State Sen. Rachel Ventura (IL-43)
Key Items
- Ventura ran against an appointed incumbent who outraised her 65-to-1
- Our field program out-contacted Mattson 15-to-1, powered by the NWF fellowship program's massive calling and texting infrastructure
- Our data-first approach helped her overcome the institutional disadvantage to win a 15-point victory.
The Challenge
Ventura ran against an appointed incumbent who outroaised her 65-to-1 and had the backing of the state party, labor unions, both U.S. Senators and the governor. Our data-first approach helped her overcome the institutional disadvantage to win a 15-point victory.
The Strategy
As a county supervisor, Ventura had some residual name recognition. Rather than go negative, we chose to attack the corruption of the Democratic machine and portray her as an independent leader.
- Independent Branding: We designed mailers focusing on her support from pro-choice groups like Planned Parenthood, highlighting that she had no strings attached to the corruption of the machine.
- Mailer Program: We cleverly deflated negative attacks by making fun of the opponent's "junk mail" in a final mailer that corrected their inaccuracies.
- Massive Outreach: Our field program out-contacted Mattson 15-to-1, powered by the NWF fellowship program's massive calling and texting infrastructure.
Software & Data
NWF leveraged an in-house data scraper to automate weekly reports based on social media performance, optimizing models developed for previous campaigns.
- By leveraging multivariate regression on features such as election history and sentiment analysis, NWF generated curated messaging and optimal communication modes.
- Despite being outroaised 18-to-1, NWF’s software facilitated a voter outreach operation outperforming Mattson 15-to-1.
Outcome
Through these efforts, Ventura defeated Mattson in the Democratic primary, 57.4% to 42.5%, and her margin of victory in the general election was nearly identical to that of the governor’s race in the district.
CONTACT US
Innovative campaign solutions, at all levels. Leave us a message and get in touch!
