By Ken Tracy, Chief Client Officer at CampaignHQ
September’s Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas was an impressive reminder of what is possible when a party comes together around a common goal. But the biggest lesson I brought home was how much down ballot voter contact will matter between now and November.
President Trump, Vice President Vance, and speakers throughout the convention covered plenty of ground. But one message felt especially relevant for campaigns heading into November: Voters are going to make decisions based on what is happening in their families, homes, and communities.
Campaigns need to reach voters where they are, explain how an office affects their lives, and give them a reason to remember the candidate asking for their vote.
That matters at every level of the ballot.
Why Down Ballot Voter Contact Matters
Campaigns spend enormous amounts of time and money driving turnout at the top of the ticket. That work matters, but it does not automatically benefit every candidate underneath it.
A voter can show up because of the most prominent race on the ballot and still skip several others. If voters do not recognize a candidate’s name, understand what the office controls, or know what the candidate stands for, they may simply leave that race blank.
That is the undervoting problem down ballot campaigns cannot afford to ignore.
Governors, state legislators, and other state and local officials make decisions with immediate consequences for the people they represent. But voters need to understand what happened, who made the decision, and how it affected them.
That is why name ID and issue association matter. A campaign cannot assume top-of-ticket enthusiasm will do that work for them.
By the time voters receive their ballots, they should already recognize the candidate’s name and understand why the race matters. Waiting until the final days to make those connections makes the job much harder.
Campaigns Still Think About Voter Contact the Wrong Way
Campaigns often plan voter contact by separating it into tactics.
TV goes here. Mail goes there. Digital does its thing. Doors do theirs. Phones get added toward the end.
Every one of those channels can play an important role. The mistake is treating them as unrelated pieces instead of building one coordinated voter contact strategy.
Phones have traditionally been one of the last things campaigns plan because they are relatively easy to deploy. That simplicity may have caused campaigns to undervalue what they can actually accomplish.
Your phone is the one device you carry nearly everywhere. You may even be reading this article on it.
Social media can reach voters there, but only if an algorithm chooses to show them the message. A phone program gives the campaign more control. Campaigns can select a defined voter universe, reach those voters directly, measure the contact, and connect the candidate’s name with the issues that matter to them.
The campaigns that recognize this will stop thinking about phone calls as one more item on the voter contact checklist. They will start thinking about everything the device in a voter’s pocket allows them to do.
Build One Coordinated Conversation
Texting should be part of the strategy, but it cannot simply become the thirtieth unrelated text a voter has received.
Live calls, automated calls, voicemails, texts, and telephone townhalls should work together as one coordinated conversation.
A voter may first hear a candidate’s name through a live call. A voicemail can reinforce the candidate’s position on a local issue. A text can follow with additional information or a clear action. A telephone townhall can give that same voter an opportunity to hear directly from the candidate and engage with the campaign.
Each contact should build on the one before it.
We are already seeing signs that campaigns are planning this way. CampaignHQ has a record number of early bookings for live call capacity and telephone townhalls. Campaigns are acting sooner because they understand that the most valuable resource later in the cycle will not be another tactical idea. It will be the time and capacity to execute a complete plan.
My Biggest Takeaway
My biggest takeaway from Dallas is this: the technology around campaigns will continue to change. Platforms and algorithms will change with it. The strategic challenge will remain the same: Reach the right voters, talk about what matters in their lives, and make sure they know who is asking for their vote.
Oh and Texas does not mess around when it comes to barbecue.
