The Most Precious Political Commodity in 2026
What's more important than attention? Connection.
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Launched in 2006, Epolitics is written and edited by Colin Delany, who has helped nonprofits and political campaigns use digital tools in effective and creative ways since the early days of the political internet. He is also a frequent speaker and trainer and the author of How to Use the Internet to Change the World – and Win Elections. Contact him at cpd@epolitics.com.
Hi folks, thank you so much for your patience! Long-time readers may remember that I was in Texas most of last year, helping my 88-year-old mother after my father died. She endured four hospital stays in 2025, including three rounds of pneumonia and two broken hips, but a couple of months ago, we were able to make our escape in one ten-hour journey via road and air from East Texas to the District of Columbia. It’s been quite the time, and I honestly haven’t had the cognitive surplus to write anything substantive since the hip incidents in July.
But Mom and her geriatric cat have now settled into an assisted living place in Upper Northwest, and my siblings and I are wrapping up the sale of my childhood home in Texas. With the hardest fifteen months of my life (so far!) over, let’s get back to work. Thank you for sticking with me.
The Most Precious Political Commodity in 2026
If you’re running for office in 2026, you probably have a problem: How the hell do you get noticed? You’re not alone! Politicians, activists, comedians, corporate brands and everyone else trying to build a public audience confronts the same obstacle.
Ad after ad, video after video, text after text…even without a war sucking up all the air, we’re endlessly bombarded with messages trying to get us to do something that usually will make money for someone else. The attention economy is real, whether you’re Clavicular or running for Congress, and its dynamic forces us to compete for eyeballs in a crowded space.
With AI slop flooding our feeds, candidates may have an even harder time catching people online this year than ever. And attention, whether earned or bought, is a prereq for persuasion. If voters don’t know a campaign exists, the best policies and the most compelling story won’t change their minds. Still, attention only starts the process. To seize our minds and (preferably) hearts, candidates and causes really need to create connection.
Voting is at least as much an emotional act as a logical one. How people FEEL about a candidate (or cause) often outweighs everything else. Fundraising works in a similar way, since people tend to break out the credit card when they’re all fired up, not at the end of a long deliberative process. In practice, connection usually depends on a dash of head and heart, with emotion more often the deciding factor. People go with their gut, based on an intuitive sense of who candidates are and what they stand for.
What creates connection? Any encounter with a candidate or campaign could start the process, whether in person, through a volunteer, on TV or online. People CAN feel a strong emotional bond with via video, news coverage or ads alone, without any direct contact with at all — just ask Obama and Trump. But wise campaigns go out of their way to create opportunities to build connections over time.
Of course, negative stories, images and videos can poison a potential relationship before it has a chance to grow. That’s why successful campaigns generally try to shape and nurture ties with voters or donors through as many channels as they can, knowing that an emotional bond can go a long way toward sustaining support through hard times on the campaign trail. Which leads us to:
Rule #1: Never miss a chance to turn a fleeting encounter into a sustained connection
Digital tools excel at maintaining relationships on a vast scale, but connection has to start somewhere. In-person event? Have someone handy to gather email address and cell numbers, preferably entered directly into a spreadsheet or grassroots app on a tablet or phone. YouTube video? Make sure the candidate or cause is easy to identify and include clickable links. TV ad? QR code, URL or Facebook page — you get the idea.
Rule #2: Make it easy
Don’t make people work to get involved! The website should have obvious email signup and social media follow options, for a start (Pro tip: don’t hide the “Donate” button). Similarly, Facebook pages, Bluesky accounts and Instagram profiles should feature links back to the website or other digital channels. Yard signs? A URL can’t hurt. Put simply, every piece of content should include options to stay engaged. Pro tip #2: Try adding extra links to Facebook posts via the comments.
More Good Practices
Use digital tools to enable one-on-one relationships. Personal contact with the campaign, staff or volunteers almost always makes more difference than any other form of campaign outreach. Digital tools can help, though! Field organizers routinely mass-text volunteers to start conversations, and candidates can do the same. I remember seeing Deray McKesson talk about using a peer-to-peer texting app to send a message to all of his donors at once, launching a bunch of one-to-one conversations from what’s often more of a blast medium. Likewise, an email signup could trigger a message from a local organizer and an invitation to coffee.
Different channels can reinforce each other in other ways, too. Before canvassers try to talk with priority voters, try to reach them with Facebook/Instagram ads in advance. When you’re sending fundraising emails, try priming the pump and reinforcing the ask with more social-media ads. Rinse, repeat and multiply — it’s all about the virtuous circles.
Trusted messengers can break through the communications clutter. Whether you’re a family member or a famous YouTuber, trust opens a lot of doors. On one end of the spectrum, relational organizing and political data could help identify a volunteer whom a priority voter might listen to. At the other end, a podcaster can introduce a you to a whole lot of people, most of whom may not to be able to vote for you but who may be persuaded to donate.
Don’t just talk about yourself! On social media in particular, try to mix it up. Feature volunteers via photos, videos and stories. Link to news articles relevant to the issues you’re running on. Have staff or volunteers interact in the comments, using a little nudge to start a snowball rolling. Make a joke here and there.
More More Video. Social-media algorithms love short video these days, so it behooves us to try to create it. Likewise, online ads come in lengths as short as six seconds, putting a premium on concise messaging. Longer-form videos have a role, too, and not just those podcast interviews. Way back in 2008, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe posted weekly videos intended for volunteers and staff, helping them understand the strategy that underlay their work — and reinforcing the connection they felt with the candidate.
Think of canvassers and callers as local ambassadors. Train your volunteers to handle conversations at the front door, on the phone or in front of the WalMart. As much as possible, have volunteers canvass and call close to home, not halfway across the country. Something that rarely hurts? Having a candidate whom voters in the district can relate to as well.
While we’re at it, all of your supporters are potential ambassadors within their own personal and professional circles. Create content for them to share and let them know about it. Pro Tip #3: Asking supporters to share a video is a nice break from begging them for money.
Watch out for channel saturation. I am already receiving a whole bunch of fundraising texts I never signed up for, and I’m expecting orders of magnitude more between now and November. Since political texting really took off about a decade ago, campaigns have relied on voters and donors actually paying attention to them. In 2026, I wonder if that will still be true. If your plans heavily involve texting prospective donors and persuadable voters out of the blue, you may want to have backups ready just in case. Similarly, take a good look at all of your outreach channels. What could possibly go wrong? Better to think about it now than in October.
Of course, as with all digital campaigning advice, Your Mileage May Vary, and tactics that work well for one campaign could yield eyeball-melting failure for another. But for all but the highest-profile campaigns this year, attention is a scarce commodity, and connection more precious still. Wise campaigns will nurture it, hoping to transmute voter and donor love into electoral gold in November.
– cpd
Excellent tactical recommendation - great to have your wisdom back!