Voters are Touching Grass — Strategists Should Do the Same
Also inside: a new study on just how fast your feed can turn far-right, More Perfect Union takes to ads to fight DOGE on national parks, and more
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Given the issues that Democrats, in particular, are facing in the digital world, I’m on a quest to find some answers and new ideas. This week, I spoke to Emma Bloomberg, the founder and CEO of Murmuration, who discussed their newest report on Gen Z with me.
More on that below, but first…
Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, U.S. political advertisers spent about $10.1 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
You may have heard about the “epidemic of scams” proliferating all over Meta… well, here’s an example of that. Health Benefits for Seniors has been spending thousands and thousands of dollars running Facebook + Instagram ads for several weeks (they spent over $300,000 alone last week), using Trump’s image and telling older people to “claim” things on their sites. It seems like Meta has finally removed their ads – but the organization appears to have already spent $902,890 on them in the last 90 days. (And, btw, just to further contextualize this broader issue… US seniors lost almost $5 BILLION to online scams in 2024.)
More Perfect Union Action, the advocacy arm of the non-profit More Perfect Union, dropped over $110,000 on Facebook + Instagram ads blaming DOGE for attacks on national parks and asking people to fight back. The ads mention several specific park names, but, interestingly, seem to be running in a bunch of states.
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent just over $2.5 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
The NYC Democratic mayoral primary is just about a month away… and it’s sure to be an expensive one. Progressive candidate Zellnor Myrie, AKA Zellnor for NYC, made this top chart this past week, spending over $45,000 on Google + YouTube ads that tout his record (possibly with the intention of raising his name ID in a crowded field).
On X (formerly Twitter), I had some trouble with the data this week (it seems, for example, that all of the @realDonaldTrump spending from this year has disappeared from the data I was able to download, among other things). I will do some troubleshooting and keep you posted – but no chart this week.
…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $823,400 on ads in 2025. Here are the top spenders year to date:
And speaking of NYC elections, the New York City Campaign Finance Board dropped some new Snap ads this past month explaining how to do ranked choice voting.
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Voters are Touching Grass — Strategists Should Do the Same
Given the issues that Democrats, in particular, are facing in the digital world, I’m on a quest to find some answers and new ideas. Last week, I spoke to Maya Hutchinson, campaign alum and CEO of Battleground AI.
This week, I spoke to Emma Bloomberg, the founder and CEO of Murmuration, which just launched a new Substack to share their original analysis, insights, and data. The following interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
LR: I know last year, you guys did a lot of work on voter engagement and trying to understand where people were in our political world. I’m curious if you could explain that work more – and share some of the major lessons or key toplines that you took away from 2024.
EB: Yeah, so I spend the vast majority of my time thinking about local work. Our theory of change is centered on the idea that there are all these systems that communities have the power to change for themselves, right? And community engagement, civic engagement – that is the lever for change that we're trying to pull.
We provide the tools, data, and insights to help organizations on the ground unlock the power that already exists in their communities. One of the things that we've seen year over year is that in spite of all sorts of mixed emotions about what's happening at the top of the ticket, there is a deep belief in participation in community.
LR: And digging into that, what information and what data are you providing to these organizations to support their work? What are you seeing in it?
EB: One area of our data that I hope more people will take advantage of is just how many people are opting out of the two-party system. Lots of people and organizations and funders come to this kind of work with a very specific partisan lens. But, if you actually want to move the needle on issues, you have to start to think about all of those people who are saying: “I don't want to have to identify with one side or the other. Can't I have a voice, too?”
If you're only talking to people who are already aligned with you, you're going to keep losing. Understanding where people come out on specific issues, understanding people's propensity not just to vote, but also to volunteer or to engage in grassroots efforts – those are all the kinds of things that we look to model in our data and make available to smaller organizations as they build coalitions.
LR: Now, I want to dig into Murmuration’s new report on Gen Z, which is a generation that I feel, especially as an elder member of Gen Z myself, exemplifies all of this. Can you talk me through some of the main takeaways you all found in this new report?
EB: The first one is Gen Z’s pessimism about the future of the country. But what’s interesting once you dig in more is: yes, they’re pessimistic about the future of the nation, but they are also more optimistic about their local communities and their ability to have a role there.
Second, Gen Z does vote, right? There is a big conversation about that in the lead-up to every election, and they do vote at higher rates. But you can't guarantee which party they're going to vote for. They don’t really trust the parties or their leaders – they’re not anchored.
And third, their civic engagement and civic energy are different from past generations. Digital advocacy, community organizing, volunteering, protest – those are all things that Gen Z sees as authentic forms of engagement.
LR: I think this “politically unanchored” element is so interesting. In your opinion, who's the type of candidate who could capture Gen Z’s attention, and what, if we can even guess, does the future look like when Gen Z becomes the most prominent voting bloc?
EB: One thing that we have seen as candidates have tried to embrace digital is a reliance on celebrity endorsements. And what the data continues to show is that Gen Z really just craves genuine and grounded communication. So my big push to anyone who is trying to engage with Gen Z would be to just be genuine and talk about what you believe.
Also, you can't just assume that because you get someone to show up at the ballot box, they're going to vote for you. They have to know what your office is going to do, where you fit into their lives, and what you actually stand for.
LR: Another point that really stuck out to me in the report was the divergence on issues between Gen Z and other generations – and Gen Z generally doesn’t seem to feel like their issues are being heard in Congress. So how does someone message to Gen Z and to their older peers – to all generations?
EB: When I look at our data on the issues, the top line does not surprise me, and yet, somehow, it is still not everyone's primary message – which is that everyone has fears about the economy.
At the same time, everyone is hearing that things are going to be fine, but isn't feeling that – especially young people. But you can be thinking about the economy and have that be, you know, my own wallet, my own ability to make payments, my own ability to move out of my house – that is all still the economy.
I think that gets dismissed in ways that are not helpful and that make young people feel left out of the conversation and abandoned.
LR: This has been super interesting and helpful, thank you. I always like to give folks the final thought – any last words of wisdom?
EB: Because this is what we do at Murmuration, I would bring things back down to the local level. Civic life is actually just how we share power. It does – or can – build political power. But it really does start with how you want to show up in your community, and how you want to partner with the people who live around you.
We’ve Been Told It Sounds Too Good To Be True
Since day one, we’ve guaranteed 100% or more ROI on every invoice every time. We know that clients starting at a smaller scale are underserved in our industry, so they need to know that their money is well spent. That’s why we make this offer to all of our clients, big and small. Reach out to Ripple On Impact today to get started >>.
More from around the internet:
More exciting news from my team over at COURIER! We just launched the trailer for our brand new show, How Is This Better? with Akilah Hughes! Take a look, and make sure you’re subscribed to the How Is This Better? Substack to get each new episode delivered right to your inbox 📥
We got a lot of research news and updates this week! Catalist dropped their full post-mortem on what happened in the 2024 presidential election, Media Matters researched just how fast people’s feeds become a far-right swamp once they engage with a right-leaning comedy podcaster, and 404 Media has a piece on how researchers were able to scrape more than 2 billion of people’s Discord messages.
Here’s a wild new tool that allows you to search the entire comment history of a YouTube user.
Instagram is apparently offering content creators up to $20,000 to get their audience to switch over to IG.
Everyone’s favorite (or least favorite??) green owl is taking a social media break after Duolingo received a ton of backlash for its new “AI-first” operating model.
Our weekly clips round-up is back! Every Tuesday, paid subscribers will get a debrief on the stories about politics, tech, social media, media, and journalism you need to be tracking. If you haven’t signed up yet, you can right here ⬇️
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