By Molly Horan

I love campaigns: the rush, the back and forth of debate, the persuasion of voters, the countdown to, and finality of, election day. Since 2010 my professional world has revolved around election days for candidates and ballot questions. My loved ones have had to accept me confirming they are registered to vote, reminding them of their polling location, and directing them to information about who and what is on their ballot. I proudly dragged my nephew to his first political event at nine months old. The joy and excitement of a hard-fought victory on election night are among some of my most cherished political memories.

This year looks a bit different for me. I am expecting my first child, and my due date just so happens to be election day. I laughed when the doctor told me November 5th. Needless to say, the countdown this year feels different.

My role within campaigns has always been on the communications side—messaging, speech writing, debate prep, and engaging with the media. I enjoy distilling complicated policy proposals into simple messages and articulating why voters should care about various issues. I have loved getting to know candidates and helping tell their stories.

As I take a step back this election cycle, I’ve been reflecting on some of what has changed in the playbook over the last fourteen years and how communications strategies have evolved to keep up.

Media Landscape

• Many of us have grieved our shrinking media landscape in Massachusetts. Fewer papers, fewer reporters, and very few papers doing endorsements. It’s sad for talented reporters and for an informed citizenry, and bad for local coverage of campaigns. I struggle to find municipal level candidate coverage when I’m trying to make decisions about hyper local races.
• Fourteen years ago, seeking out the editors at every paper to secure favorable editorials across the state was a major priority for campaign comms team.
• Now the name of the game is more just about getting coverage at all and building relationships with reporters who are often juggling multiple beats.

Early Voting

• As someone who will be taking advantage this year of the new ways that MA has made it easier for folks to vote (early voting and vote by mail), the availability and popularity of these options does slightly alter the calculus for when voters need to be hit with the closing argument from a campaign.
• If a voter receives their ballot by mail four weeks before an election day, some voters will promptly fill it out and return it to the clerk. That group of voters then can’t be persuaded by messages in the final two weeks of a race.

Be Careful with Fear

• Local campaigns do not take place in a vacuum. We are all humans being inundated by competing messages across all platforms during campaign season. Elections during a presidential cycle are always impacted by the tv ad buys for presidential candidates (given our overlapping tv market with a FITN neighbor). One thing we observed in 2020 was that the tidal wave of fear-based, negative messages primarily from the Trump campaign resulted in a voter response of distrust to other fear-based messages. Even if those messages tested well in focus groups and polling in a messaging vacuum, out in the real world mingling with all the other messages hitting voters, voters were turned off by fear.
• Generally speaking, fear of change, fear of personal safety, fear of individual loss of control, fear of personal financial impact are major motivators for voters in how they make their decisions. But context matters and voters may reject that angle entirely if too many campaigns are leading with it.

Misinformation Shouldn’t Be Ignored

• A decade ago, if a candidate or coalition was pushing misinformation that defied logic (think pizzagate-esque), I would have advised a client not to engage. Don’t give a crazy idea any credence.
• In the age of something going viral, misinformation can spread rapidly and shouldn’t be ignored. Especially when we know voters aren’t pausing their scrolling to fact check. It’s important to respond, rebut, and provide external validators to assert the truth.
• It can be frustrating for candidates and campaigns to have to spend so much time playing whack a mole to different pieces of misinformation but it’s important. Also wise to get in front reporters to avoid the risk of them repeating something that is not based in fact.

While I may not be knocking on doors this season, I remain deeply committed to the democratic process and will be cheering on candidates and causes from my couch. In the final days leading up to the election, each person who texts me to ask if the baby has arrived yet should expect me to respond asking if they have a plan to vote.

Elections have practical consequences. From the top to the bottom of your ballot, these officials will have the ability to make decisions that impact your life. So whatever cause fires you up and no matter what your political leanings, please get out there and vote.