already dead. Causes more harm than good for campaigns.
As with everything, once you overuse something it loses its magic. Email went that way and Texting will go that way. Add to the massive texting overuse (thank you Donald Trump) the AI driven - upcoming - lack of trust in any messages on top, the Friend to Friend of at least Face to Face communication becomes pivotal. Real personal touch becomes more significant again and relational outreach will help with that. I also see a future for old fashioned Neighborhood gatherings and Ice cream socials.
Campaigns will need to adjust their texting approach - make a personal connection with the voter, not just treat them like a piggy bank. Apple’s algorithm stops filtering the unknown texts after a couple instances of responding to the number. Use that opportunity to engage the audience in an easy response survey as soon as someone registers to receive messages. They’ll be more likely to interact if their interest is fresh, giving digital fundraisers the ability to come in later asking for money.
Only the strongest text vendors who really understand direct marketing will survive this. Fly-by-night spammers are going to be screwed. Good. It’s a win for smart campaigns.
Let’s continue the conversation around texting. If you’re a campaigner or consultant, I want to know: Which texting platform do you use and why? And also: Are you concerned with honoring opt-out requests and how do you make sure that happens? I’m very curious about this. THANKS.
One Quote
One Thought
The above quote is from an Axios piece out this week in which two DARING reporters immerse themselves into the MAGA algorithm on TikTok. I’m not totally sure what the point of this exercise is and I really don’t get this kind of journalism. It’s so pointless. The piece seems to be asking us to draw some kind of inference from their experience, but I’m not sure what… If you’re a female and you follow Charlie Kirk on TikTok, chances are you’ll also come across trad wife content. Ok….? And? The writers end by saying that this phenomenon is “central to Trump's strength with Gen Z, and a key part of why he's sitting in the White House.”
I don’t get it. If you’re a Gen Z-er who followers Charlie Kirk and voted for Trump in 2024, I doubt it’s because the algorithm tricked you into it. Just a thought.
Who’s Doing What
—Graham Town
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who’s up for re-election in 2026, has run about $1,000-worth of ads on Youtube in the upstate of South Carolina in the last week. The ads hype his relationship with President Trump, his support of Israel, and his opposition to birthright citizenship (interesting). I’m very much looking forward to this race because I think it’ll be a fun one to watch. Graham is facing a primary challenge from the right from businessman Mark Lynch…but somehow the senator manages to always pull out the W. Will 2026 be any different? I have my doubts, but I also leave him with this warning: don’t take your re-election for granted.
—Freedom Caucus Controversy
Speaking of South Carolina…The political world in the Palmetto State was upended a couple weeks ago when the state’s Freedom Caucus founder, RJ May, was arrested and charged with 10 counts of distributing child sex abuse material. And you guys: when I say the charges against him are HORRIFIC, I mean it. I tried reading the indicting and had to stop it was so disturbing. But RJ and his Freedom Caucus allies have been making life difficult for the SC GOP for quite a while now. Remember how I’ve written in the past that because there’s no real official Democrat apparatus in the state to fight against, the Republicans down here just fight each other? Yeah…it’s the Freedom Caucus vs. every other conservative and May (along with former Congressional candidate Adam Morgan) have orchestrated pretty much all of it. Ok - so why am I even writing about this? Because things down here are about to get Nasty with a capitol N. From what I can tell, the first wave of texts have just gone out tying certain Freedom Caucus members to May, as Republican groups seek to recruit primary challengers to these far-right members. And yes, whichever group sent the text should put their name on it. Rep. Nancy Mace has already tried using it as an issue in the gubernatorial race.
FWIW: I have no dog in this fight yet (aside from being just anti-May). But I will be watching this closely.
—Stop2End
And speaking of texting…A couple of Utah residents have filed a lawsuit against the RNC, NRSC, NRCC, and CLF for not opting them out of text messages. The lawsuit alleges that even though they replied “stop” or asked to be opted out multiple times, the texts just kept coming - from multiple numbers. Here’s one part for the 404 Media write-up that caught my attention:
“I’m seriously considering filing a class action lawsuit against @WINRED. The sheer amount of campaign txts I receive is astounding,” one person wrote on X. “I’ve unsubscribed from probably thousands of campaign texts to no avail. The scam is, if you call Winred, they say it’s campaign initiated. Call campaign, they say it’s Winred initiated. I can’t be the only one!”
Ok. I’m no legal scholar so I don’t know if this lawsuit will go anywhere, but it’s obviously a problem. Unfortunately, it’s going to take enough people caring to fix it. Here’s how I see it: If we’re not opting people out when they ask, then we’re not treating them with respect. And if they’re feeling disrespected, they’re not going to donate. And if they don’t donate…well…you know what that means. Womp womp. It’s such an obvious problem I don’t understand why a campaign wouldn’t honor opt-outs. But from the bazillions of conversations I’ve had about this with operatives, I suspect the problem boils down to a simple but basic lack of transparency. Campaigns farm out their texting to their digital vendors. Digital vendors (usually) use the texting platform that charges the lowest rates for sends. They say “their system” opts people out automatically, but does it really? What’s the process? Do digital vendors verify opt-outs are being honored? Do campaigns? Do they even know to ask? Do campaign operatives even know which platform is being used to send the texts that are coming from their candidate? Zero transparency. Zero accountability. And WinRed gets caught in the middle.
Who’s Spending Where
Industry Watch
^This Dem gets it.
I’m sure that by now, everyone has seen the news that streaming overtook broadcast and cable for the first time in May, THANKS TO THE BOOMERS. Let’s let that sink in for a moment and get more from the NYT:
Nielsen began comparing streaming viewership with traditional network and cable television in 2021. At that time, even with streaming on a rapid ascent, the gap between the two was huge: Nearly two-thirds of all TV time was spent watching cable and broadcast, and just 26 percent was with streaming.
…
Older viewers watch a lot of television, more than any other cohort — one-third of all viewing comes from this group. And they have been moving to streaming in droves in the last few years — particularly to platforms that are free and require no subscription. For instance, since 2023, viewers over 65 are the fastest-growing age group for watching YouTube off a television set.
Their YouTube watch time last month grew 106 percent from May 2023, Nielsen said. And the amount they’re watching on YouTube is equal to the viewing totals of children under 11 — another age group that watches a ton of TV, and YouTube in particular.
Given the rise of older viewers on these platforms, it would be malpractice for Republican campaigns to not invest in streaming. And sorry TV dudes, but this one belongs to the digital team IMO. Buying impressions on a TV screen doesn’t mean this budget should go to the TV buyers. And honestly, I’m so freaking tired of every single campaign’s creative being TV-first. Even if it’s cut down or flipped vertically, every ad is made with TV in mind. Enough already! No one’s tuning in anymore! Things need to change. The incentive structures need to change. /End rant.
A few other quick hits:
🖥️ Tabloola is launching its own AI search engine.
🗣️ Ads are finally coming to Whatsapp.
🎬 Facebook is making it so that all videos now post as reels. TBH I kind of hate updates like these.
🖊️ The key to more newsletter sign-ups.
🔗 Don’t add links in your Facebook posts anymore.
2025-2026 Watch
Primary elections were held in Virginia on Tuesday. See all the results here.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson is about to officially jump in the gubernatorial race.
Former House Speaker Tom Leonard is running for governor in Michigan.
Louisiana State Sen. Blake Miguez is primarying Sen. Bill Cassidy. His announcement video is…something.
Virginia State Sen. Tara Durant is running for Congress, challenging Democrat Rep. Eugene Vindman.
Joy Eakins is running for governor in Kansas.
Knives are already out in the Georgia gubernatorial primary.
The Grapevine
Am thoroughly enjoying former Mark Sanford Chief of Staff Scott English’s Substack. Check it out.
Google is hiring a Senior Account Executive. Apply here.
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Thanks to Advocacy Lab for sponsoring this week’s edition of Doomscroll! As someone who’s constantly railing about the need for new addition to our tech stack…I’m pretty excited about what Kevin is doing here.
First of all, tell us who you are and what you do!
Hey, I’m Kevin Rose. I’m the founder of Advocacy Lab, an ad/content creation platform for us on the right. It’s the first of many tools we’re looking to build for our space. Before that, I worked in Michigan politics on the campaign and official side, mostly doing digital. Advocacy Lab is basically the tool I wish I had when I was doing all of that.Reach me at kevin@advocacylab.io
Explain Advocacy Lab. What is it and why did you start it?
We’ve got 400+ political ad templates pulled from real, high-performing political digital ads, all fully editable in Canva. Click the link, add text, add photos, add your logo and choose your color scheme, and you’re good to go.We also built a tool that makes it easy to collect endorsement videos from supporters. Just send a link and it walks them through filming and uploading. And we’ve got some beta AI tools for copy analysis and generation.
I started it for two reasons: First, to level the playing field for smaller campaigns with fewer resources. You could hand your intern a login and they’d be able to make ads that look just as dialed as something from a Senate or presidential campaign. Second, to help bigger teams produce creative content faster.
Ok…that all sounds too good to be true! What’s the catch?
Well, you still need a human to actually make the creative, at least for now. The other catch is that our templates only live in Canva.But I think that’s the whole point. With where A.I. is going, the skill gap around design tools is going to disappear. Canva is leading the charge with this. And I think more focused prompt-to-image tools (think Bolt or Replit but for design) will start popping up and speeding things up even more.
The future of creative in our space will come down to four things: crafting a compelling hook, good political instincts, visual taste, and being able to prompt. You won’t need to be fluent in Adobe or Figma to get your message out.
So instead of outsourcing design to someone with no real understanding of your candidates or message or maybe even politics, the person closest to the candidate and the voters can now make the creative. That’s where we’re headed as a company, and we see v1 of Advocacy Lab as a solid first step.
Do you plan to incorporate video templates in the future?
We’re working on it now. Social media video templates are the low-hanging fruit. Templates that let you brand a video with your campaign’s look and feel. The more advanced stuff is trickier. But looking ahead, it’s not far off to say you’ll be able to drop oppo and a few assets into our platform and get 80–90% of the way to a solid attack ad.With Advocacy Lab, I’m trying to build tools I wish I had in September of 2022 or 2024. One thing I’m tinkering with right now is an A.I.-generated b-roll library. Non-candidate footage built specifically for our space, available inside the platform. We don’t need stock video of people in suits shaking hands at a conference table. We need families waving American flags, people at church, workers on a job site, etc.
Since you're a content/creative guy...What are your thoughts on campaigns trying to chase virality? Is there too much emphasis on "going viral"?
I don’t think so, necessarily. The bigger problem I see with candidates/lawmakers is they’re so scared to say something controversial that they end up saying nothing at all. And then they wonder why every Facebook post gets 7 likes. On the flip side, some go too far chasing virality and end up looking cartoonish to voters. It’s a tough balance to strike.What we saw in ‘24 is that the stuff that performs is authentic and provides value. The algorithm owes you nothing. Be entertaining, be useful and do it in a way that actually fits your candidate.
What positive trends are you seeing these days in content creation or ad creative that you expect to see carried into the 2026 Midterms? Anything you see campaigns doing wrong?
One trend I can’t stop talking about is ugc (user-generated content). Not in the influencer sense of leveraging someone else’s audience, but as an ad format. We saw some of it in ‘24, mostly from Dems if I remember right, but it should explode in ‘26.I’m especially bullish on A.I.-generated ugc. It’s performing incredibly well in the private sector, and you can create hundreds of variations of an ad/message without having to recruit, manage, or pay anyone. Google’s Veo 3 just made high-quality A.I. video accessible to anyone, and this tech is only getting cheaper and more realistic. This probably sounds self-serving, but most campaigns still don’t put out enough creative. I look through Meta’s ad library all the time and see campaigns with like two ads. You’ve got to test often and keep pushing new material out the door.
Thank you, Kevin!
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
So…let’s talk about Deja Foxx. Is she the next AOC? It might be too soon to tell, but I am legit impressed with her digital presence, it pains me to say. But what should I expect from a literal GenZ-er? (Side note: She was born in 2000 so she DOESN’T REMEMBER 9/11, and the idea that a member of Congress would not remember 9/11 is mind-blowing to me). Anywho, Ms. Foxx knows her way around the internet. Her ads are awesome - especially this one. This style wouldn’t work for anyone, but it works for her. Her website is gorgeous, and her reels on Instagram consistently rack up hundreds of thousands of views. I’m not saying everyone needs to go out and copy everything AOC 2.0 is doing online, but let’s just say I’m not NOT saying that, either. For a 25-year-old, she really knows how to create and brand and stay on message.
From the other side of the tracks:
It seems like every day I’m coming across another article in the marketing world about how CMO’s or CFO’s are turning their attention to serious, hard stats. It’s no longer enough to just be “cool” online. This one is another good reminder. Metrics matter. If you can’t measure it, maybe it’s time to dump it.
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