Republicans Sent More Mail
Hey y’all!
In the wake of last year’s election, I was looking for answers. The first place I went was the American Association of Political Consultants’ “Walls Down” meeting, where key staff and consultants from both sides met and discussed what went right, and what went wrong.
I walked into that meeting sure Republicans had invented some new crazy way to find and talk to voters. There had to be some secret sauce recipe they cooked up, right? To my complete disappointment, the answer was very simple.
They sent more mail.
Along with the other normal campaign tactics they executed better than we did, they sent an incredible amount of mail. They started early, they kept it going, and they mailed huge universes that included people who never get mail. The team at Mintt, my new favorite people, have essentially developed an Ad Aware for direct mail, and they have the receipts.
It was the exact opposite of the playbook that I’d seen Democrats use, where resources are sparse until a month out from the election, and mail universes are often the smallest slice of voters you can talk to.
For Democrats, it seems like getting mail is a reward for being a good citizen, or a tactic to pressure people to do a thing they aren’t inclined to do. For Republicans, it’s a tool to activate, mobilize and engage. We can do that too! Here’s three ways I’m learning from Republicans this cycle:
Start Earlier: Republicans saw success starting mail in Week 10, and we’re silly if we think they won’t replicate that in 2026.
Go Smaller: One of the funner nuggets that I heard in Mintt’s AV Summit presentation in April is that Republicans send smaller, letter-rate mail at a much higher frequency. If I’m asking for more budget to start earlier, I think a fair trade is to use the 6”x11” more often and drive down some costs.
Go Bigger: These mail universes need to broaden out. While direct mail remains our most effective and trusted targeted medium to talk to voters, we’re limiting ourselves if we’re slicing and dicing for the sake of it. People like getting mail, we know it’ll get delivered, and voters trust the mail they get more than any other method of political communications. Let’s send it to more people!
I’m glad that we have this data, and I can’t wait to use it to build better, smarter programs that win primaries, flip seats and get us out of this mess.
– Ansley