What Danielle Butterfield has said about Political advertising

Butterfield argues Democrats are wrongly congratulating themselves for spending about half their budgets on digital when voters spend most of their time online.

“we're giving ourselves a pat on the back for spending half of our budget on digital in a world where voters are spending more than 80% of their day online”

Pod Save America: Lessons From 2026 (Live From Crooked Con) (Nov 11, 2026) · Listen from 9:06

Butterfield says campaigns must grapple with the fact that half of voters do not follow news or politics.

“just really grappling with the notion that 50% of voters don't pay attention to news or politics”

Pod Save America: Lessons From 2026 (Live From Crooked Con) (Nov 11, 2026) · Listen from 8:33

Butterfield argues that attention cannot be bought with money and must be earned even through paid media.

“We can't buy attention. We have to earn it. And so even when we're running paid media programs”

Pod Save America: Lessons From 2026 (Live From Crooked Con) (Nov 11, 2026) · Listen from 16:29

Butterfield says Democrats spend under 2% of paid media budgets on search advertising, far less than corporate advertisers.

“Democrats invest less than 2% of their paid media budgets on search advertising”

Pod Save America: Lessons From 2026 (Live From Crooked Con) (Nov 11, 2026) · Listen from 57:32