C&E Newsletter: The New Incubator Hoping to “De-Risk” Campaign Tech Adoption
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1. ‘De-Risking’ Political Tech
Democratic and progressive startups have boasted for years that they’re on the cutting edge of political tech. But they have a problem: getting campaigns and organizations to actually use the new tools they’ve developed.
“Politics in general is a pretty risk-averse space. It has to be,” said Betsy Hoover, the founder and managing partner at the progressive venture fund Higher Ground Labs. “Every campaign is time constrained, resource constrained – there’s an end date where to win or lose. Any campaign manager is going to be reluctant to test something new. They’re going to be more likely to run the playbook that they’ve seen win before.”
“As a result, things have to be significantly de-risked in order for campaigns and also many progressive organizations to really buy into them. But there’s no one doing that de-risking.”
Enter the Higher Ground Institute, a nonprofit initiative launched by HGL and Cooperative Impact Lab in January. The idea behind the institute is to be an incubator for innovation and experimentation that can ease the path for campaigns and organizations to adopt new political tech.
2. Democrats’ Influencer Strategy
After President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday, Democratic members of Congress rushed out of the House chamber to get their reactions out to the public.
But for several members, their first post-speech remarks weren’t to the flocks of news reporters gathered at the Capitol. Instead, they sought out a handful of influencers and online content creators who had been invited by Democratic leaders to help get their message out.
One such creator, attorney Joe Gallina, who runs the online group Call to Activism, posted interviews with members like Reps. Jasmine Crocket, D-Texas, and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y. on social media that racked up millions of views. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sat for an interview with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen to discuss Trump’s remarks.
The focus on content creators and influencers signals a new media strategy for Democrats, who are hoping to reach new audiences in an increasingly splintered media ecosystem – a strategy that Trump and Republicans found great success in last year.
“The Democrats had a much better content creation plan than ever before,” Mike Nellis, the founder and CEO of the Democratic firm Authentic, told C&E of the Democrats’ post-speech media strategy. “They invited content creators. They embraced them. They were walking out and getting their message to a different kind of audience.”
3. A Record for OOH Advertising
Political campaigns and causes spent more than ever on billboards, transit ads and other types of public signage in 2024, according to a new report released on Thursday by the main trade group representing the out-of-home advertising industry.
Out-of-home advertising revenue surpassed $9.1 billion last year, setting a record for the industry, the report found. And while the top spenders were businesses like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Disney, political advertising generated record OOH spending for a presidential year.
Spending on OOH ads focused on ballot issues were up 54 percent over 2020 levels, according to the Out of Home Advertising Association of America, while House and Senate campaigns spent 135 percent more than they did in 2020. Presidential campaign spending on OOH advertising increased 419 percent from four years earlier, according to the group.
PACs and political parties had the biggest jump in OOH ad spending, increasing their investments 736 percent over 2020 levels.
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What We’re Reading
Progressive Incubator Looks to ‘De-Risk’ New Tech for Campaigns (C&E)
“‘Before we make bets with investment dollars and what’s going to work to help power those campaigns, we wanted to create a space for rapid innovation and testing so we can learn a little bit more about what works, share it with the ecosystem more broadly and hopefully then inform our investment thesis moving forward,’ Betsy Hoover, the founder and managing partner at Higher Ground Labs, told C&E.”
ActBlue, the Democratic Fund-Raising Powerhouse, Faces Internal Chaos (The New York Times)
“ActBlue, the online fund-raising organization that powers Democratic candidates, has plunged into turmoil, with at least seven senior officials resigning late last month and a remaining lawyer suggesting he faced internal retaliation…The exodus has set off deep concerns about ActBlue’s future. Last week, two unions representing the group’s workers sent a blistering letter to ActBlue’s board of directors that listed the seven officials who had left. The letter described an ‘alarming pattern’ of departures that was ‘eroding our confidence in the stability of the organization.’”
As Political Polarization Intensifies, Agencies Struggle to Find Brand-Safe Gaming Influencers (Digiday)
“People have debated politics on the internet for years, but the political turmoil of 2024 and early 2025 has spurred many creators to be more vocal about their beliefs, particularly within the gaming space. Last week, for example, livestreamer Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa — who is primarily known for her hot tub and ASMR streams — ignited a firestorm of controversy after a clip of Siragusa mocking LGBTQ activists went viral on X. A representative of her team declined to share an on-the-record comment on the situation.”
Trump Says GOP Should Campaign on Democratic Response to His Speech (The Hill)
“Trump called on Republicans to use footage of how some Democrats in the chamber did not applaud when the president spoke about young women killed by migrants who entered the country illegally and highlighted other White House guests. ‘This could be, on analyzing the full tape of this Historic Event, your full CAMPAIGN TO VICTORY!” Trump posted. “In other words, Republicans can take what happened last night, and win any Race in the Country.’”