The altered media consumption habits of Americans have caused a rethinking of the traditional reliance on TV ads as a campaign persuasion tactic. | David Goldman/AP Photo 2020 Elections Eyeing 2020, Priorities USA blows up ‘television-first strategy’ Top Democratic super PAC rethinks campaign ad spending.

Priorities USA Action, the top Democratic super PAC targeting President Donald Trump in 2020, is promoting its head of digital operations to a new role overseeing all paid media — something akin to a watershed moment in presidential politics.

The move to install Danielle Butterfield as paid media director leading the organization’s integrated marketing effort, first reported by POLITICO, is a tacit acknowledgment of the growth of digital spending as a share of campaign ad dollars. It’s also a sign that the primacy of television and radio advertising, traditionally a presidential campaign’s biggest expense, is fading.


While television remains the dominant platform for reaching mass audiences, the altered media consumption habits of Americans have caused a rethinking of the traditional reliance on TV ads as a campaign persuasion tactic. At the same time, Democrats have struggled to keep up with Republicans in the digital space.

Butterfield spent the midterm cycle running media and analytics at Priorities, after serving as Hillary Clinton’s deputy director of digital advertising in 2016 and on the Obama campaign in 2012. Priorities’ leaders said her charge will be to treat paid communication as one holistic program.

“We will not operate off of a television-first strategy,” Guy Cecil, the group’s chairman, said in an interview. “We will operate off of a strategy that is simple and straightforward: We’re going to identify our targeted voters and we’re going to develop a paid media program that reaches them, whether it’s television or digital.”

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Cecil was one of the most sought-after political aides by 2020 campaigns, and his decision to remain at Priorities is viewed as a stabilizing force for the organization. Patrick McHugh also will stay on, filling the executive director job and running day-to-day operations.

The super PAC will work on building out digital infrastructure, offering training programs and continue to be involved in digital campaigns for down-ballot races. The group has also expanded beyond the typical candidate-focused super PAC, branching out into issues like voting rights and related litigation.

In addition, Priorities is creating a new political department charged with building coalitions and tracking what’s happening on the ground in targeted states. Alejandra Castañeda will be the deputy political director and Jenn Stowe, the digital chief of staff during the 2018 cycle, will oversee the unit as deputy executive director.

The super PAC, which relied on a primarily digital ad strategy for the midterms, is staying neutral in the Democratic primary — it anticipates playing a leading role in trying to rough up Trump. The group has already received more than $70 million in funding commitments to date, officials told POLITICO, putting Priorities well ahead of its 2016 pace when it spent nearly $200 million trying to elect Clinton.

The first 2020 online ads are likely to surface before the end of the second quarter. But officials don’t envision airing TV ads this year, and possibly not until Democrats select their nominee. Cecil said he doesn’t have a breakdown of anticipated digital-to-TV spending for the entire presidential cycle but pledged a more “balanced” approach than it took in 2016, when much of the focus was still on TV.

Butterfield said she views the ad spending breakdown as a “moving target,” and added the fast-moving nature of the ad field will make the 2020 landscape vastly different than it is today.

“There’s been a lot of debate in the last couple months, and frankly years, about what role digital should play holistically across the campaign and across political organizations,” she said. “I am just frankly excited to have this opportunity at Priorities to stick around and lead the endeavor that will kind of collapse that line and allow me to put together a comprehensive media program that reaches voters where they are, regardless of channel.”

