Become a Friend of the Trend for just $5 per month and show your support for this newsletter.
Advertising
Ampersand debuts political ad platform for verified voter engagement across CTV
News Cast Studio
“The platform was developed in response to increased scrutiny over ad spend effectiveness and a need for greater transparency in voter targeting. It is designed to reduce inefficiencies and fragmentation associated with open-exchange inventory and disparate streaming sources.”
Campaigns
AI Attack Ad in Texas Senate Race Shows John Cornyn Dancing With Jasmine Crockett
New York Times
“Interspersed with the A.I.-generated dancing clips are real videos of Ms. Crockett praising Mr. Cornyn and news reports of Mr. Cornyn saying nice things about her.”
Content
Publishers prepare to be “squeezed” by AI and creators in 2026
Nieman Lab
“In response, more than three-quarters of respondents (76%) said that they’ll encourage journalists to behave more like creators this year. About 50% said they plan to partner with creators to help distribute content, 31% said they plan to hire creators to run their social media accounts, and another 28% plan to set up creator studios or other joint ventures with influencers.”
Design
The worst campaign logo of the midterms could actually be the best
Yello
“Noting that traditional red, white, and blue colors immediately cues party politics, she says that candidates who move away from them can signal their distance from national polarization if voters believe their claim to be independent is genuine.”
Surviving the AI Filter: Why Your Gmail Strategy Needs to Change Now
Campaign Engine
“Gmail’s new AI Inbox will offer a 'personalized briefing' that prioritizes conversations based on how you use email, filtering out what it considers clutter so you can focus on what it deems important – this means your inbox will no longer be chronological.”
Fundraising
Results from 2025 year-end fundraising and takeaways for 2026
Blue State
“Still, Meta remains one of the strongest channels for new donor acquisition at scale. Increasingly, Meta may be used as a prospecting tool — one that fuels list growth, builds awareness, and creates future demand that shows up later in other channels, like email and search.”
Social Media
A very simple explanation for why politics is broken
Vox
“But their findings suggest that online publications and influencers — whose audiences are perpetually a couple clicks away from virtually every movie, television show, book, and genre of pornography in existence — would have even stronger incentives to foreground culture war controversies.”
Technology
ActBlue Acquires Democratic-Aligned Web Development Platform
Campaigns & Elections
“Like Raise by ActBlue and Impactive, Hey Victor is also tailored towards down-ballot campaigns. The company, which launched in 2023 as a politics-focused alternative to larger website development platforms like Squarespace and Wix, offers a set of simplified tools for building out campaign sites that don’t require outside IT support or dedicated webmasters.”