In November 2020 Congressman Dean Phillips won re-election by the same vote share as 2018, all without a dime spent on TV advertising—and in the middle of a pandemic that required the campaign to shift its ‘Everyone’s Invited’ organizing approach to an all-digital engagement strategy.

United Strategies Partner Richard Carlbom worked tirelessly to support the DeanTeam and its transition to this all-digital campaign strategy, ensuring that volunteers, donors, and staff members felt the same or similar level of engagement as in 2018.

A strategic decision early on, the campaign chose to invest in digital advertising and not traditional television advertising. This resulted in the opposition outspending Congressman Phillips $810,000 to zero on TV—a bulk of the advertising including false negative attack ads.

The DeanTeam invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in highly targeted digital ads that focused on issues voters care most about: working in a bipartisan to bridge the divide in our country.