Every year, we track innovations and changes across the political tech space, recognizing the need to capture the developments in this fast-changing industry. This report focuses on the historic 2022 midterm cycle.
The executive summary: Campaigns flock to streaming services as more begin to accept political ads Policy changes on popular platforms shake up the advertising landscape, leading to price spikes and a 15x increase in campaign spend on TV, including connected TV, just as streaming services are projected to surpass traditional TV viewership rates. Influencer marketing achieves institutional adoption From the DNC to national advocacy organizations, major players across the space deploy both paid and unpaid influencers to deliver compelling messages to voters online. Political text messages reach a tipping point Declining contact rates, complex 10DLC carrier policies, oversaturation, and scams push practitioners to rethink the role of text messages. Campaigns are starting to purchase their tech earlier HGL’s 2022 Election Tech Survey reveals that campaigns are beginning to engage with tech vendors earlier in the cycle compared to 2020, with 37% now doing so one year ahead of Election Day. Large M&A activity of key infrastructure raises questions among practitioners NGP VAN’s acquisition by Apax Funds and consolidation into Bonterra creates uncertainty regarding the future of core voter data infrastructure. Tech improves at the downballot level but campaigns still lack an affordable and effective stack Downballot campaigns experience unprecedented electoral success, but despite improvements in tech offerings, many still cannot access basic tools.
The Global Coalition for Tech Justice is a newly formed global movement to ensure Big Tech plays its role in protecting elections and citizens’ rights and freedoms across the world, particularly in the global majority where companies – Meta/Facebook, Google/YouTube, Twitter, TikTok et al – have been negligent in dealing with the impacts of their social media and messaging products.
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Cities and towns across Massachusetts and few in other states have adopted Visual Budget, either the new WordPress plug-in or the original.
On May 1, 2025 (Law Day), lawyers across the country are encouraged to participate in #ReaffirmTheOath—a nonpartisan, nonpolitical national grassroots effort empowering lawyers in communities large and small to speak out, stand together, and publicly renew their commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law.