ROKK Partner and Democratic strategist Kristen Hawn and Former Trump White House Cabinet Secretary William McGinley sat down with Fox News to debate top issues impacting voters’ decisions ahead of the 2022 midterm elections- watch the segment here.
FOX NEWS: Political panel-‘Pocketbook, kitchen table’ issues will decide the midterms
Establishment Democrats had a good night in the late August primary elections — results that could be interpreted as a sign Democratic voters want to play it safe in the 2022 midterms as they battle to hold on to the House and Senate majorities. In this Hill article, ROKK Co-founding Partner Rodell Mollineau discusses a few key primary election races and notes that many Democrats’ perceptions of anti-establishment candidates do play a role in voter behavior.
Some Democrats in tight re-election contests are distancing themselves from President Biden’s student-debt plan, which put a contentious issue front and center with voters just as the party seemed to be regaining ground headed into the 2022 midterm elections. Kristen Hawn, ROKK Solutions Partner and Democratic strategist, explains that she expects abortion access and concerns over rising food and gas prices to continue to be more of an issue for voters in the midterms rather than Biden’s student-loan announcement, in this Wall Street Journal article.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney’s GOP primary defeat this week did more than just end her family’s dominance in U.S. politics dating back to her father’s role as President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff in 1974. It also marked the coming end of a long stretch of at least 75 years of somebody from one of America’s modern political dynasties serving in federal elected or appointed office. Co-founding Partner Ron Bonjean checks in with Washington Secrets Columnist in this Washington Examiner article.
Climate change is real and it’s caused by humans. At least, that’s what nearly half of U.S. adults believe, according to a Pew Research Center survey from January 2022. If the majority of Americans don’t agree on the existence of anthropogenic climate change, how can we hope to combat it? By advocating for a clean energy source that fights climate change and bolsters our economy in tandem — nuclear energy. Whether you’re an environmental activist or a voter concerned about the economy and energy security, with nuclear energy, you can have your yellowcake and eat it too.
ROKK Senior Account Executive Ben Khoshbin talks about the bipartisan power of nuclear energy in his first op-ed as an and Energy & Environment Writing Fellow with the American Conservation Coalition and Young Voices- read the article here.
Kansas is no swing state. It hasn’t supported a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, and hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since the 1930s, and it even inspired the book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.”
And yet, in a sense, Kansas is a swing state this year. The states already defied national expectations with this month’s vote on abortion. Its race for governor, likely to be one of the closest in the country, will test whether ticket-splitting in national and state elections — which put Republicans Mitt Romney and Charlie Baker in charge of Massachusetts, and Democrat Laura Kelly in the Kansas governor’s mansion — falls victim to today’s hyperpartisan, lockstep politics.
Get more from Senior Vice President James Nash on ticket-splitting at the state and national level, in this opinion piece for The Hill.
Summer is here and believe it or not, 2023 is just around the corner… so now is the time to start planning your digital ad buys for the rest of the year! Our award-winning digital team shares their tips for making the most of your budget in the ever-changing advertising environment:
• Allocate (more) digital ad budget to partners with no minimum spend and to those who haven’t increased costs. These partners are ideal for organizations to leverage test/learn/optimize strategies with their buys. And don’t summer siesta on Direct-to-Publisher news sites and first-party data partners/ad networks that are keeping costs status-quo to compete.
• Increasing global digital ad costs shouldn’t equal decreased spending. Costs are rising across paid social, search and programmatic platforms due to inflation, increased digital consumption, platform demand and saturation. But that doesn’t mean you should spend less in the U.S. You’ll fall behind those who continue to advertise.
• Optimize for target engagements and deeper actions. If your desired paid platform impressions are more costly, pivot and set campaigns to serve to key audiences who are more likely to engage with, click on or convert (email sign-up, take action, etc.) through your ad.
• Invest in great creative, SEO and measurement. Evolving imagery, video, keywords and analytics will only further optimize your ad results, allowing you to get more for each buck.
• Activate paid social media influencers. In addition to ads, paid influencers remain a great and growing way to pay to play, allowing you to reach followers of trusted spokespeople.
• Plan and secure budgets now for year’s end and 2023. First is the best… Set funds aside in advance so it’s not a last minute C-suite fight for your right to win against competitors at the digital ads party.
Let’s get to work! Email Rachel today.
The White House has a new messaging challenge on its hands: Donald Trump.
President Biden, wary of appearing to influence the ongoing Justice Department investigation into the former president, doesn’t want to talk about the FBI search earlier this week at Mar-a-Lago.
Democrats say that’s the right approach, but it means Republicans hurling accusations and condemnations at the Justice Department and FBI will largely go unanswered by the White House. Co-founding Partner Rodell Mollineau comments on the Democrats’ approach here.
The FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home Monday was unprecedented, prompting days of global news coverage and commentary on motivations, implications and ramifications.
Key players no one has heard from: the Justice Department or the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
That silence has prompted leading Republicans to demand an explanation from Attorney General Merrick Garland as well as to criticize the operation as politically motivated overreach.
Prominent Democrats have said that they want the Justice Department to pursue its investigation wherever it leads without interference; the White House has been largely mum.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers, while speaking publicly about some aspects of the search, have declined to provide key details such as which documents the agents took from the Palm Beach, Fla., property.
The result: The public is in the dark about basic facts and key questions that the operation raised in one of the most controversial and high-profile FBI actions in years.
Ron Bonjean, Co-founding Partner at ROKK, shares his take with The Wall Street Journal- read it here.
“This bill is shaping up to be something that is custom designed to get at what is on the minds of everyday Americans, which is rising costs and inflation,” said ROKK Solutions Senior Vice President and former Krysten Sinema Comms Director John LaBombard, when he stopped by CNN to discuss the $700 billion economic package. John shared his perspective with John Berman and Brianna Keilar- watch the segment here.