The Scoop
A rising Democratic advertising firm has a stern message for members of its party: Get comfortable making social media content or step aside.
In a strategy memo shared with Semafor that will be sent to Democratic campaigns and firms Monday morning — titled Who’s Afraid of Social Video? National Democrats, Apparently — Van Ness Creative Strategies issued a strong warning about the party’s communication strategy, saying that Democrats in key 2026 battleground districts are “failing” to reach Americans online.
“Electeds, candidates, and organizations must take social media seriously,” the memo says. “If you do not feel like you can handle communicating directly with voters or constituents… now is a great time to retire.”
The memo continued: “After an election where the Democrats lagged woefully behind on social/new media, the party is too slow to adapt to the current social media landscape. While digital media has pivoted to video, from video, and back again over the past decade+, many Dems have not treated new media like the primary resource it is.”
The ad firm said that it had spent the past several weeks surveying the accounts of frontline congressional Democrats up for election in 2026. A significant portion had left their personal and campaign social media accounts dormant. Only 16% post videos often or even occasionally on their campaign accounts, the firm found, and only 4% are posting there more than once a week.
The lack of communication by Democrats on shortform social video has effectively ceded that ground to other perspectives, and will make it that much harder for Democrats when they try to introduce themselves to voters next year.
“People are on their phones. They’re on their phones a lot. If they’re not hearing from you, they’re hearing from someone else,” the memo said.
The organization offered a list of do’s (be consistent, speak extemporaneously, post frequently across all platforms, and highlight constituents) and don’ts (don’t just read a script, don’t hop on viral trends in an awkward way). It also highlighted some of the strong Democratic voices across the party’s ideological spectrum, noting that North Carolina Attorney Gen. Jeff Jackson, Sen. Adam Schiff, and New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé had all cultivated massive followings online by posting unscripted direct-to-camera videos consistently.
While VNCS knocked incumbent Democrats for their lack of engagement, the organization said that 2026 Senate primary candidates had taken a much more aggressive approach with frequent posts.
Know More
As Democrats self-flagellate over 2024, the party’s younger, savvier strategists have seen some positive signs.
This cohort points to New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s rout of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in June’s New York City Democratic mayoral primary, on the back of a viral video campaign and podcast tour. They also note the successes of lawmakers like Schiff, who have seen massive audience growth by throwing themselves enthusiastically into YouTube, and the virality of new media appearances by people like Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Ro Khanna.
Not all of these efforts have been well-received. After launching a podcast in which he talked at length with Republican pundits, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has slightly retooled his show, bringing in guests who are more palatable to his supporters.
Newsom told Semafor earlier this year that he wanted his podcast to “soften the edges of the world that we’re living in, political world, to try to distill a better sense of well-being.”
“It’s just exploring the other side. Why are they kicking our ass?” Newsom said. “Why are these guys so successful? They are. I mean, I’m sorry, Democrats, they are.”
He continued: “[Conservatives] feel like we talk down to them, that we talk past them,” he said. “It’s the elitism of being so f*cking judgmental and being so quick to dismiss people. So what I’m trying to do is acknowledge that criticism.”