Case Study: Joyce Beatty War Story

THE RACE

Joyce Beatty for Congress in Ohio's 3rd District (Columbus)

THE BACKGROUND

Joyce Beatty faced an AOC-inspired and Justice Democrats-endorsed candidate who spent $900,000 against progressive Democrat Beatty. Ohio’s March 17th primary was postponed at the last minute, after early voting had already taken place, and then changed to a voteby-mail only election scheduled for April 28th. We had run our streaming TV, field, digital,mail and Network TV program “virtually.”

THE RESULT

Beatty won 68%-32% in a race that Politico said was "hard to predict."

THE STRATEGY/CONTENT

Our paid media content focused on Beatty's record as a progressive Democrat who got things done for the district…

• "Gettting things done" vs. opponent rhetoric ad. Watch "Getting Things Done."

• "Truth to Power" ad. Watch "Truth Stand."

• Obama and Pelosi on Beatty. Watch "Snapshot Record."

• Organic video of Beatty supporters holding Facebook's feet to the fire.

VIRTUAL AND PANDEMIC CAMPAIGNING

We created content that was informative rather than political in tone. This helped drive our completion rates on digital…

• PSA style ads vs. shameless self-promotion: The tone of our spots was of a
public service announcement getting information to people in need, not the
hucksterism of most political spots. Watch "Safer Together."

• Ads on vote-by-mail process a surprise hit: Hands down, the most popular,
viewed and completed ad was one on the vote by mail process to apply for
and return a ballot and what the three deadlines were.  It’s a great lesson in ads:
the most effective ads are not always the most creative. Watch "Mail Ballot."

• Record viewership of Network TV, social media ads, digital ads and streaming
spots: Streaming impression delivery was up 40% in April from March and most
national research shows that network TV viewership was up 30%.  Our completion
rate for ads was up 20%.

• Texting: For the past few years, texting has been emerging as an effective tool
for organization, GOTV AND message delivery. We are building texting into our
persuasion budget as an additional or alternative medium to mail, streaming, TV,
radio and field.

• Doing the right things & your official staff getting things done: Joyce Beatty
didn’t let the campaign or coronavirus slow down her congressional office from
doing the right things to help people and get the word out about public health
and public safety.

INNOVATING VIRTUALLY

• Reading to Kids. Congresswoman Beatty’s conversations with educators teaching
homeless kids led to a virtual story hour with the Congresswoman and a video
series. Thousands of kids and their teachers viewed these episodes online in April.

• Real Time Mail & Digital Absentee Chase Program.  These programs were
important before coronavirus and they will be even more important in the fall.

• Virtual “souls to polls” with musicians and entertainment. Souls to polls is critical
in many communities and Team Beatty didn’t let the pandemic hold the
campaign back from faith community outreach.  National host Roland Martin,
prominent pastors and musicians all played a role in an event seen by thousands.

• Barbers/Hair Stylists Engaged.  Out-of-work barbers and hair stylists were paid a
stipend to do voter contact work at the end. This was an innovative “win-win”
unique to the coronavirus era we were campaigning in during April.  Shooting Ads
Virtually, Safely & Creatively.  We had to shoot all of our content virtually and safely.  
This will be an issue going forward on most campaigns.

• 3 H’s. We were lucky to work with a hungry, humble and hard-working candidate
with high standards.

• Volunteer People Power. Volunteer phone calls and texts were more important
than ever and the campaign delivered tens of thousands of these to get voting
information and pandemic information to primary voters.

• New Tools: Virtual fundraisers/social media mail.  Let us know if you want to hear
more about these tools.

A PERSONAL NOTE

We have worked with Joyce since she was the first woman in Ohio history to be a “house leader.”  We worked together to pick up 22 seats and take the majority in the Ohio house.  In 2012, Joyce began her race for Congress 34 points behind and in 90 days came from behind and won (Campaigns & Elections article). 

In 2020, she beat back an opponent with $900,000 in a pandemic.  Our collaboration is as personally gratifying as anything we have done in politics.  Thanks, Congresswoman!

THE TEAM

Campaign Manager/GC: Bridgette Tupes 

Pollsters: Lauren Spangler, Andrew Myers

Mail:  JVA lead by AJ Stokes

Digital/Media: CounterPoint Messaging

Social Media/Online: Aneese Johnson

Operations & Field: Timmy Siver

Field: Mike Hobbs 

Finance: Kyle Whitlach

DC PAC: Angerholzer Broz Consulting  

ABOVE & BEYOND

Ohio Democratic Chair David Pepper, ODP ED Greg Beswick and Franklin Co Chair Mike Sexton showed great leadership getting the word out about the election in a challenging time.

Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, almost all of organized labor and so many others stepped up to help make a difference for Team Beatty.