Digital Politics With Karen Jagoda

Sara Schreiber is the Executive Director at America Votes coordinating the activities of progressive groups. Strategies for engaging voters have widened as the options for voting have expanded. America Votes educates people of all ages about the need to vote, finding them where they are throughout the day. Sara emphasizes that connecting with voters on issues is one way to persuade Independent voters, a growing segment of the electorate. We talk about: The Blue Surge Electorate in 2020 and 2022 and the potential for 2024 Engaging voters who are digital natives Need for in-person one-to-one conversations Turning voting into a habit Increase in the number of Independent voters, particularly in swing states What will drive voter turnout in 2024  @AmericaVotes #VoterTurnout #GOTV #IndependentVoters #ProgressiveVoters AmericaVotes.org

Po Murray, Founder and Chairwoman of Newtown Action Alliance, joins Deepak Puri in an interview about ending gun violence. After the shooting at her local Sandy Hook Elementary School, Po took a fresh look at gun control and the role she could play in keeping weapons of war out of the hands of civilians like her neighbor who shot and murdered 26 people that day. Po and Deepak discuss: Working with survivors of gun violence to create a sea change in the dialogue about guns Role of revenue from the sales of weapons of war in lobbying for relaxed gun laws Marketing of assault weapons to young people Need for individuals to speak up to their elected officials about the need for an assault weapon ban Lunch lobby sessions to urge Congress and other elected officials to act @NewtownAction @NewtownActionAlliance #EndGunViolence #HonorWithAction #BanAssaultWeapons #BanWeaponsOfWar #GunControl @TheDemLabs Monday Lunch and Lobby sessions: Newtown Action Alliance.org/endgunviolence-lunch-lobby-days NewtownActio

Heather Booth, Founder of the Jane Cooperative, talks with Deepak Puri about her current work and experience as an early activist in the civil and women's rights movements.  Organizing abortion services In the pre-Roe years and participating in the Freedom Summer Project taught Heather the importance of community and speaking up. As Founder of the Midwest Academy, Heather has influenced and instructed many of the leading Democratic leaders of our time. Heather and Deepak talk about: The history of protesting for civil rights and women's rights The creation of the Jane Collective and the documentary The Janes, and the feature film Call Jane Basics of organizing: members, message, money, and movement Wisconsin Supreme Court election The upcoming 50th anniversary of The Midwest Academy Advice for those who want to make a difference today @hboothgo @thedemlabs #CivilRights #WomensRights #AbortionRights #RoevWade #Dobbs #Organizing #Grassroots #Volunteers #Protests #Protesting #WisconsinSupremeCourt TheDemLabs

Susan Pfeiffer is an expert at using phone banks to organize and mobilize voters.  As a veteran phone bank volunteer and manager, she explains how her group is working with volunteers to get the vote out for the Wisconsin Supreme Court Election. Deepak Puri interviews Susan and they talk about: Successful phone banking best practices Using phone banking to organize and GOTV The impact from innovations in predictive dialers How volunteers can participate in virtual phone banking  @TheDemLabs #PhoneBanking #GOTV #Organizing #Volunteers #WisconsinSupremeCourt #Canvass TheDemLabs.org

Zach Fang, Head of Sales and Business Development at Vocal Media, is enthusiastic about the opportunities for political and advocacy campaigns to tap into the power of online influencers.  He is also excited about the chances for a diverse community of influencers to have their voices heard and to build stronger communities of interest. We talk about: How influencer marketing is different from other paid media The ways candidates and advocates can work with influencers to produce authentic messages What happens if TikTok is banned What makes someone an influencer The use of filters and lenses to amplify a message across multiple communities @Vocal_Creators #TikTok #Influencers #PoliticalAdvertising #InfluencerMarketing #YouTubeShorts #InstagramReels Vocal.media Vocal-Media.io

Andrea Miller, Center for Common Ground talks with Deepak Puri about grassroots efforts to reach disadvantaged voters and under-represented people to encourage them to vote. With a family background in activism, Andrea is continuing a tradition of providing accurate information about voting and elections. They talk about: Organizing postcarding campaigns by engaging volunteers to send out handwritten postcards to drive registration and GOTV  Using the physical mailing address to bridge the Digital Divide   Turning out the Black and Hispanic vote Voter suppression and removing obstacles to voting The upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court special election @CTR4CmnGround @TheDemLabs #Voters #VoterSuppression #BIPOC #GOTV #Postcarding #CampaignVolunteers #WisconsinSupremeCourt  CenterforCommonGround.org TheDemLabs.org  

Nicole Bateman, Research Manager USAFacts.org, is making government data available to bring facts to conversations about the economy and political policy. USAFacts focuses on improving timely access to government data to provide a more complete picture for Americans to contextualize the data. In 2023, much work must be done at the state and local levels to inform conversations about political issues with accurate facts from a trusted resource. We talk about: Findings in the State of the Union in Numbers Report that reveal national averages can mask significant differences in how voters view the economy With the economy top of mind for most voters, the complete picture of inflation in 2022 and its impact on different voters Worker pay, labor force participation, availability of childcare, and unemployment rates Growing interest on social media in government data @USAFacts #GovernmentData #Inflation #Voters #EconomicData  USAFacts.org

Taylor Salditch is the Interim Executive Director at Supermajority, a women's equality organization offering a wide range of opportunities for marginalized voters to get informed and have their voices heard.  The values-based progressive agenda at Supermajority promotes the needs of women at the local and national levels with calls to action to address specific issues. With an interracial, intergenerational approach to building the community, Taylor emphasizes that what is good for women is good for everybody. We talk about: Why women are the key to winning elections Building women's political power Keys to effective voter contact with women under 30 Deep canvassing conversations Getting out the vote in 2022 using digital tools and phone calls to engage a broad community Goals for 2024 include engaging seven million young women @Supermajority #Women #WomenAreVoting #Activism #Advocacy #WomensRights #GenderEquality #ProgressiveValues Supermajority.com  

Patti Russo, Executive Director of The Campaign School at Yale University, reports on the success of women elected officials who graduated from their program and the impact their success has on others thinking of running for office. Creating this radically collaborative non-partisan environment has opened the range of applicants interested in running for office and campaign management. In the early years, the average attendee was a white woman in her mid-40s, and now they are women of color in their mid-20s. We talk about: What is driving women to run for office Encouraging more women of color to seek elective office Returning to the on-site intense summer training from remote and advantages and disadvantages of both Challenges that women candidates face What men bring along to their support of women candidates @TCSYale #TheCampaignSchoolatYale #PoliticalCampaigns #WomenCandidates Apply to the Summer Session of The Campaign School at Yale University June 12-16, 2023 TCSYale.org prusso@tcsyale.org  

Jono Kupferberg is the CEO of HubDialer, a virtual predictive dialer software that supports outreach efforts and GOTV by campaigns and advocacy groups. This process automates the dialing and personalizes the conversation for volunteers so that campaigns can build relationships with voters and supporters and encourage them to take an action. We talk about: Taking this legacy brand into a new direction combining the old and new How physical phone banks have been replaced by virtual phone banking to let more volunteers participate in their selected allotted window of time Recruiting, organizing, and deploying volunteers The lasting impact of lessons learned about volunteers during the pandemic Recent new rules allowing predictive dialers to call mobile numbers Creative ways advocacy groups are using predictive dialers Impact of live conversations on whether a voter takes an action #HubDialer #Autodialer #PredictiveDialer #CampaignVolunteers #Mobile #VoterOutreach #GOTV hubdialer.com

Daryl Cagle is the Founder of Cagle Cartoons, a newspaper syndicate specializing in editorial cartoons and columnists. Despite the changing landscape of newspaper readership and editorial pages, political cartoons still effectively reach and persuade voters. These visual columnists are looking to make a point and persuade a reader, not just get a chuckle. We talk about: The future of editorial pages in local newspapers Editorial cartoons driving letters to the editor Traditional reasons political campaigns do not use editorial cartoons and why they might be considered now to reach a broader audience How the RNC and DNC are using cartoons in their messaging Where editorial cartoons are used to educate students His experience working with the Muppets and as an editorial cartoonist #CagleCartoons #EditorialCartoons #PoliticalCartoons #Newspapers #EditorialPages Syndicate: CagleCartoons.com    Reader Site: Cagle.com  

Matthew Hedberg, VP General Manager, Professional Services, at Semcasting shares what he expected to happen in the 2002 midterms  and what really happened in the roll-out and targeting of political digital ad campaigns.  We talk about: Hesitancy of campaigns to buy digital ads early in the campaign cycle How campaigns factored in early voting audiences when determining digital ad spends The continuing reliance on traditional television ad campaigns  Pros and cons of nationalization of campaigns to drive fundraising Early interest from down-ballot races in 2023 and national campaigns in 2024 @Semcasting #PoliticalAds #DigitalAds #Voters #Fundraising Semcasting.com

Deepak Puri, Co-Founder and CEO, of The Democracy Labs, is a fan of using Homer Simpson and other cultural icons to reach a broader audience of voters. Deploying humor rather than outrage seems to be a reliable way to get voters to listen and consider another point of view. Also on Deepak's agenda are gun safety and gun violence, protecting voting rights, gerrymandering, and using data visualization to educate and engage voters on geographically relevant issues. We talk about: How humor cuts across the political spectrum Breaking through the political commentary and negative ads using humor Using humor to sugar-coat discussions about challenging topics Mockery and satire Key players in the gun ecosystem and following the money to understand the big picture of criminal gun violence @TheDemLabs #PoliticalHumor #VoterPersuasion #PoliticalAds #GunViolence #Gerrymandering TheDemLabs.org

Steve Alembik, Founder of SMA Communications, has extensive experience in mining voter data to derive predictive models for persuasion, fundraising, and voter turnout. Steve is an experienced data scientist who reflects on Florida politics, voter touchpoints for political and PAC campaigns, and following the money. We talk about: The staying power of incumbents and the limited number of competitive races Variety of modeling techniques and the issues that are probed in voter polls and surveys The explosion of data that is available about voters Driving interest in voting Surprises seen in close races in the 2022 Midterms Predicting the behavior of swing voters and ballot splitters @SMAComm #PoliticalAds #VoterModeling #Voters #Fundraising #PersuadingVoters #GOTV #YoungVoters SMAComm.com

Sean Duggan, VP of Advertising, SXM Media, talks about surprises and ongoing trends in the use of audio ads for political and advocacy campaigns. Decisions for media buys were delayed this year which meant that inventory was scarce, and campaigns found themselves making hasty decisions. The 2022 election cycle demonstrated that the audio audience could effectively be persuaded with compelling messages that leveraged geotargeting. This was particularly true in the most competitive congressional races.  We talk about: Impact of audio ads in the last few weeks of the midterm campaigns Campaigns that deployed GOTV takeovers of premium inventory in the hottest contested races meant a dominant share of voice Frequency and targeting best practices First election cycle with political ads on podcasts targeted at a state level The life cycle of the ads for ballot initiatives New and old mistakes that campaigns made in 2022 media buys Predictions for 2023 and 2024 advertising strategies @SXMmediaGroup #VoterPersuasion

Ben Katz is the Chief Architect at ISPolitical and a pioneer in using the internet and technology to solve challenges for political and advocacy campaigns. Working with hundreds of campaigns in 2022, Ben has seen some significant changes in this cycle and makes the point that all politics is not local anymore. With an emphasis on the accounting side, Ben points out the increasing difficulty of reporting contributions to federal and state authorities and the value of technology to scale operations to keep costs down so that donations are not eaten up by overhead. We talk about: The increasing number of down-ballot races reaching out to raise money from a national audience, not just local voters Fundraising slates Celebrity status driving donations doesn't determine a winning campaign The reporting requirements for campaign contributions Value and costs of pursuing small-dollar donors 2024 races began the first week in November, even before the midterm election New challenges for future campaigns to cut throug

Henk Rogers is the Founder of the Blue Planet Alliance, an organization advocating for islands and countries around the world to legislatively mandate a commitment to 100% renewable energy by 2045. BPA is shining a light on how the use of fossil fuels particularly impacts island nations stressed by global inflation and limited resources. With a history as a computer game developer and publisher, Henk is looking for new and better ways to fight the good fight. We talk about: The fossil fuel challenge and what it takes to get commitment to zero emissions  Building alliances with stakeholders in local, national, and global communities to reach net zero Case study of success in Hawaii and replicating the model with large ocean states Unique challenges of providing energy on islands and finding alternative sources of renewable energy Role of consumers in advocating for environmental change #BluePlanetAlliance #ZeroEmmissions #RenewableEnergy #NetZero #ClimateChange #LargeOceanStates #Hawaii BluePlanetAlliance.or

David Fenton is the Founder of Fenton Communications, the first public relations firm dedicated to progressive social change. David has written a new book, The Activist's Media Handbook: Lessons From Fifty Years as a Progressive Agitator, based on his extensive experience working with politicians and celebrities. While the channels and styles for communicating political and advocacy messages are changing, the basic principles of communication remain the same. The way the brain processes words and images does not change though there are critical differences in how different individuals perceive a message. Currently, David is focusing his efforts on the climate movement and taking advantage of the web to drive action. We talk about: The underground anti-war protests in the '60s Keys to mobilizing the public to support a cause The differences between crafting a message for Republican and Democratic voters The problem with "Woke" language Biggest campaign surprises and most inspiring and challenging clients Limi

Scott Goodstein is the CEO and Founder of Catalyst Campaigns and is active in the war against spam. He sets the stage with a description of the early days of mass text messaging by the Obama campaign in 2008. We talk about: Voter lists and targeting political text message spam Impact of texting moving from opt-in to spam Use of text messaging for consumer products versus use for political fundraising and persuasion Weaponizing peer-to-peer texting for political disinformation and fraudulent fundraising Changes in the rules surrounding political texting and inadequacies of 10DLC Role of the FCC in defining and determining legal use of political campaign texting Need for a DoNotText List with teeth @CatalystCmpgns #10DLC #Peer2PeerTexting #P2PTexting #Fundraising #PoliticalDisinformation #Spam CatalystCampaigns.com Background on this issue:   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/03/us/politics/senate-republican-committee-funds.html   https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/disinformation-text-message-problem

Sally Lehrman is a journalist and Founder and CEO of The Trust Project, a global consortium of news organizations responding to the misinformation crisis.  With support from Microsoft and other partners, The Trust Project has launched the National News Literacy campaign to address the need to rebuild voters' trust in journalists and highlight sources of misleading and disinformation. We talk about Eight Trust Indicators to evaluate sources of information and opinions Assessing news sites and journalistic value of information Need for transparency to help differentiate between real news and click-bait The believability of news from real journalists, hyperpartisan news sources, and the impact of confusing posts on social media sites Educating the public about their ability to share accurate information and avoid misinformation The Anxious Middle of news consumers @_TrustProject #TheTrustProject #Misinformation #Journalists #Journalism TheTrustProject.org