How to Build a Democratic Persuasion Machine in 2025

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How to Build a Democratic Persuasion Machine in 2025

Protests may have brought millions of Americans to the streets in June, but Democrats and our allies still have a whole lot of our fellow citizens left to persuade. The president’s approval rating may have gyrated over the past few months, but based on what we saw in his first term, it’s not likely to plummet much below 40%. And even if he were as unpopular as Democrats wish, we’ve still lost the trust of millions of Americans.

The left can look to the midterms with some confidence, given Democratic candidates’ strong performances in special elections since Trump took office. But if we don’t connect with more-occasional voters, those who’ve left the fold, or with new voters reluctant to give us a chance, Democrats could easily lose big when a broader swath of Americans turn out to vote for president in 2028.

As my friend Will Robinson and others have laid out, Democrats need to build a new media machine that reaches voters where they actually spend their time in the here and now. But digital media is just part of the equation — a full-on persuasion operation would include more. Crucially, it would put everyday Democrats and progressives to work on the ground, both as part of organized canvassing operations and as personal ambassadors in their own social, family and community circles.

What should go into a Democratic persuasion machine? I’ve taken a first stab below, and I’m happy to hear what readers would add, subtract or change. While a single entity could take on this project in theory, we don’t have to have one organization handling all the pieces. Many different groups can collaborate, just as voter-turnout groups do via the state tables today. I’d suggest that the Democratic National Committee and state parties should run the national grassroots tookit, for example, assuming leadership can get its act together, and Dem IEs and nonprofits would naturally take on much of the rest.

The key idea is that we have to reach voters through many channels at once — one-and-done campaigns simply won’t cut it. And as we’ve discussed here before, outreach needs to start long before election season, since persuasion takes time. When possible, we’d connect with voters through people they already know and trust, whether that’s a friend or neighbor or a podcaster they listen to. In a perfect world we’d hit the ground tomorrow, but more likely the pieces of an effort like this would come together at different times. But something had better be in place by the end of this year or we’re missing the opportunity to connect with people while they may be open to changing their minds.

Persuasion will often work better when carried out by organizations and activists who already know how to talk with voters with whom Dems have lost ground, from Midwest farmers to Latinos on the Texas border to Black men in Philly. But their work will be easier if our movement is also targeting the same people with organic content on social media, outreach to influencers, and ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, streaming TV and anywhere else we can reach Americans via digital channels.

I’ll have more to say about most of these topics in the months to come, but let’s start with a 30,000-foot overview. Note that this outline expands on an earlier article I wrote in 2019.

Anatomy of a Democratic Persuasion Machine

A comprehensive effort to reach persuadable voters should include:

Self-organizing activists. ANY of us can be an influencer, and the most important political action most of us can take is to talk with our friends, neighbors and family. Activists can do better work if they have easy-to-use advocacy tools (including relational organizing apps) and easy access to content. The Democratic Party should create a single platform to help them do it, and we should treat it like the essential piece of movement infrastructure it would be. Fortunately, we already have some good models, including the MyBarackObama platform from 2008 and 2012. As we have seen, the right excels at meme wars, and we need a whole lot of new voices to counter them effectively. Remember those millions who showed up to protest on June 14th — Democrats can and should capitalize on their energy.

Persistent field organizing in critical areas/communities. Nothing beats face-to-face contact for persuasion, and field organizers must be on the ground early, to give them time talk with voters and volunteers often enough to build trust. This is an area where the diverse groups on the left can play an essential role. Organizers can also plug into local activist networks built via the party grassroots tools or recruited by Indivisible and similar organizations.

Organic content via official social media channels. Particularly as unbiased information becomes harder to find, activists and organizers need content to back up their outreach, including via social media. Outside groups and individual activists will step up with videos, photos, memes and more, but high-profile Dems need to follow Chris Murphy’s lead and start thinking like new-media newsrooms. For example, the Democratic National Committee may have turmoil at the top right now, but the DNC digital staff is stepping up regardless.

Organic content via influencers. Prominent Democrats also need to get themselves onto shows on YouTube, TikTok, Substack and wherever else influencers reach the public. Some funders and organizations will try to foster new voices — influencers in the making — which can help build capacity in the long run. But Dems need to get out there now, and those of us in the community who can actually engage with hosts and viewers about things they care about should be pitching influencers who are broadly popular or prominent in the right communities. Should Kamala Harris have gone on Joe Rogan’s show last fall? Yes. Be ready to surrender message control, but enter the arena regardless.

Paid content via influencers with strategic audiences. Some on the left may recoil at the notion of paying influencers, but instead, think of it as fostering independent voices who can help spread the word. Several platforms can already connect advocacy and political campaigns with influencers, including Social Currant, Vocal Media and People First. These platforms may be particularly useful when you need to reach local and niche influencers, and they offer the chance to start supporting someone before they make it big. Big campaigns and orgs can reach out to nationally popular podcast hosts like they would any other publisher, too.

Community or niche-topic-focused Facebook pages and other social media communities, like those run by my friends at Real Voices Media. Community pages typically feature a mix of content, most of it focused on the page topic but sometimes including advocacy, political or policy-related stories. While they would run most content organically, they can also serve as the hub for targeted advertising.

“News pages” on Fb/Insta/etc that highlight/boost stories relevant to a region or community. With local news a shadow of its former presence across much of the country, most stories will disappear into the aether without many people ever having a chance to see them. “News pages” highlight stories that may not otherwise reach voters, and once again, page managers would run ads to make sure stories reach the right audiences. Note that the Harris campaign spent millions on news-page ads last year.

Facebook/Insta/YouTube/streaming TV/web video/banner and other digital ads targeting priority audiences. Paid advertising isn’t likely to be that persuasive on its own, but it provides extra opportunities to touch voters with messages they may be seeing through other channels as well. And for some voters, they may be the only contact that’s achievable in the real world. Though no data model will be perfect, careful targeting can help stretch an ad budget, and voter file-targeted ads can also support other outreach work, for instance reaching a pool of voters before they’re contacted by field organizers and volunteers to prime the pump. Ads don’t replace face-to-face contact, but they can help open the door for organizers, volunteers and their messages.

Nothing ambitious here at all! Actually, everything on this list has been done before, and plenty of Democrats and allies know how to each part of it right. What we need are:

• Leadership

• Funding

• Planning

• Coordination

Dear readers, if you know folks who can help getting any piece of this machine rolling, please spread the word. I’m happy to help make the case in any way I can.

And as I wrote toward the beginning of this piece, I’d love to hear what YOU think. Thank you.

– cpd

Top photo via Pixabay