The biggest megaphones in Tennessee
How last week’s drama around the “Tennessee Three” created new social media stars and energized Tennessee Democrats like never before
When Rep. Justin Jones carried a small plastic megaphone onto the state house floor, he couldn't have imagined the results. Last week’s saga of the “Tennessee Three” – in which a Republican supermajority expelled two Democratic lawmakers for a protest only for them to be reappointed days later – drew the eyes of the nation to the ruby-red Southern state. The entire drama played out minute by minute on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, and it seems that the only lasting impact of this anti-democratic debacle was to energize Democrats and grow the social media megaphones of the legislators involved.
For this week’s FWIW, we spoke to one of the members of the Tennessee Three on how social media played a role in bringing much-needed attention to the Volunteer State. But first…
By the numbers
FWIW, political advertisers spent $6,878,483 on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Pro-climate advocacy group Yale Climate Connections was the top spending political advertiser nationwide on Facebook last week, running a slate of ads that educate users on how to identify anti-climate misinformation online.
Proud Patriots, a spammy MAGA merch vendor, spent $75,000 on Facebook ads selling pro-Trump, pro-DeSantis T-shirts, and other swag last week – the merch features slogans like “The Donfather” and “I’m Offending Liberals.” These types of for-profit MAGA mills are common on the platform, and this particular page has spent $3 million on ads since 2020.
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent just over $872,600 on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
It’s feeling a lot like Groundhog Day… in a throwback to 2020, Donald Trump was once again the top-spending political advertiser on Google nationwide last week.
The Republican National Committee was also a top ten spender on Google advertising last week, running ads defending former President Trump and calling his prosecution a “blatant weaponization of government.” The ads are interesting in light of the party’s bylaws, which require the RNC to remain neutral in the presidential primary.
…and here’s a snapshot of political ad spending on Snapchat, year-to-date:
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From around the internet
A super PAC supporting Donald Trump just released a new TV ad attacking “Pudding Ron.”
Ryan Broderick has a great thread bemoaning what’s happened to Twitter and reflecting on what the site used to be.
Substack launched a Twitter-like service called “Notes” earlier this week, and reviews have been generally positive. You’ll notice that several of the links embedded in this week’s issue of FWIW are Notes. Read more about it here >>
2024 dispatch
FWIW, here’s how much money likely or confirmed 2024 presidential candidates have spent on Facebook + Google ads to date (1/1 - 4/8):
Tim Scott slow-walks into 2024
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott announced that he’s launching an “exploratory committee” to run for President this week, which is a legal distinction without political weight.
When we wrote about Nikki Haley’s presidential launch back in February, we knew she was setting a baseline of online engagement that we could use to judge other campaigns’ fundraising and digital efforts. So how has Scott done so far?
The online response to his candidacy seems muted. Some evidence: Scott’s official launch video has been watched by only a fraction of the viewers that watched Haley’s kickoff video. Here’s the breakdown by platform:
These launches clearly come down to one thing, and that’s fundraising. Scott is a well-known prolific fundraiser, so he shouldn’t have a problem making it rain. But his lack of online and media enthusiasm relative to Haley’s launch seems like a serious validation of the Haley campaign’s decision to begin her campaign before the other candidates.
The biggest megaphones in Tennessee
When Rep. Justin Jones, accompanied by two other legislators, carried a small plastic megaphone onto the state house floor, he couldn't have imagined the results.
Last week’s saga of the “Tennessee Three” – in which a Republican supermajority expelled two Democratic lawmakers for a protest only for them to be reappointed days later – drew the eyes of the nation to the ruby-red Southern state. The entire drama played out minute by minute on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, and it now seems that the only lasting impact of the debacle was to grow the social media megaphones of the Democratic members involved and draw scrutiny to the TN GOP’s overreach.
Take a look at the Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter followings of each of the three legislators before and after the expulsion drama of the past two weeks:
So in sum, Rep. Justin Jones grew his combined social audience from 37,000 to 550,000. Rep. Justin Pearson went from 10,000 to 460,000. Rep. Gloria Johnson bumped up from 45,000 to roughly 210,000.
It’s worth noting that these Representatives now have larger cumulative social audiences than Tennessee’s Governor and most members of the state’s Congressional delegation:
The bizarre thing about this is that the Democrats’ unprecedented follower growth was completely driven by the state GOP’s political miscalculation that no one would pay attention to their actions. In other words, the TN GOP inadvertently created a new bench of national Democratic social media stars in their own statehouse.
“I don't think (Tennessee Republicans) had any idea that America would look at them as people who are trying to destroy democracy,” Rep. Gloria Johnson told FWIW this week. “I don't think they understand how many people are paying attention.” We asked Johnson about what her DMs and notifications have looked like over the past two weeks, and not surprisingly, she says they’ve been impossible to keep up with:
“My social media presence has always been about responding to people and having a dialogue instead of a one-way conversation,” says Johnson. “So this has also been really hard – I want to be able to get back to that. People count on me to keep them up to date on what's happening in the legislature and how different things work and all that. So, I am thrilled with all the new followers, and that means even more people that I can keep up to date.”
Tennessee Democrats, essentially in exile after years of non-competitive statewide elections, needed this shot in the arm. When Democrat Phil Bredesen suffered a larger-than-expected loss to Marsha Blackburn in the state’s 2018 Senate contest, Tennessee was largely written off by national Democrats.
Yesterday, POLITICO reported that the state party received signups from nearly 10,000 people who wanted to volunteer. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we have to take advantage of,” one Democrat told POLITICO. Johnson told FWIW that her Twitter DMs were filled with outreach from national groups and other Democratic superstars, like Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, offering advice on how to maintain the momentum online and off.
“The online attention has given a huge boost to the movement,” says Johnson. “And we're gonna keep pushing, building partnerships with other organizations, and get a larger conversation going.
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