Every cycle, Democrats build consultant-driven campaigns and then disband them
The consultants move on. The relationships lapse. The audience scatters. Whatever was learned is gone by January. The 80 is building permanent capability instead — a communications operation that works on state politics every day, between elections as well as during them.
A permanent HQ team that drives strategy and tactics around whatever each state team needs at that moment.
What this is
Drives strategy and tactics around whatever each state team needs at that moment. It holds the argument, the brand, and the institutional memory.
Built for action and activation in the states where we work — executing against a strategy, not writing one by committee from Washington.
Trusted local voices, community leaders, and aligned organizations who carry the message in the places where they already have standing.
Four commitments
We don't go dark between elections.
The value is in showing up every day for years — sustained attention, institutional memory, and a team that remembers what worked last time.
The work happens in states, not Washington.
National provides the strategy, the tools, and the scale. What gets said, and how, is shaped by the state it's said in.
One argument, in the language of every place we work.
The same center-left case everywhere, spoken in the culture, history, and idiom of each place — not translated, native.
Belonging before persuasion.
People form durable civic connections through shared experience, not through another political pitch. We build the social world first.
Three parts, one system
Creates and sharpens the story. The content, media, and technology that amplify center-left messaging and rebuild the Democratic Party brand.
Carries the story through trusted voices. The advocate and creator network. It takes its direction from the Engine and operates as its own program.
See Section 3.
Creates belonging, access, and a visible local community. Year-round, locally rooted social and cultural experiences in battleground communities.
Online, we build reach. In person, we build belonging. Through access, we build a network of trusted voices that wants to stay engaged.
What's in this section
| Part | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 1. The Budget | What the national team costs, what each state costs, and who is on the payroll |
| 2. What You're Funding | The six capabilities in four tiers, and The80 Live |
| 3. Invest in a State | A year in one state and the pilot loop |
| 4. What Happens When | The first twenty-four months, month by month |
| 5. How It Works | How work moves from signal to activation |
| 6. Accountability | The year-one scorecard |
| 7. Questions | What we get asked, and the honest answers |
| 8. Glossary | The terms, in plain English |
| 9. Next Steps | What has to happen from here |
Related sections of the donor book: Civic & Political (Section 1) · The Influencer Network (Section 3).
What it costs to build The 80 Engine
Move the slider to build the organization one step at a time. Each state brings a director and a full creative team. The last step adds the national team that runs across all of them. These figures are people only — salaries and benefits.
$1.5M
State directors — 6 × $250K
$5.9M
Contract creative teams — 6 × $984K
$84K
Healthcare & benefits — 6 directors
$3.165M
National team — 16 full-time roles
Line items at current settings
| Line | Basis | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|
| State directors | 6 × $250K salary — one per state | $1.5M |
| Contract creative teams (1099) | 6 × $984K — seven roles per state at $82K per month | $5.9M |
| Healthcare & benefits | 6 × $14K — state directors. 1099 contractors carry their own. | $84K |
| National team | 16 full-time roles — leadership, strategy, operations and the national creative team | $3.165M |
| Total | People only — salaries and benefits | $10.65M |
The national team
Who is working on this the day investors commit.
All full-time roles are W2 and fully remote. Figures shown are base salary.
Who the people are in each state, and what they do
Every state funded gets the same eight people. The director is a full-time employee; the creative team is contracted, which is what lets a state scale up around a moment and back down afterwards.
| Role | What they do | Basis | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Director | Owns the state. Holds the relationships with local leaders, partners and candidates, turns state needs into briefs, runs the team, and is accountable for what happens in that state. | W2 · $250,000 salary | $250,000 |
| Senior Writer | Sets the words. Writes the state narrative, message pillars, op-eds, scripts and the language everyone else works from. | 1099 · $15,000 / month | $180,000 |
| Senior Art Director | Sets the look. Owns the visual system for the state so the work reads as local rather than national material with a state name dropped in. | 1099 · $15,000 / month | $180,000 |
| Senior Content / Video Creator | Makes the highest-value video and audio — the pieces built to travel, and the material creators use in their own voice. | 1099 · $15,000 / month | $180,000 |
| Mid-Level Writer | Carries the daily volume. Social copy, rapid response, partner toolkits, and the continuous editorial drumbeat. | 1099 · $10,000 / month | $120,000 |
| Mid-Level Designer | Produces against the system — graphics, templates, partner assets, and everything that has to ship this week. | 1099 · $10,000 / month | $120,000 |
| Mid-Level Content / Video Creator | Shoots and edits the steady supply of short-form video and on-the-ground content from events and communities. | 1099 · $10,000 / month | $120,000 |
| Social Media Manager | Runs the channels day to day. Publishes, listens, engages, flags what needs a response, and reports what landed. | 1099 · $7,000 / month | $84,000 |
| Healthcare & benefits | Employer-paid medical, dental and vision for the state director. Contractors carry their own. | 1 × $14,000 | $14,000 |
| Total per state | Eight people, working the state continuously | $1,248,000 |
Source: The 80 Engine 2027 staff plan. The state director's fully loaded cost including software, equipment and travel is $274,600; the people-only figure shown here is $264,000. Change any assumption in the workbook and these figures move with it.
Research, strategy, creative and design, tactics and operations
Six capabilities in four tiers. Everything the operation can be asked to do sits in one of them.
Audience and cultural intelligence, message testing, and brand tracking. Establishes the baseline at the start so movement can be proved later.
Turns research into the actual case — culture strategy, positioning, narrative systems and messaging, and the toolkits partners and candidates work from.
Campaign platforms, creative concepts, identity systems, and creative direction — built so the work reads as local rather than national material with a state name dropped in.
The continuous supply of video, audio, images, and social content — including material shaped for creators to use in their own voice. Plus editorial and rapid response.
Putting the story into the physical world — experiential activations, community engagement, partnerships, and events people show up to. This is where The80 Live sits.
Distribution and measurement — social strategy, audience targeting, media planning and buying, optimization, and analytics.
The80 Live Proposed extension
The80 Live is the state-based live experience platform of The 80. It creates year-round, locally rooted social and cultural experiences that build belonging, surface trusted voices, and strengthen civic norms in battleground communities.
Belonging before persuasion. Human connection before mobilization. People are more likely to form durable civic connections through shared experience than through another political pitch. The aim is a richer, more welcoming, big-tent social world around the center-left — one that reflects the proposition that we agree on more than we do not.
Broad, public-facing, locally rooted events designed to create connection without a hard political ask.
- Fairs, neighborhood gatherings, community days, music, food, dancing, local festivals, family events, maker and cultural experiences
- Programming shaped by local customs, venues, artists, creators, civic groups, and community traditions
- No solicitation and no heavy pitch — the event should be worth attending on its own merits
- Civic and educational programming can be incorporated where appropriate, without turning the gathering into a seminar
The emotional objective is to make civic life feel social, normal, generous, and welcoming.
Curated experiences that deepen relationships with the influencer, creator, activist, ambassador, and trusted-voice network.
- Candidate conversations, creator briefings, small dinners, private salons, backstage gatherings, policy briefings, early access to emerging leaders
- More explicitly tied to political objectives and, where appropriate, candidate-specific activity
- The value is not content or compensation — it is access, community, status, information, relationships, and experiences
- Participants speak in their own voice rather than functioning as scripted surrogates
This turns the influencer platform from a CRM into a real community.
The operating distinction: community events build the movement; access events activate and deepen the network. The two sit under one brand while keeping separate objectives, audiences, and compliance treatment — with entity structure designed in from the outset rather than solved after events are conceived.
Who leads it
Owns the national concept, brand, standards, playbooks, and calendar logic. Integrates live programming with the Engine, the influencer network, and Civic & Political. Builds partnership and sponsorship frameworks and repeatable formats. Recruits and coaches state leads while preserving local autonomy.
Profile: not primarily a political operative — a cultural producer, movement builder, experiential strategist, festival operator, or hospitality executive who understands politics but knows how to create social gravity.
Owns the state's live calendar and cultural partnerships. Produces events shaped by local customs, communities, artists, venues, food, music, and civic life. Builds relationships with local creators, organizers, and community leaders. Treats energy, repeat participation, and local relevance as core performance measures.
Profile: need not come from campaigns — a strong candidate might come from a music festival, cultural institution, hospitality group, experiential agency, local media company, or community organization.
What a year in one state looks like
The most concrete version of where money goes: one state, one director, a full creative team, and a year of continuous work.
- State Director — owns the state, the relationships, and the plan
- Senior Writer
- Senior Art Director
- Senior Content / Video Creator
- Mid-Level Writer
- Mid-Level Designer
- Mid-Level Content / Video Creator
- Social Media Manager
The director is full-time and salaried. The creative team is contracted, which is what lets a state scale up around a moment and back down afterwards. Full cost breakdown and what each person does is on the budget tab.
- A written read of the state's politics, culture, media, and economy
- A state narrative and the messaging to carry it
- A measured baseline to judge future years against
- Continuous content in market, week after week
- Toolkits partners and candidates actually use
- A map of local voices and organizations worth working with
- Local voices and creators activated and measured
- A playbook other states can copy
The pilot: proving the whole loop in one place
Rather than build a national apparatus immediately, the model should be tested in one priority state and proved.
- State director and creative team in place
- State research and narrative completed
- Continuous content in market
- An executive producer engaged for live programming Proposed
- Map 20–30 existing local cultural, civic, creator, and venue relationships
- Launch a small roster of recurring public community events
- Create two to three invitation-only access experiences for the network
- Tie programming to the state narrative without making every event political
- Capture content, participation data, repeat attendance
- Gather partner feedback and network growth
- At 90–180 days, decide which formats deserve to scale
The first 24 months
What exists at each point, and when the first real proof arrives.
Stand it up
The short version
| By | Where things stand |
|---|---|
| 3 months | National leadership and strategy in place, the operating rhythm running, and the first state live with content in market. |
| 6 months | The model proven in practice, a written impact and learning report, and expansion into another state. |
| 12 months | What worked replicated, capacity added where demand showed up, coverage widened. |
| 18 months | Durable infrastructure — proprietary tools, institutional knowledge, and a repeatable model. |
| 24 months | It continues. Value compounds across states and cycles rather than resetting. |
From signal to activation
How work moves through the system — whether it's a two-year state narrative build or a four-hour response to an attack.
End to end
Find the real-world issues that move persuadable people.
Turn common ground into a story that sounds native to the place.
Build the messaging and keep content coming.
Reach, persuade, and convert through voices people already trust.
This adds a social layer to the workflow below. The difference is that convening and belonging become recurring inputs, not one-time outputs — every gathering surfaces new voices, new content, and local intelligence that feed the next round of work.
The full workflow
Eight steps, each with an owner and a defined output.
How work gets chosen
One intake system, four lanes.
| Lane | What it covers |
|---|---|
| State platform work | The long-term build in a state: narrative development, diagnostics, continuous editorial, coalition communications, audience building |
| Planned campaigns & moments | Time-bound pushes: policy campaigns, legislative moments, candidate support, issue launches, cultural moments |
| Rapid response | Breaking news, opposition attacks, viral narratives, candidate moments, cultural controversies |
| Effectiveness & infrastructure | The things that make everything else faster: templates, standards, technology, content libraries, dashboards, training |
How capacity divides across these lanes is strategy to determine — it will be set with leadership and reviewed once the operation is live.
What this looks like in practice
Building a state narrative from scratch
Listen & identify: review research and data, map the political, cultural, media, and economic context, audit what's already being said, map partners and trusted voices, and name the central tension.
Prioritize & strategize: select priority audiences and issues, define the affirmative state narrative, build message pillars and proof points, and set guardrails for local expression.
Create & activate: build the editorial and content system, develop partner and candidate toolkits, launch the first messages, activate local voices, and coordinate earned, owned, and paid.
Measure & learn: monitor narrative movement, compare messages and channels, scale what works, and update the state playbook.
Responding to an attack or breaking news
Listen & identify: monitor news, social, political, and cultural signals plus flags from state teams; confirm the facts; work out the response window; decide whether to respond at all.
Prioritize & strategize: assess relevance and urgency, check legal implications, confirm who approves, pick the posture, messenger, and channels.
Create & activate: core message and talking points, social and creative assets, an advocate brief, press materials — then release, amplify, and optimize live.
Measure & learn: track pickup and spread, watch the opposition's response, and update the rapid-response playbook.
A major moment — a bill, an election, a cultural flashpoint
Listen & identify: review audience, cultural, and political intelligence, assess the narrative environment, and pin down the moment and its timing.
Prioritize & strategize: confirm strategic importance, set budget and resources, assign leadership and an integrated team, and define the objective, audience, and measurement plan up front.
Create & activate: campaign platform and creative, content system, prepared spokespeople, message testing — then launch across owned, earned, advocate, and paid at once.
Measure & learn: monitor in real time, optimize, evaluate results, debrief, and decide on follow-on activity.
Continuous editorial — the daily drumbeat
Daily: monitor signals; spot emerging opportunities and threats; update the editorial queue; publish; optimize live content; flag anything needing rapid response.
Weekly: review signals and performance; set editorial priorities; assign content; coordinate with partners and advocates; update the rolling calendar.
Monthly: review narrative movement; evaluate formats, messages, and messengers; refresh priority themes; retire what isn't working; adjust strategy.
The year-one scorecard
The commitments for the first year. This is the accountability contract — the list to hold up at the twelve-month mark and ask, item by item, whether it happened.
- National leadership and operations established
- Governance and decision rights approved
- Research, platform, and media interfaces operating
- National creative team in place
- Core workflows and templates in use
- Technology stack selected
- Measurement dashboard live
- Target-audience reach achieved
- Priority states activated
- State research and narrative strategies completed
- Continuous editorial running in pilot states
- State partner ecosystems mapped
- First creator and media activations completed
- Brand and narrative baselines established
- Evidence of audience or partner response documented
- The 80 can deploy an integrated team into a state
- Partners and candidates can get real research, messaging, and content
- We can respond quickly to emerging moments
- Learning transfers between states
- Funders can see how investment connects to visible activity and outcomes
Live community measures Proposed
If The80 Live is built into the pilot state, these are the measures that come with it.
- Number and quality of recurring local events established
- Repeat attendance and community growth
- Number and quality of local partnerships
- New ambassadors, creators, community leaders, and local voices surfaced
- Creator, activist, ambassador, and trusted-voice participation
- Influencer-network participation and retention
- Content and stories generated from live experiences
- Post-event civic interest, referrals, and volunteer interest
- Trust, familiarity, perceived cultural fit, and belonging over time
- Evidence that live activity strengthens the local narrative environment
The questions we get, and the honest answers
Why a permanent operation? Why not just fund campaigns when they matter?
Because the value is in continuity. Sustained attention, institutional memory, continuous content, and accumulated learning are things a campaign cycle can't buy on a twelve-week timeline. This exists to build political and cultural momentum between cycles, so that when a cycle arrives there's already an environment to run in.
Isn't this just building another agency?
The design deliberately avoids it. What's permanent is the part that requires context and judgment — strategy, brand, editorial direction, relationships, and accountability for the money. In the states, the director is full-time and the creative team is contracted, which means capacity scales with the work instead of sitting idle between moments.
Who leads it?
A CEO and a Chief Creative Officer, both from day one. The model does not rest on a single hire, and no one person is a point of failure for the whole operation.
The rest of the national team covers research and narrative strategy, media and technology, state client management, finance, operations, project management, and a seven-person creative team. The full roster and what each role costs is on the budget tab.
Legal and compliance counsel, and a fundraising and donor communications partner, work directly with the team while sitting elsewhere in The 80.
How are the C3 and C4 kept separate?
By designing the entity structure in at the outset rather than solving it after programs are conceived. Educational and civic programming and candidate-specific or political activity each get clearly defined ownership, objectives, budgets, invitations, staff time, branding, and approval paths. Some activity sits cleanly in one lane; larger combined moments contain clearly separated components. Counsel defines the final operating rules — the strategic point is that the model preserves both kinds of activity rather than forcing everything into one format.
What stops this from growing into something bloated?
Permanent cost gets added on evidence, not ambition. A new permanent role requires demand that has held across multiple quarters, a capability that is strategically central, and a case that outside spending is approaching the cost of doing it internally. A new state requires approved priority, committed funding, identified leadership, and success measures that can actually be set. And the state creative teams are contracted rather than salaried precisely so capacity can come back down.
What does this become in two years?
Durable infrastructure — proprietary capabilities and institutional knowledge, a stronger distribution ecosystem, new revenue streams, a learning system that compounds across states, and a sustainable model for attracting talent. Not just communications infrastructure: social infrastructure for the center-left.
What's the test of whether this worked?
Two things. First, whether The 80 can point an integrated team at a state, produce high-quality work, push it out through the broader influence infrastructure, learn from what happened, and do it again better — that repeatability is the thing being built. Second, and ultimately, whether we win elections in those states at rates better than has historically been normal for them.
Terms, in plain English
Political communications runs on shorthand. Here's what the terms in this section actually mean.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| The 80 Engine | The permanent communications and content operation — the national team plus the state teams it supports |
| Narrative | The underlying story we're telling about the country and who's on whose side — bigger than any one message or ad |
| Messaging | The specific words and claims used to carry that story |
| Continuous editorial | Somebody publishing something every day, not just at campaign time |
| Rapid response | Answering an attack within hours instead of days |
| State team | The director and creative team working a single state |
| Local influence teams | Trusted local voices and community organizations who carry the message where they already have standing |
| Advocates / trusted voices | Real people with real followings and local credibility — not paid spokespeople |
| Creator-ready assets | Material shaped so someone can post it in their own voice rather than reading our script |
| The80 Live | The proposed live experience platform — year-round local events that build belonging rather than make a pitch |
| The80 Community | Public events anyone can attend, with no political ask |
| The80 Access | Invitation-only experiences for the creator and advocate network |
| The80 Moments | A larger cultural moment combining a public event with a private layer around it |
| State Executive Producer | The proposed person who would run a state's live events and cultural partnerships |
| Belonging before persuasion | The idea that people connect through shared experience first, and politics second |
| Regionally distinctive | Work that looks and sounds like it came from that place, not from a national office |
| Baseline | A measurement taken at the start, so movement can be proved later rather than asserted |
| Brand tracking | Regular polling on what people think of us and our ideas, over time |
| Persuadable | A voter whose mind is genuinely not made up |
| Earned media | Coverage we get because it's newsworthy, as opposed to advertising we pay for |
| Owned channels | Places we control — our own accounts, lists, sites, and events |
| Paid media | Advertising |
| Integrated brief | One document everyone works from, so paid, earned, and creator work all say the same thing |
| Toolkit | A ready-made packet a partner or candidate can pick up and use without starting over |
| Playbook | Written instructions for repeating something that worked |
| Pilot state | The first state where the full model gets tried before it's repeated elsewhere |
| W2 / 1099 | A salaried employee versus a contractor. The state director is salaried; the state creative team is contracted |
| CapEx / OpEx | One-time purchases like laptops, versus recurring costs like salaries and software |
| Run-rate | What something costs if every role is filled for a full twelve months |
| C3 / C4 | Two categories of nonprofit under US tax law with different rules about political activity; they must be kept separate |
What happens from here
The sequence that turns this from a plan into an operation.
- Approve what this operation is for
- Confirm governance and decision rights
- Confirm leadership structure
- Confirm the 2027 staff plan and the people-only view across all three sections
- Decide how many states come online, and when
- Cost The80 Live if it joins the pilot
- Confirm the year-one scorecard
- Finalize performance targets
- Set the six-month review date