Advertising
AdImpact's 2025-2026 Political Projections
AdImpact
“CTV is expected to grow during the 2026 cycle by almost 27%, increasing its share to 21%. This $124M growth over the 2024 cycle is partially driven by CTVs ability to granularly target key audiences.”
Content
When podcasts do what the legacy press won’t
Chaotic Era
“Politicians chasing relevance by venturing onto less formal platforms may think they’re accessing new voters on easier terms, but the reality sometimes looks different. Podcasters, comedians, and independent hosts who are unshackled by claims of journalistic neutrality are breaking through staged talking points and forcing moments of candor that mainstream outlets often can’t.”
Why Dems Keep Screwing Up Media Efforts
Elizabeth Spiers
“As a function of this, they think media and advertising are the same thing, and that traffic and audience are the same thing. They think of spending and investing in media as a tactical strategy that can be tied to electoral cycles.”
Fundraising
High annoying, medium bad
Medium Data
“However, he goes on to immediately illustrate how wide the variation in donor age is between ordinary candidates. This graph is presented like it’s a ding on Jeffries and Pelosi and such, but to my eyes, it mostly illustrates that some candidates draw from radically younger audiences than is typical.”
International
Then and Now: How Does AI Electoral Interference Compare in 2025?
Centre for International Governance Innovation
“In 2024, more than 80 percent of countries experienced observable instances of AI usage relevant to their electoral processes. By far, the most popular employment of AI across elections was for content creation (accounting for 90 percent of all observed cases).”
Social Media
Don’t blame the algorithm: Polarization may be inherent in social media
Science
“The results suggest that just the basic functions of social media—posting, reposting, and following—inevitably produce polarization.”
Technology
Canvassing Giant Progressive Turnout Project Buys Into New Tech
Campaigns & Elections
“Progressive Turnout Project, a Chicago-based political action committee that supports liberal candidates, is partnering with the canvassing tech startup TouchStone ahead of the 2026 midterms, steering away from NGP VAN’s canvassing app MiniVan, which has long been considered the industry standard in the world of Democratic voter contact.”
Polling gets an AI assist
Semafor
“Those who opted to talk to the bot spent a median time of 16 minutes each on the survey, often offering more comprehensive answers that would not have been possible with a multiple-choice format. More importantly, the bot could probe respondents’ answers and ask them to clarify or expand, giving OpenResearch a much richer set of data.”