Does digital campaigning actually matter in elections?

According to a new study from the Center for Campaign Innovation, the answer is yes — and the consequences are real.

In this episode, Eric Wilson breaks down findings from a comprehensive analysis of the 2025 Virginia House of Delegates elections, where Democrats and Republicans ran vastly different digital programs — with very different results.

We talk about what the data shows, where each party is falling behind, which digital tactics actually move voters, and what tools campaigns still need to invest in if they want to compete.

We talk about what the data shows, where each party is falling behind, which digital tactics actually move voters, and what tools campaigns still need to invest in, if they want to compete. If you work in politics, campaigns, or digital strategy, this is a must-catch conversation.

Find links, the full transcript, and more at HelloMergeTag.com.

Miles Bruner spent 12 years working in the Republican ecosystem, first as a grassroots organizer in Orange County, California, then as a digital fundraising strategist for one of the top GOP fundraising firms in the country. Recently, he went public with an article in The Bulwark detailing his decision to leave the Republican Party over its descent into authoritarianism and calling on his colleagues to do the same.

The piece, “My Last Day as an Accomplice of the Republican Party,” is powerful. Miles isn’t the first Republican to quit his party publicly; Tim Miller has written a whole book about his own journey. But I was particularly interested in talking to Miles because he worked in digital, inside a party he found himself agreeing with less and less.

To quote him briefly: “The clients I oversaw and the emails I wrote for them were all 100 percent pro-MAGA. Every piece of fundraising content had to somehow out-MAGA the previous. It was routine to publish content that pushed election fraud conspiracies, stoked anti-immigrant sentiment, and sowed distrust in our institutions.”

As he spells out, he couldn’t afford to leave, but couldn’t bear to stay. Ultimately his values won the day and here we are. He joined me on the pod to talk about what he saw from the inside—and what he thinks is coming next.

We covered:

• What's working on the right
• What he thinks is coming next
• The secret behind all those bible verses you see Republicans sharing on social
• Whether Google is actually preventing Republican emails from getting delivered? (Hint: it’s not!)
• Escaping the GOP cult
• And so much more!

Find links, transcript and more at HelloMergeTag.com.

"When you have worry and you have anger, you have attention."

Marine. Mechanic. Sports Radio Host. Raised in a trailer park. Fighter for the working class. That’s how Nathan Sage describes himself.

He also calls himself a loudmouth. And a tattooed, hairy, fat guy who says it how it is.

At first glance, he looks and sounds almost MAGA. But he’s running for Senate as a proud progressive, aiming to be a voice for Iowans who have been left behind by both parties. And he’s running one hell of a digital program.

He joined me on the pod and we talked about the power of authenticity, what's working on digital for him these days, why the messenger matters and so much more.

Find links, transcript and more at HelloMergeTag.com.

Gabbi Zutrau was Zohran Mamdani’s ManyChat wizard, helping drive tens of thousands of clicks and thousands of email subscribers from Instagram — all via automation, and all for just… $318.

But she's also so much more than just an automation expert! Gabbi took a brand new Instagram account from zero to 5 million views in just six weeks. And she used one simple trick (yes, really!) to help Zohran’s Instagram grow by over 500,000 followers heading into his primary night win.

For context: Zohran hit 1 million followers on election night. That means more than half came from that single tactic, in the lead-up to election night.

In this episode, we dig into:

• How Gabbi grew her own account from scratch
• The role she played in Zohran’s digital strategy
• Why campaigns should invest in digital early
• What authenticity in politics actually looks like
• One key shift campaigns can make to get more out of social media

…and so much more.

Find all episodes, a transcript, links and more at HelloMergeTag.com.

"Think more about the message you're trying to get across and then make the humor something that brings people in instead of pushing people away."

I met Mark Kendall and Bill Worley at Netroots this year and was super excited to invite them on the pod.

They’re doing something very unique in our space — using comedy, intentionally, to win hearts and change minds.

Their firm, CoolCoolCool Productions, is an Atlanta-based production company and boutique agency that uses comedy to encourage civic engagement and foster community.

Their videos have racked up tens of millions of views across social media. They’ve been featured on NPR and in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and named “Best Reason to Laugh” by Atlanta Magazine.

I went to a session they ran at Netroots, and every example they shared hit harder than the last. Thoughtful, smart, hilarious work—designed to move people.

Throughout our conversation, we talked about:

• their origin story
• the importance of finding joy, even in dark places
• why embracing specificity matters if you want to change hearts and minds
• how their process works
• the advice they’d offer to campaigns looking to use humor effectively
• and more

Find links, transcript and more at HelloMergeTag.com.

Kat Abughazaleh is running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th District.

I personally think she’s running one of the most innovate campaigns of the cycle, both from a digital and from a field perspective.

Listeners might remember Kat joined us back in April to talk about what it means to run a Bluesky-first campaign.

I’m super excited to have her back on the pod today to talk about how her campaign is navigating the internet, fascism and so much more.

Find links, episode transcript and more at HelloMergeTag.com.

“The most powerful form of engagement online is when a regular person posts on their channel about something they truly believe in.”

Tudor Mihailescu is a cofounder and CEO of SoSha, an AI powered social amplification platform that helps mission-driven organizations leverage the social clout of their communities. Before SoSha, Tudor did a PhD in political science focused on US Presidential Speechwriting patterns and cofounded a social network for politics called GovFaces.

Amanda Brink is the Executive Director of Empower Project, helping organizations grow relational organizing programs. Prior to Empower Project, she worked with Organizing For America, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Tony Evers first statewide race and beyond.

In 2024, they teamed up on a nano-influencer program. They facilitated 9 million relational conversations with 3 million potential voters across 10 targeted states.

They built a network of Community Mobilizers who collectively earned 80 million organic impressions on social media.

I invited them on the pod to unpack that work—how they built it, what they learned, and they think it means for the future of organizing and persuasion in the digital era.

Find links, transcript, additional episodes and more at HelloMergeTag.com.

“I've always believed in the power of storytelling and storytelling as a means for kind of creating understanding across difference."

Garima Verma is a strategist and storyteller who bridges the worlds of culture, politics, media and social change.

With over 10 years of experience spanning entertainment, political campaigns, and impact organizations, she specializes in transforming visionary ideas into actionable strategies, impactful programming and compelling narratives on-and-offline.

She’s worked across entertainment and politics—leading digital campaigns for Mission: Impossible – Fallout, black-ish, and The Oscars, as well as for Stacey Abrams’ 2022 gubernatorial run, Dr. Jill Biden’s FLOTUS office, and the Biden-Harris 2020 campaign.

Today, she partners with mission-driven leaders and organizations—from the DCCC to GoFundMe—to help them be more strategic online and maximize their impact in the digital age.

Her and I connected to talk about the importance of differentiating between digital strategy and digital tactics, setting appropriate KPIs, what DC can learn from Hollywood, how Zohran's campaign helped digital strategists everywhere and so much more.

Find links, transcript and more at HelloMergeTag.com.