Tips and Trends

Navigating the endless campaign cycle

By Megan Koch posted 09-23-2021
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AAPC caught up with Rick Ridder , President and Co-Founder of RBI Strategies and Amanda Malo , President of Bask Digital Media to see how they are navigating this seemingly endless campaign cycle. Considering 2021 as an off-year, Amanda lists three factors that have contributed to this being an unusually busy year in campaigning: 1) With the growth and reliance on digital communication, we are seeing websites and social media communication efforts launch earlier and earlier . Low-dollar fundraising and list-building are fundamental activities in the digital space now as well and the sooner you start, the better. ...
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Redistricting: What You Need to Know Going into the 2022 Cycle

By Megan Koch posted 09-23-2021
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The time has come again for states to revisit and redraw their congressional districts. On yesterday’s webinar, AAPC caught up with Adam Kincaid , President & Executive Director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust and Kelly Burton , President of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) to dissect how redistricting will affect the 2022 campaign cycle and cover what you need to know for your upcoming campaign work. How is each party approaching redistricting this year? Adam : Redistricting was not top of mind 10 years ago, but it certainly is now. The amount of public awareness that ...
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Building Digital Plans Around Shifting Big Tech Regulations

By Megan Koch posted 09-23-2021
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AAPC’s recent Digital Politics Virtual Conference featured a session about how to continue to build your digital plans around shifting big tech regulations. Looking forward to 2022, speakers Caeli Mahon , Managing Director at Targeted Victory , Domonique James , Founder of Politics with Purpose , Christian Curto , Director at Campaign Solutions , and Julia Ager , Founder & President of Sapphire Strategies shared what they learned and how they adjusted their campaigns and approaches accordingly. “ Having a diversity of different outlets and media platforms is critical at this point ,” said Julia. “Our ad plans have ...
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Recall Elections: Perspectives from California Professionals

By Megan Koch posted 09-23-2021
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Since 1921, only three sitting governors have faced recall elections in the United States. For the second time in state history (and the fourth time in United States history), California voters garnered enough signatures to initiate a gubernatorial recall election of current Governor Gavin Newsom. In the coming weeks, California voters will receive a ballot with only two questions: 1) “Shall Gavin Newsom be recalled (removed) from the office of Governor? and 2) Who should succeed Newsom if he is recalled?” If a majority of voters vote yes on the first question, the individual candidate with the most votes on the second question will automatically assume the role ...
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How Ranked Choice Voting Impacts Elections

By Kelly Foley posted 07-29-2021
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In New York City's recent Mayoral Primary election, ranked choice voting was used for the first time in decades. This week, we caught up with Ben Tulchin , President of Tulchin Research and pollster for the Eric Adams Mayoral campaign, and polling expert Adam Probolsky , President of Probolsky Research . Read on for their insights on the impact of ranked choice voting, and how it affects campaign strategy. How much of an impact do you believe ranked choice voting makes on a Primary election? Ben : It had a huge impact in the New York Mayoral Primary election. First of all, every campaign had to figure ...
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The importance of maintaining relationships with constituents throughout the off-season

By Kelly Foley posted 06-28-2021
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The AAPC recently spoke with two campaign consultants who worked on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's campaign about the importance of maintaining relationships with constituents throughout the campaign cycle, and the off-season as well. Read below to hear from Rania Batrice , Media Strategist & Partner, The Win Company and Matt McLaughlin , Executive Creative Director & Partner, The Win Company . Stay tuned for our next eNewsletter, where we will get the perspective from a Republican campaign on this topic! Maintaining ongoing relationships with campaign supporters and constituents when not running an active ...
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Ethics Corner

By Kelly Foley posted 04-23-2021
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The Ethics Corner is designed to highlight ethical issues of interest to the political consulting community. The continued success of this column depends on our readers letting us know either of situations within their own experience, or more general questions with ethical implications. Please send your questions or comments to ethics@theaapc.org . All identifying information will be held strictly confidential. Read on for this week's dilemma and scroll to the end for our commentary. *Note while many legal issues are referenced here, this should not be construed as legal advice and consultants and campaigns are urged to seek their own ...
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Ethics Corner

By Kelly Foley posted 04-09-2021
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The Ethics Corner is designed to highlight ethical issues of interest to the political consulting community. The continued success of this column depends on our readers letting us know either of situations within their own experience, or more general questions with ethical implications. Please send your questions or comments to ethics@theaapc.org . All identifying information will be held strictly confidential. Read on for this week's dilemma and scroll to the end for our commentary. *Note while many legal issues are referenced here, this should not be construed as legal advice and consultants and campaigns are urged to seek their own ...
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Whitepaper: AT&T's New A2P 10DLC Requirements and the Ability of Mobile Telephone Providers to Block Text Messages

By Kelly Foley posted 04-01-2021
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In his latest whitepaper , Bill Raney of Copilevitz, Lam & Raney walks through the new A2P standard 10-digit long code requirements from AT&T, discusses why mobile providers are able to freely block text messages, and shares best practices to avoid text message blocking. Click here to read the whitepaper!
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New Feature! Ethics Corner

By Kelly Foley posted 03-26-2021
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AAPC is committed to the ethical participation in American Democracy and the running of ethical campaigns. All members of the AAPC and our award recipients are expected to abide by the AAPC Code of Ethics . Further, the AAPC believes all political consultants and campaigns should behave in an ethical manner. To encourage our members to embrace and reflect on ethics in our profession, we’re excited to launch a brand new discussion series of questions and answers on ethics. Read on for our first dilemmas (our thoughts are below) and let us know what you think in the comments below. *Note while many legal issues are referenced here, this should ...
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Preparing for Future Political Ad Bans

By Kelly Foley posted 03-26-2021
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The 2020 campaign cycle saw unprecedented political ad bans on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Google. Campaigns at every level were forced to pivot to new strategies for voter outreach on a dime, often with very little time before Election Day. Will these bans become a permanent reality? The AAPC sat down with Mark Jablonowski, Managing Partner & CTO of DSPolitical , to get his perspective. With Twitter’s ban on political ads and Facebook and Google putting bans in place around Election Day, how do you see these policies unfolding in the future? Jablonowski : It is hard to say. We may see Facebook try to ...
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Re-Imagining the Political Consulting Firm: A Spotlight on Kelly Gibson’s Collective Firm, Stronger Than Communications

By Megan Koch posted 03-01-2021
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While the strategies and tools political consultants and firms use to win campaigns have evolved over the years, the traditional model of a political consulting firm has stayed the same. Kelly Gibson, AAPC Board Member , recently founded Stronger Than Communications , which deviates from the traditional structure of a political consulting firm. Stronger Than is a collective of political strategists, committed to majority women-led, women-owned operations. We recently caught up with Kelly to learn more about how this different, collective approach works, and why she felt the need to branch out from the norm. Tell us a little about what inspired you ...
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GA Senate Runoffs: Managing a statewide campaign with national implications

By Megan Koch posted 02-12-2021
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After both U.S. Senate races in Georgia moved to runoffs, the elections quickly became the deciding factor for control of the Senate, and gained historic amounts of national news coverage. The AAPC recently spoke with Lauren Morenko, Vice President of Client Services at Smart Media Group , who’s firm played an integral role in David Perdue’s re-election campaign against Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff. What was your firm’s role in the Georgia Senate runoff campaign between Jon Ossoff and David Perdue? Morenko : Smart Media handled the paid media buy for the Perdue for Senate campaign. Being one of only two runoff campaigns this year, ...
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Virtual Hiring: What Job-Seekers and Hiring Managers Need to Know

By Megan Koch posted 01-25-2021
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With the 2020 election behind us, many political consulting firms are looking to hire new talent and many consultants are looking for a new project now that their campaign has ended. The AAPC caught up with Annie Warren, Director of Human Resources at Targeted Victory and Tammy Phan, Director of Talent at BerlinRosen , to get their insights on the ever more prevalent virtual hiring process. What tips do you have for companies who have had to switch to a virtual hiring/interview process? Phan : This is very logistical: Ensure that your video platform works just as well on cell phones or tablets . Many people no longer own a personal computer and may ...
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AAPC Statement on Elections and the Peaceful Transfer of Power

By Kelly Foley posted 01-07-2021
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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Elections are the foundation of our democracy. In 2020, democracy happened, and after all the recounts and runoffs are done, our government continues because we accept the results of our elections. We support the peaceful transfer of power as has been exercised since the adoption of our constitution in 1789, involving 45 Presidents over 231 years. The peaceful transfer of power is crucial to the stability of our republic and serves as a beacon of democracy throughout the world. As Republican and Democratic political consultants, we are vigorous supporters of the First Amendment and its essential ...
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Post-Presidential Election Takeaways

By Kelly Foley posted 11-24-2020
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The AAPC recently spoke with two Democratic consultants, Taryn Rosenkranz , Founder & CEO of New Blue Interactive and Jef Pollock , Founding Partner & President of Global Strategy Group, to get their takes on emerging trends post-election. Stay tuned for the next November eNews issue to get the take of two Republican consultants weighing in on the same topic. What trends or themes have emerged so far from the 2020 presidential election results? Rosenkranz: Vote by mail is here to stay. It’s clear with such large turnout that when we make voting accessible, more people vote and that’s great for democracy. Grassroots efforts matter. We had ...
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Webinar Recap: TFW They Don’t Text Back: P2P Texting Engagement Tips

By Kelly Foley posted 11-24-2020
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P2P texting has become one of the most efficient ways to reach voters and constituents. But how do you get them to text back? AAPC’s latest webinar featured a panel of texting professionals and campaign consultants who discussed how to boost engagement across multiple segments, relationship and rapport building over text, getting Gen Z and Millennials to engage, and utilizing P2P texting for GOTV and ballot chasing. Check out the key lessons from the webinar below, and listen to the recording for even more expert insights. This webinar has been archived for playback. AAPC members can click here to view all webinar archives. Key Lessons ...
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Webinar Recap: Well-Being Break with Professor Mark Thurston

By Kelly Foley posted 11-24-2020
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Political consultants are of course very busy during an election cycle, and effective stress management is key to staying sharp. AAPC’s most recent webinar featured an expert on mindfulness and well-being who discussed stress management strategies and ways in which AAPC members, and everyone for that matter, can find some relief. Check out the key lessons from the webinar below, and listen to the recording for even more expert insights. This webinar has been archived for playback. AAPC members can click here to view all webinar archives. Key Lessons from the Webinar Re-connect with values and meaning: Feeling a sense of meaning ...
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Five Digital Lessons for Early Voting and GOTV

By Kelly Foley posted 10-13-2020
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For several years now, early voting has decided the outcome of elections across the country before the ballots even begin to be counted from Election Day. Early voting increased from 24.9 million to 57.2 million voters from 2004 to 2016, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. In the 2016 presidential election, 16 states reported 50 percent or more of votes cast early. The difference between this election and previous elections is more people are interested in voting early than ever before . With COVID-19 changing the way we go about daily lives, state safety guidelines have drastically altered the way clients are driving voter turnout. For ...
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Early Voting and GOTV Down the Stretch

By System posted 10-13-2020
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The AAPC recently caught up with Danielle Cendejas, Senior Vice President, The Strategy Group , Mark Harris, Partner, Coldspark , and Hunter Hawkins, Digital Director of Policy & Advocacy, The Lukens Company , to find out how the anticipated surge in early voting this cycle is affecting their campaign work. What are you doing / what’s your plan around turnout for early voting? Cendejas : I do most of my work in California, and every voter will be receiving a ballot this election. We anticipate many voters, who usually wait to vote close to or on Election Day, will be returning their ballots almost as soon as they receive it. Our team has adjusted ...
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