2025 Politics Wrapped: The Five Storylines That Will Shape What Comes Next
Also inside: Mark Kelly’s breakout week online, the Thanksgiving Tennessee ad blitz, and the scammy AI videos that cracked the top ten
This newsletter is brought to you by the donor acquisition approach that helps you turn $1 into $2.
Scott here 👋. Since everyone’s sending me their Spotify Wrapped, or protesting Spotify’s deal to carry ICE recruitment ads by sending their Spotify Unwrapped, I figured we’d do the political version. I pulled together five storylines that shaped American politics in 2025 and will continue mattering for years to come. Can you guess what they are? Narrowing down to only five was challenging, and number three might surprise you.
More below, but first…
Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, U.S. political advertisers spent about $11.8 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Senator Mark Kelly leapt to the front of the stack last week with ads asking people to share their information and donate. This came on the heels of the Senator’s fight with Trump and Hegseth over his video with five other veteran elected officials calling on active duty service members to refuse illegal orders. This is yet another example of how feuding with the Trump administration remains a reliable way for Democratic leaders to earn support from their base.
Another addition to the top ten this week was The Medinas Updates Public Page with AI-created videos of various speakers (Trump, RFK, Dave Ramsey, Shaq) reading the same script and directing people to a scammy-looking website. Also, Kalshi made a top ten appearance on the heels of signing their controversial deal with CNN to share data and gamify the news.
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent just over $2.6 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
In a continuation of our piece last week, House Majority PAC and MAGA Inc. battled it out last week with ads targeting voters in Middle Tennessee. House Democrats ran ads promoting Behn’s promises to improve grocery prices, lower health insurance premiums, and stand up to special interests. Trump’s PAC ran ads airing old clips of Behn referring to herself as “a very radical person” and boosting Van Epps’ support for lowering taxes. Van Epps’ win underperformed Trump’s 2024 margin by -13 points, which has Republicans extremely nervous heading into the midterms next year.
Add donors to your list before year-end comes knocking
Join groups like Common Cause, Earthjustice, and Amnesty International who are leaving nothing to chance with Civic Shout. See how you can, too.
On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $11.7 million on ads in 2025. According to X’s political ad disclosure, here are the top spenders year to date:
…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $3.1 million on ads in 2025. Here are the top spenders year to date:
Are you a mission-aligned company or organization?
COURIER would love to partner with you and amplify your work to our engaged audience of 190,000+ policy influencers and high-information active news consumers. Send a note to advertising@couriernewsroom.com for more.
2025 Politics Wrapped: The Five Storylines That Will Shape What Comes Next
Spotify Wrapped is here, so the year must be drawing to a close. And lord, what a year it’s been.
Like many, I appreciate Wrapped as a tool to learn about myself and tell the story of my past year. And that got me thinking, what political storylines stand out from the past year? The question felt like a helpful frame to examine where we’ve been and where we’re going. After all, you can’t predict the future if you don’t try.
So let’s examine - which five moments stood from the year that I expect will have impacts that reach far beyond 2025?
#1 - Charlie Kirk’s Assassination and Rising Political Violence
Hands down, this was the most resonant political storyline of the year. “Charlie Kirk” was ranked first on 2025’s “Rising Search Queries”, and the What’s Resonating newsletter shared that Kirk’s death may have gotten “more attention online than almost any political moment this decade.”
You would expect this kind of attention in right-wing political circles, but this broke through far beyond that. As sad as it is to say, the public execution had all the ingredients needed to explode in our viral video media ecosystem. Plus, it came on the heels of other instances of political violence including the horrifying murder of Melissa Hortman, her husband, and their family dog.
Unfortunately, Americans’ views about political violence are changing for the worse, and this wasn’t the only visceral example of how much worse things could become.
#2 - The ICE and National Guard Invasions
Of all the heinous actions from the Trump administration this year, sending masked American military and border enforcement into cities that voted against him feels the largest and most chilling. After all, the admin’s initial goal was to deport over a million people per year. To get even close to that, they’ve shown little regard about who they take into custody and deport.
This also showcases Americans’ increasing appetite for violent tactics being deployed on our neighbors. Looking forward, I can only hope that this period will inspire our Congressional leaders to make the hard but necessary choices about what our country’s legal and regulated immigration system should look like.
#3 - The Tiktok Ban and the Shifting Online Digital Landscape
Those 14 hours that TikTok was offline provide a jumping off point for reflecting on the evolving nature of our digital communications landscape.
The app may have come back, but this year, countless creators have vented to me about the increased censorship and decreasing reach of progressive viewpoints. Some have even stopped posting there altogether. This isn’t some great mystery. The Trump administration has assembled a who’s who of conservative media moguls who will potentially share ownership of the app’s new US-based version. All this, and we haven’t even mentioned the polluting of the well through the rise of AI slop.
2024 may have been the “podcast election”, but the media environment continues to (d)evolve. Remember, perfecting the old playbook won’t matter if we’re not ready for the next game.
#4 - America’s Longest Government Shutdown
Finally, Congressional Democrats used their limited power to fight back. They created a 43-day public fight about healthcare prices. They were rewarded with increased attention and polls showing Republicans shouldered the blame.
Thinking as to why this matters, there’s a few ways to take this. One is that (most) Democrats finally recognized that we live in an attention economy and rose to the occasion. Another highlights the absolute ineptitude of the American government to solve our biggest problems (as if we needed another reminder). Heading into 2026, I’m watching to see which Democrats rise to the moment and which continue to make our lives difficult.
#5 - The Electoral Tides Turning Against MAGA
November’s special elections in New Jersey, Virginia, New York, Georgia and elsewhere were excellent for the Dems. Plus, Democrat Aftyn Behn may have lost in Tennessee this past Tuesday, but her 13 point improvement on the 2024 margin is tremendously promising for 2026. After all, conservatives had to spend millions and send the Speaker of the House & Vice President to defend a district that state Republicans aggressively gerrymandered in their favor.
Taking these five moments together, what was the story of our year? We have a rise in political violence, the further rotting of our digital comms landscape, and increasing dysfunction in our government. Americans are not happy with the direction of the country. It’s not hard to imagine Democrats regaining the House majority next year. But even if they do, we live in a polarized country with big problems that neither party has yet shown the ability to successfully solve through unified control or through compromise.
To end on a brighter note, thank you so much for reading and for being part of our FWIW community. This is my last post for the year, and FWIW’s second to last. We are so grateful to have your attention each week, and in 2026, we’ll continue delivering more examinations of our digital political world from a boldly progressive point of view. And hey - I hope you enjoyed your Spotify Wrapped (or Apple Music, etc) as much as I enjoyed mine. Though it comes with a healthy dose of moral hazard, it’s important to find joy in our troubled times - even if that joy comes with a side of embarrassment (realizing that you (I) listened to the Succession theme so often that Nicholas Britell became my number one artist.)
PS - What are your top five national storylines for the year? Or, what were your top five songs? Leave them as well in a Substack comment!
Add donors to your list before year-end comes knocking
Join groups like Common Cause, Earthjustice, and Amnesty International who are leaving nothing to chance with Civic Shout. See how you can, too.
Your support fuels COURIER
Thank you for supporting COURIER and local, fearless journalism. This holiday season, your purchases contributes to fueling our newsrooms to keep holding the powerful accountable and making sure the truth reaches the people who need it most.
Shop now to support fearless, factual journalism.
Enter COURIER10 at checkout to get 10% off