Fundraising
Six Lessons for Political Fundraisers in 2026
Campaigns & Elections
“Donors preferred a version of a fundraising appeal that specified exactly what a donation would fund over a generic ‘every-dollar-helps’ version by 88 percentage points.”
ActBlue Says It Just Had Its Best Q2 Ever for a Midterm Cycle
Campaigns & Elections
“Federal campaigns alone pulled in $388 million through ActBlue – up about 34 percent from the second quarter of 2022, the organization said.”
The rise of small donors is mostly making politics worse
Niskanen Center
“They find that small donors are just as advantaged, partisan, and extreme, as larger donors, but more impulsive, empowering show-horse celebrities, and norm-breakers over consensus-building lawmakers.”
International
AI software that generates ‘rage bait’ developed by Germany’s far-right AfD
The Irish Times
“The apparent aim of Alternita is to allow AfD headquarters to control messaging in a subtle way without hindering its decentralised army of followers and activists generating posts that attract attention and help the AfD maintain its considerable online lead on rivals.”
Social Media
What Capitol Hill Interns Are Posting on Social Media This Summer
New York Times
“They can also humanize a deeply unpopular institution that feels remote to many Americans, highlighting young people who appear elated to have the chance to work in the nation’s capital.”
Technology
What Campaigns Need To Know About AI Polling
Center for Campaign Innovation
“A poll is a measurement of what people said. A synthetic sample is a prediction of what people would say.”
Google’s deepfake detector system used to debunk McConnell hoax pic
TechCrunch
“Because the signature is built into the image itself, it survives even when an image is screencaptured across multiple platforms, as the McConnell image was.”
‘Who Should I Vote for?’ Voters Turn to A.I. Before Casting Their Ballots
New York Times
“Campaign strategists are keenly aware that voters are using these tools and have begun looking for ways to get more favorable results by publishing more material online in formats that chatbots prefer, such as using bullet points.”