Democrats haven't stopped talking about Jan 6th. Do voters care?
How campaigns are using January 6th in fundraising vs. persuasion ads
Welcome back to FWIW - we hope you had a restful holiday season.
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of a violent insurrection, conceived by the former President, planned on Facebook, and fueled by the right-wing media. Wall-to-wall media coverage, events, memorials, and viral content saturated the internet and the airwaves yesterday, with just about everyone in media and politics weighing in with their takes.
Democrats have been eager to talk about January 6th in hopes that we can prevent something similar from ever happening again. While many of us in DC were tuned in yesterday, was the rest of the country? How are campaigns talking to actual voters about January 6th, and should they be? We’ll take a look after the jump.
But first…
By the numbers:
FWIW, here were the top 10 political advertisers nationwide on Facebook and Instagram last week:
The top political spender on Facebook + IG last week was not surprisingly Meta itself. If you’re not familiar with Rochelle and Aaron yet, you might just be living under a rock. The two Meta employees are prominently featured in ad after ad vaguely asserting that the company wants tech regulation from Washington. Hope those two are getting paid extra for this. 👀
Meanwhile, here were the top political ad spenders on Google platforms, including YouTube, last week:
The midterm elections are officially upon us - and the majority of Google ad spending last week focused on 2022 elections up and down the ballot. Aside from Donald Trump’s PAC, the largest advertisers were the NRSC and NRCC, which both used the platform for some final fundraising ads before the end of the year.
Speaking of end of year fundraising, we see you Mark Kelly. 👀
One notable spender on Google last week was Georgians First, a campaign entity affiliated with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, which ran the below video ads slamming his Trump-backed primary opponent, David Perdue, for “putting China first.” 🤷
And lastly, Republicans had Roku advertising all to themselves last week. The only political advertisers on Roku from 12/27-1/2 were:
Bernie Moreno for US Senate 🔴,
Stand up for Florida (anti-gambling)
Tom Whatley for State Senate (AL) 🔴
Taylor for Congress (TX-03) 🔴
White for Governor (PA) 🔴
Coalition for Medicare Choices 🔴
Campaigner: Training + organizing volunteers at scale (in a pandemic)
In the 2020 election cycle, an enormous number of Americans signed up online and volunteered for a campaign or political organization for the first time. How did Democratic groups recruit and retain the *tens of thousands* of volunteers needed to take on Trump?
For this week’s issue of Campaigner, Arena’s Debra Cohen spoke with Ashley Williams, a leader who worked with two of the largest volunteer recruitment and training efforts last cycle - Organizing Together 2020 and Vote Save America - about all things organizing. Read + subscribe here >>
How campaigns are talking about January 6th
Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of a violent insurrection, conceived by the former President, planned on Facebook, and fueled by the right-wing media. Wall-to-wall media coverage, events, memorials, and viral content saturated the internet and the airwaves yesterday, with just about everyone in media and politics weighing in with their takes.
Democrats have been eager to talk about January 6th, in hopes that we can prevent something similar from ever happening again. While many of us in DC were tuned in yesterday, was the rest of the country? How are campaigns talking to actual voters about January 6th, and should they be? Here’s what we’re seeing online: