The old saying about living in interesting times actually being a curse could turn out to be true for down-ballot campaigns this cycle.
In a month where Democrats replaced the top of their ticket and the GOP nominee survived an assassination attempt, getting traction online for many campaigns has been difficult.
“The presidential stuff is just taking up so much oxygen in the room,” said Matt Silhacek, who recently joined Ascent Strategic as the GOP firm’s director of client fulfillment. “I feel like ever since the presidential debate, the last month has been one of the craziest months I’ve ever seen for sure in my 10-plus years [in politics].”
Silhacek previously worked as a field director for the Minnesota GOP, managed House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s (Minn.) reelect, did field for the Congressional Leadership Fund and had a stint at Majority Strategies.
Despite the “crazy” nature of 2024, he believes clients can still use their creative to stand out and define themselves in an unpredictable cycle.
“You can definitely do that in digital spaces like video creative, getting up on people’s phones, people’s devices, people’s computers — it’s really important to try to carve out a little bit of that landscape,” he said.
Silhacek’s also advising clients to avoid nationalizing their races.
“If you can stay to localized issues and not get so wrapped up in all the national stuff, I think you can really make gains with people and split-ticket voters,” he said. “You can’t completely separate yourself if you’re a Republican from Trump, or a Democrat from Kamala Harris, but if you actually run on good issues in your district, [whether that’s] agriculture or maybe it’s at the border — you can definitely run on those and be successful.
“It’s basically just trying to stand out from all the noise that’s happening at the top of the ticket.”