Posts tagged strategy.
The share of Americans reachable only by cell phone has passed three-quarters, and it keeps climbing. That single trend is why texting moved from optional to essential.
Direct mail and texting do different jobs, but campaigns keep comparing them on price. Here's the honest cost-per-voter-reached math, and what each channel is actually for.
Incumbents text from a different position than challengers, a record to defend, a list already built, and a turnout job more than a persuasion one. Here's how to run it.
A plain-language guide for first-time candidates on texting voters, what it's for, what the rules are, and how to start without getting yourself in trouble.
Challengers start with no list and low name ID, but more freedom to make the case for change. Here's how to run a texting program from behind.
The hardest part of a texting list is the beginning, when you have nobody. Here's a concrete path from an empty list to your first thousand consented subscribers.
Fire district, water board, and other special-district elections have tiny, low-information electorates. That makes texting unusually powerful, and unusually delicate.
Open seats have no incumbent, and often no inherited list or name ID for anyone. That changes the texting job. Here's how to run a program when the seat, and your list, start empty.
Ranked-choice voting changes the math of a campaign, and the message. Here's how texting strategy shifts when voters rank candidates instead of picking one.
A statewide race means millions of voters, multiple media markets, and real deliverability and cost pressures. Here's what changes when a texting program scales up.
A serious primary challenge, like several playing out in 2026, forces an incumbent to run a real campaign months early. Here's how that reshapes a texting program.
A local race can go viral overnight, national money, national attention, national scrutiny. Here's how a texting program should handle a sudden surge in the spotlight.