Gabe Vasquez for Congress (NM-02)

Email
Advertising
Texting
Creative
Merch

Digital Fundraising to Win a Crucial Red-to-Blue Seat

THE STORY

Gabe Vasquez is a millennial, public servant, first-generation Mexican-American, son of New Mexico. In 2022, he ran for Congress in New Mexico’s 2nd congressional district for the first time against far-right extremist and then-Rep. Yvette Herrell.

From the outset, our messaging focused on Gabe's background: raised by a single mother, Gabe worked incredibly hard, spending his career giving back to his community as a member of the Las Cruces City Council, a conservation advocate, and a staff member for the popular Sen. Martin Heinrich. 

There was a stark contrast between him and his opponent. Time and time again, her political stances went against the best interests of New Mexicans, including voting to overturn the 2022 presidential election results, voting against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and supporting the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade and roll back reproductive rights. 

OUR OBJECTIVE

FOGLAMP was brought on prior to launch to build Gabe’s digital fundraising program into a significant revenue stream for the campaign, while remaining true to the candidate. To do that, we:

  • Built a voice-driven email and texting program that put supporters first.

  • Invested strategically in list-growth and direct donate advertising.

  • Integrated creative design and merch to increase digital revenue streams.

A Public Servant vs. a MAGA Extremist

From the outset, we focused on why Gabe was the right candidate for NM-02 by telling Gabe’s story and contrasting him to Herrell’s extreme record as an election denier who bragged about her association with insurrectionists.

In a district with a strong independent swing, we wanted to focus on one key message: that New Mexico’s 2nd district being represented by a far-right extremist is against the best interest of New Mexicans of all stripes.

Email Fundraising

A smart email program builds trust with its users, instead of treating them like ATMs or tricking them into giving with gimmicky tactics. Why? Because in a district like this, a campaign’s donors are also its volunteers and its voters.

We focused the overwhelming majority of list growth in the district and Albuquerque (formerly in the district), growing it nearly 10 times over in 14 months. We did that by taking Gabe’s small but mighty core list and building it up with additional high-quality, in-state names. Our content program struck a balance between voice-driven fundraising messages, bilingual emails, and even content with no asks.

And the campaign’s return on investment in their email program was over 800%. 

Smart, Early Investments in Advertising

In 2022, few upstart Congressional campaigns saw the success that 2018 and 2020 candidates saw in direct donate advertising. Facebook was no longer a reliable revenue source.

Staying true to Gabe’s commitment to the district, we focused our efforts on raising from small-dollar donors in-district. We strong investments in search — both in-state and nationally — to attempt to find additional streams of revenue when Facebook was.

Direct Donate Fundraising

Our Facebook advertising campaigns saw an immediate 150% return on investment from ads targeted in-district. In-district search ads ran at 388% immediate ROI and national ads ran at 579% immediate ROI, with a combined immediate ROI over 448% for all search advertising. 

Striking While the Iron Was Hot

As with our other channels, we wanted to make sure we treated our texting universe with respect. For the majority of the campaign, we made sure to keep the list active, while deploying texts at strategic moments (EOM, EOQ, and rapid response) for fundraising. 

After the primary, we increased the volume of texting significantly — from once or twice a month to several times a month — while keeping fundraising performance steady and list attrition low.

Text Messaging

Over the course of the campaign, texting proved to be a reliable source of digital revenue. Gabe’s texting program had an average ROI of 342% per text, with an overall program ROI of 358%.

Merch Design

In an incredibly crowded political landscape, it can be tough for merch to stand out. Many House races don't invest in merch, and those that do often struggle to make their money back or sell enough to justify the effort.

In building Gabe’s merch, we started with simple creative utilizing the campaign logo and then we tapped into resonant phrases and illustrations.

Tying New Mexico’s Artistic Culture into the Campaign

We collaborated with members of the campaign's staff, helping us utilize colors associated with the beautiful landscapes and natural resources across the state.
But this poster not only stood out, it became a hot commodity. They sold out. We then turned the design into totes, tshirts, and stickers, even running an advertising campaign to sell merch through Facebook ads.

The Results

Gabe ultimately won by a slim 0.68% margin, or 1,350 votes, making NM-02 the closest Congressional race in 2022. And digital fundraising had a huge impact on his success in this race:

  • Our program spoke to Gabe's spirit — he's a kind, caring, public servant who cares so deeply about his district, his home. And you see that in every aspect of the digital campaign — from email and texting to advertising and merch.

  • Digital fundraising brought in $1.045 million, nearly one-third of the campaign’s overall budget. Strong fundraising in the final weeks helped the campaign reinvest in cut back paid media budgets in a super tight election.

  • We built a list that lasted from launch to E-Day… and for the next election. In Cook Political Report’s first rating of the 2024 House races, they named Gabe one of the top 20 most endangered Democrats. And the program we built will help support his campaign through to the next election.

Award winner:

  • 2023 AAPC Pollie Award winner for Overall Best Fundraising Campaign

  • 2023 Reed Award Winner for Best Piece of Campaign Merch