Research, digital & fundraising for Democrats in tough seats

We don’t write off
hard places.

We work with Democratic candidates, state parties, and independent expenditures competing in Republican-leaning and swing districts across the industrial Midwest.

↓ Services

Strategy, research, and digital for races without a safe margin.

National firms treat a R+6 district the same way they treat a safe primary: showing up late with a generic script and a pricey media buy. We start with theResearch ↗and buildDigital media ↗andFundraising ↗that sound like the place they’re running in.

That might be the research file for a challenger’s first race, the digital program for an independent expenditure, or aCampaign site ↗that has to be live by Monday.

Who we work with

Challengers & frontliners

IEs & labor tables

State parties & ballot campaigns

Research + Strategy
Message / book / responseCandidates / IEs / State Parties
Work with us

Settle the argument before anyone writes an ad.

We work with the campaign early to figure out who the persuadable voters are, what they care about, and how this candidate should talk about it. The message framework and the paid-media plan come out of the same research file.

Message framework Persuasion targets Paid-media plan

Know the opponent’s record cold before the first ad is cut.

We build the book on the opponent from votes, donors, court filings, business records, and local press, and we do the same vulnerability study on our own candidate. Both feed one contrast plan the whole campaign works from.

Opposition book Vulnerability study Public records & FOIA

Turn a bad vote or a local clip into a live ad in 48 hours.

When an opponent votes against local jobs, hospitals, or public schools, waiting two weeks on an agency storyboard loses the news cycle. The research is already in the file; we cut and traffic the contrast spot fast.

Record spots Local press clips Earned-media pitches

Digital Media
Creative / buying / radioMeta / YouTube / Streaming Audio / Radio
Work with us

Creative that comes out of the research, not a template.

Graphic ads, short video, and social cuts are designed and produced in-house. For full-length CTV and broadcast spots we bring in regional production partners we’ve worked with before and manage the job from script to delivery.

Static & motion graphics Short-form video Production partners for CTV

Put every dollar in front of the voters who decide the race.

We buy and optimize Meta, YouTube, programmatic display, and streaming audio, matched to the voter file and persuasion universe, tested live, and reported in plain English every week.

Voter-file matched Meta & YouTube Live testing

Still the cheapest way to reach a rural county every morning.

National firms skip local radio. People in small-town Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin still have it on in the truck. We script, produce, and place radio alongside the digital flight so the message matches on both.

Scripting & voicing Local station buys Spanish-language

Fundraising
4 channels / net-returnEmail / Texting / Ads / List Growth
Work with us

Raise money online without sounding like a spam bot.

Challengers in red-leaning seats can’t afford scammy 700%-match subject lines that wreck their credibility at home. We write high-converting email and SMS in the candidate’s real voice.

Rapid response ActBlue flows Recurring programs

Grow a donor file that pays back before the final quarter.

We run Meta, search, and lead-generation acquisition flights tracked by return on ad spend and payback window, so a national news moment turns into recurring donors instead of a one-time spike.

ROAS tracking Lookalike modeling Payback window

Stay out of the spam folder when election month hits.

Deliverability is the difference between a record end-of-quarter haul and a dead list. We manage domain reputation, segmentation, and dormant donor reactivation from the first send.

Inbox placement Re-engagement Donor retention

Web + Identity
Launch in daysBranding / Websites / Microsites
Work with us

An identity built for yard signs, union halls, and mobile screens.

We design candidate brands that look credible on a barn sign on Route 30 and sharp on a phone screen: wordmark, color system, field literature, and launch kit.

Logo + type system Field print kit Social templates

A campaign site live the week of the announcement.

Static sites that load on a bad rural cell signal, with ActBlue, Mobilize, volunteer signup, and Spanish-language pages wired in from day one of the campaign.

Loads on weak signal ActBlue + Mobilize Microsites

Where we work
Six states across the industrial Midwest
Select a state to inspect media markets & voter terrainMedia market codes are Nielsen DMAs
Territory504 counties / 6 statesselectedmedia market
Q: Ohio: 88 counties, 15 congressional districts

Ohio means running two races at once: turning out Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati while winning back working-class precincts in the Mahoning Valley, Toledo, and Stark and Lorain counties.

Markets: Cleveland–Akron, Youngstown, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati.

Q: Michigan: 83 counties, 13 congressional districts

Macomb, Downriver, Saginaw, Genesee County, Kent County. Michigan voters will split a ticket for a Democrat who talks plainly about wages, auto jobs, and what groceries cost.

Markets: Detroit, Grand Rapids–Kalamazoo, Flint–Saginaw–Bay City, Lansing, Traverse City.

Q: Wisconsin: 72 counties, 8 congressional districts

Wisconsin races are decided by a point or less in the Fox Valley, the Driftless, and the WOW counties. A script written for a national audience gets tuned out there fast.

Markets: Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay–Appleton, Eau Claire–La Crosse, Wausau.

Q: Indiana: 92 counties, 9 congressional districts

Indiana gets written off, so nobody contests it. The Region, South Bend, Lafayette, Terre Haute, and the Indianapolis donut counties are all winnable for a Democrat with a plain economic case and a real budget.

Markets: Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend–Elkhart, Evansville, Terre Haute, Lafayette (Northwest Indiana via Chicago).

Q: Illinois: 102 counties, 17 congressional districts

Outside Chicago, Illinois is a swing state. The Quad Cities, Rockford, Peoria, the Metro East, and the collar-county legislative seats all turn on property taxes and jobs, not national talking points.

Markets: Chicago & Collars, Quad Cities, Rockford, Peoria–Bloomington, Springfield, Metro East.

Q: Pennsylvania: 67 counties, 17 congressional districts

Northeast PA, Erie, Beaver and Washington counties, and the Lehigh Valley are not the Philly suburbs and shouldn’t get the same ad. We write and buy for each market separately.

Markets: Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre–Scranton, Erie, Johnstown–Altoona, Harrisburg, Lehigh Valley.

We’re a small Midwestern shop, and we’ve worked these districts ourselves.

We work directly with the campaign manager, finance director, and field lead from the start, so the ad a voter sees at night matches what the canvasser said on the porch that afternoon.

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