Sen. Fred Love for Governor of Arkansas
A digital, fundraising, and communications proposal from VoteShift — built to turn six months of runway into a small-dollar engine, a contrast message, and a race Sanders doesn't see coming.
The candidate
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the most vulnerable Republican governor in the country. This is the race to take her down.
Three things make Arkansas the sleeper race of 2026. None of them last forever, and the team that moves first sets the frame the rest of the cycle plays inside.
Sanders is collapsing at home.
Her approval has cratered. Recent national polling shows Trump's numbers dipping in Arkansas alongside hers. The tax cut she just signed for the wealthiest Arkansans, while gas prices climb, is the kind of unforced error that defines a one-term governor.
The villain creates a fundraising rocket.
National Democratic donors will fund a serious challenge to Sarah Huckabee Sanders. They've been waiting for one. A disciplined direct-to-donate program tied to a clear contrast message turns national appetite into millions of small-dollar contributions over six months.
The runway is real — barely.
Six months is enough to build a small-dollar engine, scale a digital operation, and execute the field program required to surprise Sanders in the final 45 days. It is not enough time to wait. Every week between now and Labor Day is a week of compounding list growth.
VoteShift wants to help build that operation. This proposal lays out how.
10 sections · 6-month engagement
Built outside the Beltway. Built to win.
VoteShift is a Democratic media, buying, and consulting firm based in Birmingham, Alabama. Founded by Daniel Deriso and Griff Gray, two organizers turned strategists, we produce media, run media buying in-house, and build the digital infrastructure that campaigns need to communicate, organize, and win. We've been recognized as Reed and Pollie award winners for our creative work.
We've been working with Mayor Frank Scott Jr. since his 2018 election, and we're continuing with him through 2026. That relationship gives us ground-level intelligence on Arkansas politics, the Little Rock media market, and the kind of operation it takes to win statewide attention from a base in Pulaski County.
Five things win this race.
Not a 40-point plan. Five pillars, each of them mechanical, each of them measurable, each of them in motion by Week One.
Make Sanders own everything.
Every ad, email, text, and post drives one frame: Sarah Sanders works for the wealthy and powerful. Fred Love works for Arkansas. The tax cut. Gas prices. The Trump alliance. The failure to deliver. Three or four issues that move voters — everything else falls out of the contrast.
Build the small-dollar engine.
Compelling villain plus credible challenger is the formula. Launch direct-to-donate immediately, scale as ROI proves out, and feed every donor into a list that powers email, SMS, and re-solicitation for the full cycle.
Tap the progressive national network.
Our relationships across the Bernie, AOC, and progressive PAC ecosystem give Love access to lists, endorsements, and split-send fundraising most firms can't offer. Our PAC, Forging Progress, raised ~$250K for Democrats this past year through that network alone.
Show up where voters actually are.
Arkansas voters live on their phones — Meta, Instagram, and the open web. That's where this campaign earns its small-dollar list, its message reach, and its persuasion impressions. We can target at the county level and below and adjust creative weekly based on what's working.
Move fast.
Sanders has a head start because she's the incumbent. Every week we wait is a week she defines herself unopposed. We can have ads in market within 48–72 hours of a signed contract. That's how this race gets close before she sees it coming.
A scoped engagement — digital, fundraising, content.
The services where VoteShift can deliver the most leverage for the campaign in the shortest time. We work alongside the existing campaign team and external vendors as needed.
Digital Advertising
Full in-house production of video, static, and motion creative. In-house Meta and paid-social buying at 10% commission with no third-party markups. Modular creative built for rapid testing, iteration, and message adjustment as the race evolves.
Direct-to-Donate Fundraising
Meta direct-to-donate program designed to acquire small-dollar donors at scale. We've run programs that raised $100K in two months on $60K of spend for a comparable race. Every donor acquired feeds the list and becomes available for re-solicitation via email and SMS.
Email + SMS Program
List build, segmentation, and ongoing fundraising / persuasion comms. Internal list management plus access to Forging Progress PAC and partner network for split-send fundraising. Text rentals through Grassroots Analytics and Hockey Stick where ROI justifies it.
Content & Communications
Docu-style candidate shoots that capture organic moments to anchor long-form content and 15–30 second ad cuts. Scripted creative when the moment demands it. Rapid response content within hours when Sanders does something newsworthy. (And she will.)
Field & Distributed Organizing
Strategic counsel on the canvassing, phone banking, and distributed organizing operations that win the final 45 days. Griff Gray helped manage Bernie Sanders' statewide field operations across roughly a dozen states in 2020. Deployed as consulting — or full execution if the campaign wants it.
This engagement focuses on leverage. The full services menu is on Slide 09 — anything outside the scope above can be added by addendum.
Track record, by the numbers.
Stats from comparable engagements. We pitch what we've already done — not what we'd like to do — and we share the math.
$60K of spend, run by us, produced a $100K small-dollar list for a comparable race. Run that math at Love-for-Governor scale and the engine pays for itself by month three.
Three ways to scale, built to grow with the campaign.
Every tier separates two things: a fixed monthly VoteShift retainer (set once based on final scope, $3–5K /mo) and the direct-to-donate ad spend that goes through us at a flat 10% commission. Projected raise per tier is based on our benchmark — $100K raised on $60K spend for a comparable race — applied at a conservative 1.5–1.75× ROI.
The starter
Launch the direct-to-donate engine, begin list building, and establish a baseline digital presence while fundraising scales.
- Direct-to-donate on Meta (test, learn, scale)
- 2–3 video assets per month (docu & scripted)
- Email: 4–6 sends per month
- SMS: monthly broadcast cadence
- Forging Progress PAC split-send (1 / mo)
- Weekly performance reporting
The serious program
Scale the small-dollar engine, build the digital presence Sanders will start to feel, and prepare the operation for the final push.
- Everything in Foundation, expanded volume
- Direct-to-donate at scale across Meta & paid social
- 4–6 video assets per month
- Static + motion graphics library for daily content
- Email: 8–12 segmented sends per month
- SMS: weekly cadence + split-send network
- 2–3 Forging Progress / partner split-sends per month
- Field organizing consulting on retainer
- Weekly strategy calls with senior team
The closer
The final 60–90 days when the race tightens and the campaign needs to maximize every channel. Recommended as cash on hand supports.
- Everything in Build, fully expanded
- Statewide paid-social saturation in the final 60 days
- Rapid response creative within 4–6 hours
- Content series + short-form documentary work
- Full distributed organizing build (execution, not consulting)
- Dedicated rapid-response team
- Weekly senior strategy calls
What the first seven days look like.
A signed contract should turn into ads in market — not into another month of planning calls. Here's the seven-day path from kickoff to data flowing.
Kickoff
- Kickoff call: VoteShift principals + campaign leadership + existing vendors
- Brand and asset audit
- Approval workflow established
Stand-up
- Meta and ad-platform account setup
- Pixel implementation on campaign website
- CRM integration for email + SMS
- Initial direct-to-donate creative drafted, submitted for approval
Live
- First direct-to-donate ads in market
- Initial email send to existing list
- Forging Progress PAC split-send copy drafted
Optimize
- Performance data flowing — first optimization round
- Strategy call with senior campaign team
- First Forging Progress split-send goes out
Ads running · baseline list build underway · first split-send executed · data starting to flow.
Everything we do, in one place.
Beyond this proposal's scope — but every category below can be added by addendum. All in-house. All full-time. No subcontracted production or buying.
Full-spectrum paid media
In-house production and buying across TV, radio, CTV/OTT, digital, and print. Modular creative built for rapid testing. 10% flat commission on media spend with no third-party markups underneath.
Campaign mgmt & message
End-to-end campaign management, race-level strategy, message development, and senior consulting across every channel. For clients that want the whole shop, not just a vendor.
Distributed field & volunteers
Canvassing, phone banking, and volunteer programs at scale. Distributed organizing infrastructure, tools, and training built around how modern campaigns actually run.
Brand systems & collateral
Candidate logos, full brand systems, websites, and print collateral. Designed for a consistent, recognizable identity across every voter touchpoint.
Daily content & community
Platform-native social strategy, daily organic content, and community management across Meta, Instagram, X, TikTok, and Threads. Feeds the paid program and the press cycle.
List build & fundraising
List build, segmentation, drip programs, and ongoing fundraising sends. Split-send distribution through Forging Progress PAC and the wider progressive partner network.
P2P & broadcast programs
Peer-to-peer and broadcast SMS for fundraising, GOTV, and rapid response. Vendor relationships pre-built through Grassroots Analytics and Hockey Stick.
Presidential-level production
Town halls, rally staging, signature campaign moments, and high-stakes media events. Production capability that scales from a press conference to a stadium rally.
Custom sites & tools
Donation sites, microsites, full candidate websites, and bespoke volunteer or data tools. Built when an off-the-shelf platform won't do.
Let's get on the air.
Path to signature
- Confirm scopeLock the recommended services and starting investment tier with campaign leadership.
- Sign contractTemplate is drafted and ready to send the day scope is confirmed.
- Kickoff callScheduled within 48 hours of contract signature. Existing vendors invited.
- Ads liveWithin 48–72 hours of kickoff. Data flowing by end of Week One.