They Not Like US
Doomscroll 5.3.2026
Hello and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll - your favorite newsletter covering all things digital on the right and where the red button is obviously the correct answer. Let’s get to some scrolling!
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about inboxing. 83% of you said it’s a problem, but only a small piece of the puzzle. The rest of you said it’s THE problem for our fundraising woes. So the people have spoken! And let me just say…you all had a LOT of thoughts. Here are some of them - and yes I had to edit some for length:
You complain about our terrible practices enough across all other kpis in fundraising, so why would inboxing be any different? We don’t do a great job with our strategies when it comes to making it in the inbox with everything from aggressive tactics to aggressive rev shares. There are quite a few vendors who don’t suffer from inboxing as an issue for this reason. Yes there’s bias but that’s the lazy excuse we’ve been giving for almost a decade now. People just have to admit that long term email strategies really don’t exist in this industry
Saying that inboxing or big tech is censoring Republicans is an easy answer to a complex question. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg issue. First, monitoring inboxing is a full-time job. We have someone on staff whose entire job is to help with inboxing, removing ISP blocks, and make sending recommendations. Additionally, hitting the spam filter isn’t always the worst thing - hear me out. If you are getting there, it means other messages are actually hitting inboxes, so there are more complaints. More complaints to ISPs means more messages marked as spam. Hence, we need someone full-time to check deliverability. …Second, there’s been a ton of bad actors on our side. They’ve been sending content that is really spammy. Fake matches, 11000% matches, social security checks emails, are really dangerous to inboxing. Not to mention how we’re treating our donors, which think is a bigger part of the issue. Pre-checking donation pages is a bigger issue for our results, because many donors don’t trust WinRed because they think they are being scammed (they are, but not by WinRed). We need better practices to treat donors better.
The incessant hand-wringing over inboxing has been going on for years, meanwhile no one genuinely makes an effort to do something about it except the folks over at the NRSC (shoutout Cooper!) At the end of the day, we DO experience unfair inbox placement, and we ALSO abuse our lists and don’t engage in accepted sender practices. My burner email’s inbox has messages from organizations who I haven’t opened an email from in YEARS. Blaming it all on our ISP overlords is an easy way to not take any responsibility.
Two thoughts; 1) Yes, it’s been proven time and time again that inboxing is a problem for Republicans. But is it THE ONLY problem? No. Republicans have this tendency to identify something as the big bad wolf and die on the hill believing that the one thing identified is the reason for all the struggles. Every time there’s a problem with fundraising, operatives immediately fall into this pit of blaming inboxing rather than reflecting, learning, and seeing things from a 30,000 ft view. …There could be a whole TED Talk about why fundraising numbers struggle for Republicans, but when it comes down to brass tax, the biggest problem we face as a party is that people either don’t feel connected to the party apparatus or don’t want to give money to a system they don’t trust. Look at the Democrats for example. As wild and crazy as they might be, they’ve spent years making every person feel like they’re a part of something special, that they’re all connected and fighting with a purpose. 2) The past few weeks some folks here have been on a high horse about inboxing and demanding an answer to prove them wrong about inboxing only being part of the problem rather than being the only problem. Except no matter what information or opinions they’re given, the following week all we hear is “WeLl AcTuAlLy!” Well actually, as someone who likes being a quiet operative who gets the job done and goes home at the end of the day, it’s EXHAUSTING to listen to the same argument over and over because it’s like we’re debating a brick wall. Democrats might be crazy, but have you looked at the definintion of insanity? P.S. - Thank you for listening to MY TED Talk.
Big Tech censorship of Republican emails (with or without WinRed links) is only part of the anti-GOP/conservative Big Tech dystopia. Everyone knows that virtually all of the Big Tech universe is liberal -- Google/Alphabet, Facebook/Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, PayPal, Netflix, Yahoo, etc. They have embedded bias into their algorithms. The chief solution is to investigate, prosecute civilly, and break them up.
who cares if you get in the inbox when your messaging is telling Grandma the world is going to end if she doesn’t click this link
I HATE people complaining about inboxing. Cry me a river. 9 times out of 10 the person complaining that its all bias is not following best practices. The ISP’s have added more guidelines each year and yeah, they are enforcing them religiously. Play ball or STFU. The agencies that have invested in smart email leaders and teams are seeing improved fundraising. The ones that keep treating it like they have it all figured out have seen bad month after month because they think it’s still 2020. Your scammy AI written emails are not going to inbox when you are not setting up your email infrastructure properly, making adjustments and coming up with ways to boost performance organically. We always say invest in digital. Well... INVEST IN TALENTED EMAIL LEADERS!
The political/economic environment is certainly a factor but blaming ‘inboxing’ is lazy. Our side does a terrible job with email. I challenge anyone that just wants to blame ‘big tech’ to actually sign up for Democrat candidate/Committee emails and you will immediately see the difference. They almost always tell a story and have solid reasons to donate while our side almost exclusively is using techniques or gimmicks like the FAKE DOGE/Tax Rebate/Tariff Rebate checks or ‘your name is missing’ over and over and over again. There are candidates and firms on our side doing great work with email but it is a definite minority.
RE this: The North Carolina senate race is huge this year. When Roy Cooper got in it seemed like every single Democrat entity on planet earth was doing sends for Roy Cooper. Same for James Talarico. That dude did not walk out of the state senate and piece together a $30 million fundraising machine out of nowhere. We just don’t have that kind of willingness (or infrastructure?) to make that happen on our side. I feel like Cooper Reves and NRSC deserve some credit here. He has pushed this exact thing extremely aggressively for candidate announcements, including for NC.
Ok first off: To whoever said I “complain” - I wouldn’t so much call it “complaining” as much as providing “helpful critiques.” Constructive criticism. Slight suggestions. Modest proposals. Second: Let’s all give a round of applause to Cooper Reeves for getting TWO shout-outs in one newsletter! Way to go, Coop. Way to be out there, doing the Lord’s work for the rest of us.
But like I said - you guys had a lot of thoughts. And if I had to edit some of your comments down - sorry. I like reading the rants (best part of my week!) but Substack does have a word count limit if I want this entire newsletter to land in your inbox without being cut off. I won’t spend time responding to each one or opining more about inboxing (for now). It’s like I’ve said over and over again: Whenever I bring this issue up with folks I get pretty mixed responses - as you can see! So…yeah. I didn’t just make that up. Some of you are all in on the big tech bias. That’s great for you. And then some of you are more my speed: Sure it’s a problem but we’ve also got a million other things WE CAN ACTUALLY CONTROL that would make our programs a lot better so let’s focus on those!
Ok, this week’s One Question is *not* about fundraising (thank the Lord, yes I know), but it might still be a little depressing. According to ::checks notes:: literally everyone, the political landscape is looking pretty terrible for the GOP this year. Trump’s approval numbers are under water. We’re going to lose the House. We may even lose the Senate. Everything is looking bleak. Etc Etc Etc. So this week I want to know: Do you believe the doomsday scenario and if so, how is that changing how you’re campaigning this cycle (if at all)?
Don’t hold back!
The above comes from a really smart piece this week in The Relational Republican titled “Group Chats Are The New Field Offices.” This is one of those things that, like, we’d ALL be thinking about if time/staffing weren’t an issue. We know relational organizing works - the question is always how to best use it as a tactic in a way that’s efficient and effective when we’re short on time, short on resources, and the list of campaign to-dos is getting longer by the day. Group chats are a thing. We all have them. We all use them. How do campaigns infiltrate them? Is this the time to sing “All Hail the Mighty Volunteer”? Is it time to organize WhatsApp groups and recruit volunteers into them? Create broadcast channels on Instagram? Post on NextDoor (not necessarily a group chat but similar idea). These are all things smart campaigns should be looking into - just a thought! Anyway - take two minutes and read the post. Get the wheels turning.
—The Ad
The internet went wild this week over that Spencer Pratt ad…and for good reason. Normally the contrarian in me would want to find something wrong with this. Like…anything. And yet this time I’m following the crowd. Herd mentality all the way! I have to! This is outstanding. Who would have thunk Mr. Spencer Pratt could churn out something like this? I mean, I guess I should have known. I should have. I watched enough of The Hills to know this man knows how to tell A STORY. The messaging is spot-on: SO MANY far-left Democrat politicians will never ever have to suffer the consequences of their policies. They are elite and they are protected from the disasters they create. Don’t care if it’s Karen Bass or Zohran Mamdani. They’re all the same and this ad gets that across brilliantly. Kudos to whoever made it. Heard Team Pratt raised six figures off it online in just one day. Nice. Digital peeps: Take notes.
—Will the real Graham Platner please stand up?
Lots of news out of Maine this week, not the least of which being this excellent ad from the NRSC highlighting all the details about Graham Platner’s bio that he always conveniently leaves out of his story. Love this use of AI and love this ad.
—Southern Charm?
The South Carolina primaries are on June 9, and let’s just say…things are heating up down here - especially in the gubernatorial race. The pro-Alan Wilson SC Conservative Action Fund is out with an attack site called QueenDEI.com hitting current Lt. Governor Pamela Evette for promoting DEI and getting rich off it. Woof. A pro-Evette PAC, meanwhile, is hitting Wilson (the state’s current AG and son of Rep. Joe Wilson) with some kind of corrupt cronyism charge that doesn’t quite stick if you ask me because even after watching the ad I’m still not sure what the hit is? And then there’s Nancy Mace who’s just out there doing her thing and relative newcomer Rom Reddy who got the NYT treatment this week and came out hard against data centers. Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham is facing a challenge from the right in the form of businessman Mark Lynch. I think it’s safe to say Graham will pull through although I fully expect the Democratic machine to put resources into his general election opponent, Annie Andrews, which should be…fun to watch. Anyway, Team Graham is up with their own microsite against Lynch - StopMarkLynch.com - which hits him for wanting to legalize “medical cocaine.” Ok…Also fwiw I’ve been getting that ad on Instagram reels constantly for the last few weeks. Just saying! Anyway…micro-sites, mailers, texts, FB ads, billboards…we’ve got it all down here!
-Wacky Website
Philip Harding, who’s running for Congress in Virginia’s new 7th congressional district, might have one of the most unusual website design features I’ve seen in a while…Click here and check out his cursor and you’ll see what I mean. I’m kind of torn on this? On one hand, I hate just about everything about this website design-wise. On the other hand, I’m so tired of seeing the same old template-y campaign sites these days that I don’t care what the weird feature is - I’m just glad there’s someone out there doing something different. I’m going to hand Mr. Harding an A for effort, choose to embrace the YOLO nature of this, and invite you all to join me! P.S. thanks to the loyal reader for flagging.
Sam Mead is running for Senate in Wyoming
Michigan gubernatorial race taking an interesting turn: Perry Johnson is apparently suing John james for using the world “governor”
News anchor Ryan Elijah announced a primary challenge to Rep. Cory Mills in FL-7
Florida Rep. Daniel Webster is retiring
After 30 days on the campaign trail, Mark Sanford has dropped his bid for Congress in SC-1.
Speaking of SC-1, one of Sanford’s now former primary opponent is getting some ad help from Winning for Women Action Fund. She also just released her own ad, titled “Jenny from the Block.” Cute.
WSJ reports that Trump is leaning toward endorsing Andy Barr in the KY Senate race…which would be a huge disappointment for the MAGA base I gather?
Kentucky…uh…I guess this is one way to put an end to a nasty primary battle?
💻 Good read from Michael Beech’s State of the Screens about the “world’s greatest ad machine.” Yes, it’s Meta (obviously). Crazy stat: Reels is making more money than all of Youtube!?
📈 Speaking of ads, spend was up overall in Q1
📊 Interesting survey from Echelon Insights on political influencers. Top 2: Ben Shapiro and Gavin Newsom
Congrats to Nick Elliott for starting his new role at Campaign HQ!
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:
I found this interesting:
Honestly not a bad gig if you’re “professional social media scroller” who is “fired up to elect Democrats” for $65,000 a year.
From the other side of the tracks:
Meta just released a new report titled “Generation Zeitgeist 2026” that makes a bold claim: The generation gap has closed. The era of age as the primary targeting shortcut is over.
For an industry that has spent the better part of a decade obsessing over generational differences, building separate strategies for separate cohorts, and treating Boomers as digital tourists - whilst positioning Gen Z as entirely unique and requiring specialist translation - this should be a wake-up call.
The mental models we’ve built are increasingly disconnected from reality.
…
We found a profound convergence in attitudes and behaviors across all age groups, one that demands a fundamental rethink of how brands approach audience strategy.
Indeed, the largest behavioral gaps we found aren’t between generations at all. They’re between lifestages.
It’s definitely something to think about. What’s the takeaway for us? There could be a lot, so I recommend reading the full report. But for sure one could be that we stop targeting by age alone (low-hanging fruit) and focus our messaging more on life events: having kids, buying a home, etc etc. One other chart that stood out (see above): people want tips and hacks. Huge opportunity there for candidates when thinking about content, if you ask me…
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