Measure LA & 4 LACCD Members (IE)
Background
The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) has more registered voters within it than 23 states. Given the immense size, any candidate or ballot measure within the district has to very carefully marshal resources in order to maximize the impact of every dollar spent. In November 2022, proponents of Measure LA were hoping to pass the largest bond measure in the country, a $5.3 billion infrastructure bond, while also securing the election of a slate of 4 candidates to the LACCD.
Strategy
Our digital campaign would need to support an entire slate of candidates, but it would also support Measure LA since it needed to secure over 55% of votes in order to pass.
Our firm’s part in both the bond and the slate of candidates was to use voter data targeting to craft a specific voter profile for each candidate. This would allow us to make sure that every digital impression had the maximum impact.
Our digital campaign made 13.88 million impressions and using both up to date voter targeting and multichannel digital marketing, each of those impressions was crafted to fit a specific voter who was extremely likely to be voting in the November election.
Result
All of these efforts resulted in a total sweep in the November election. The four individual candidates won with an average margin of victory of 27.78%. Measure LA blew past the required margin of 55%, gaining well over 700,000 votes, which amounted to 62.31%.
Assemblymember Dr. Corey Jackson
Background
In the 2022 primary in California’s Assembly District 60, Dr. Corey Jackson was facing off against two establishment Democrats – one a Sacramento insider backed by their Assemblymember boss and the other a local elected official bankrolled by large real estate and law enforcement special interests. Dr. Jackson was the most progressive Democrat in the race and our firm knew that he would be outspent by the field by at least 2 to 1.
The question was: How to consolidate Dr. Jackson’s base and advance to the general election without being able to match paid media dollar for dollar?
Strategy
Knowing that Dr. Jackson had a unique brand and that his two main Democratic opponents were likely to be competing for the same voters; the decision was made to take advantage of California’s unique top-two primary system. Dr. Jackson would focus his resources and build his already strong base of support in specific geographic areas where the campaign identified would be Dr. Jackson’s base of support.
The Republican would garner the plurality of votes in this D+10 district, but Dr. Jackson's overwhelming support among his base would secure his 2nd place finish in the primary and advance to the general election.
Dr. Jackson’s smaller media buy would only be going out to extremely likely primary voters using up to date voter profiles. His unique brand was used to craft a compelling message that was communicated through a combination of highly targeted mail, multichannel digital advertising, and an overwhelming presence of on the ground signage in strategic areas of the district. All of that combined with a focused paid and volunteer field operation in the major population center of the district.
Result
The strategy of combining modern targeting with a focus on specific geographic areas of the district allowed Dr. Jackson to garner just enough votes in the primary to advance.
After the impressive primary win, Dr. Jackson consolidated local and Sacramento support and easily defeated his Republican opponent in the November election.
Congresswoman Cori Bush (IE)
Background
In 2020, Cori Bush was running in the new Missouri 1st Congressional District. This was her second attempt at running for Congress and her first success in making it past the primary by defeating a 10-term incumbent. Without the benefit of incumbency, Cori had to make sure that she didn’t lose a safe Democratic seat. A Republican candidate was surging in publicly released late polling, putting some doubt that one of the most progressive candidates in the 2020 cycle would secure victory. Due to this, it was clear that outside spending was necessary to shift momentum.
Strategy
Using targeted digital tools and a powerful message given the candidate’s unique background, our firm was one of the only independent outside sources of support for an unconventional candidate in a cycle where Democrats lost seats in the House. Our digital campaign made hundreds of thousands of impressions to help boost Democratic turnout.
Result
Congresswoman Bush won with 78% of the vote, and Democrats won up and down the ballot in her district.