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The evolution of technology and media has consistently changed how political campaigns reach prospective voters.

First it was through partisan newspapers and political cartoons. Then came the explosion of radio and television. And now, candidates find themselves navigating the vast Internet landscape in their bid to get voters to the polls.

While the embrace of social media was a notable feature of Barack Obama and Donald Trump’s respective presidential campaigns, the 2024 contest revolutionized the way in which candidates engage new voters across Big Tech platforms.

Rather than solely rely on digital ads and traditional forms of marketing, the Trump-Vance campaign scheduled the incoming president and vice president to appear on numerous high-profile podcasts. In the waning months of the election, Trump sat down for wide-ranging interviews with notable podcasters and comedians like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Andrew Schulz — whose programs collectively reach tens of millions of listeners across various platforms.

But the campaign wasn’t the only entity attempting to reach this seemingly untapped well of prospective voters, however.

Working behind the scenes was Vote4America, a get-out-the-vote venture launched earlier this year that partners with conservative-leaning content creators. In collaboration with these influencers, the group sought to engage unregistered and low-propensity voters favorable to Republican causes ahead of the 2024 contest, such as those who listen to programs about outdoor sports (hunting and fishing) and veterans’ issues.

“This [was] not a ‘Turnout your base’ [election]. This [was] a ‘Go find new voters and low propensity voters and get them to the polls’ [election]. And it was the low-propensity voters that we have been focusing on the whole time, ” Vote4America spokesman Stephen Aaron told The Federalist.

How It Worked

Aaron told The Federalist the core of Vote4America’s strategy was to engage low-propensity voters by working with creators who have established a relationship with their respective audiences. Citing Americans’ waning trust in legacy media, he noted the significance of reaching voters “through these channels and through the people that they trust.”

Voters “don’t trust the [corporate] media because they [feel] like it’s been lying to them for years. So, they don’t watch it,” Aaron said. “So, how do you influence them? You go through the people they trust.”

A post-election Navigator Research survey among 5,000 self-identified 2024 general election voters notably found that a significant percentage of swing voters and new Trump voters received their news from non-corporate media sources. According to a poll summary, “Leading up to the election, 45 percent of ‘swing voters’ and 52 percent of new Trump voters cited getting their news through social media, a far greater share than the national electorate (37 percent).”

“Alternative news sources like social media and podcasts were much more prevalent among ‘swing voters’ (52 percent) and new Trump voters (59 percent) compared to the overall electorate (43 percent),” the summary reads.

Data obtained by The Federalist shows that Vote4America coordinated with 479 social media influencers and nearly 100 podcasts to message the importance of voting in the 2024 election. Trump appeared on some of these podcasts, such as that of former Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan. Vote4America estimates their partners’ get-out-the-vote (GOTV) content reached “tens of millions” of Americans and generated approximately 3.5-4 billion impressions.

Aaron noted that while the full effect of Vote4America’s efforts won’t be fully known until the 2024 election results are certified and the states “upload their database[s] of who actually voted,” there are promising signs the group’s strategy paid off.

He said that Vote4America has been able to “positively identify” roughly 155,000 newly registered voters out of its database of unregistered gun owners and hunters, a number he added “is going to increase as the states continue to upload their voter registration files.” Using internal data, the group approximates that roughly 13 percent of the more than 80 million early votes cast came from first-time voters, according to Aaron.

The group estimates its efforts generated even more first-time votes from other demographics outside hunters and gun owners but notes that such figures are untraceable.

Aaron claimed the biggest hurdle for Vote4America was getting election strategists to understand that it was “low propensity voters [who] were going to swing this election” and “that talking to low propensity voters over social media was going to be the most effective way to do that.”

“There’s very much a growing awareness now that there’s only so many people who watch mainstream media,” he said. “You cannot reach [these prospective voters] unless you’re going through the people that they are subscribing to. And that’s why this social media play worked — because we talked to very specific niche audiences through the content creators that the public was listening to.”

Changing Political Campaigning for the Better

Aaron argued that Americans’ waning trust in legacy media to deliver news honestly and fairly, combined with the increasing percentage of voters receiving news from podcasts, presents an opportunity to dramatically alter how candidates reach voters in elections moving forward.

The Vote4America spokesman compared the aforementioned strategy shift to how the first televised presidential debate between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon in 1960 shaped future contests. Scholars have long analyzed the potential effect the broadcast of the candidates’ physical appearances had on voters’ preferences and the subsequent outcome of the election, often contrasting Kennedy’s youthful appearance with Nixon’s disheveled look.

The 2024 election “was largely the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debate, where after that debate, if you could not perform on TV, you could not succeed in politics,” Aaron said. “And what we’re going to see [moving forward] is that if you can’t perform on these long-form, authentic platforms [and] can’t be yourself … you’re not going to be able to perform in politics.”

Unlike Trump, Kamala Harris regularly struggled to cast herself as a likeable and authentic candidate during the 2024 race. Even when appearing on Democrat-friendly programs like the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, the vice president came across as scripted and failed to connect with audiences in ways that would generate excitement for her candidacy.

Citing Harris’ failed presidential bid, Aaron opined that performing on podcasts and in long-form interviews has become the new litmus test for candidates seeking public office. He also credited Trump’s outgoing persona and willingness to speak his mind for setting such a standard.

“Trump has largely removed shame from politics, and so you don’t have to be quite as concerned anymore about, ‘Oh, am I going to say the wrong thing?’” Aaron said. “There wasn’t one candidate in this election cycle who lost his election because of a one-sentence slip in an interview or on a podcast. So, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. What you have to worry about is: Can you be yourself in front of an unfiltered, raw audience?”

The Road Ahead

The Vote4America GOTV model isn’t solely reserved for presidential elections, according to Aaron. The group’s spokesman revealed that the conservative-leaning organization is looking at replicating its strategy for future off-year and midterm elections.

“The tactics are exactly the same, [but] the targeting is a little bit different,” he said.

Aaron detailed how the group will work with content creators “who speak to audiences” in any given state to methodically target low-propensity, GOP-friendly voters. He expressed optimism that this strategy could help alleviate lower voter turnout typically experienced in non-presidential elections.

“We’re already looking towards 2026 and engaging these content creators to keep this movement going,” Aaron said. “This is what this community does. We vote. We have a problem, and we know the solution is voting … We just have to keep doing it, to keep the messaging apparatus moving.”

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood