Want to know the current state of campaign politics? These announcement videos sum it up.
Plus: The right has an advantage on social media and here’s how wide the gap is
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at what we can learn from a pair of campaign announcement videos, one from each party, and which social networks right- and left-leaning news influencers thrive on.
Scroll to the end to see: the most surprising place I’ve ever encountered Bart Simpson 👦
Want to know the current state of campaign politics? These announcement videos sum it up.
If you’re curious what the 2026 midterms may hold, a pair of campaign announcement videos from two candidates of opposite parties running for governor in neighboring states gives us an early look.
While the political landscape will undoubtedly look different one year from November, campaign announcements this far out do show how candidates perceive attitudes within their own parties here and now. These aren’t general election ads, they’re meant for the party faithful, and released this early, they’re meant to plant a flag and dissuade primary challengers with messages that resonate with the base.
Karrin Taylor Robson, an Arizona Republican, and Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat, might not share much in common politically, and the imagery they use to illustrate their announcement videos couldn’t be more different, but they both reflect in their own ways the fact that the U.S. just elected Donald Trump president.
Robson is a land-use consultant and former member of Arizona’s Board of Regents, the governing body of the state’s universities. She ran for governor in 2022 and lost in the Republican primary to Kari Lake before Lake went onto lose her second consecutive statewide race.
Robson ran that year in the traditional Chamber of Commerce-style establishment Republican lane, with endorsements from the likes of Arizona’s then-Gov. Doug Ducey and former Vice President Mike Pence while Lake had Trump’s endorsement. Trump’s backing was key to Lake’s primary win but proved unhelpful in the general election two years after former President Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1996.
Trump won Arizona last year, and this time around, Robson is protecting her right flank and going full MAGA. Robson’s announcement video opens with a shot of Trump’s inauguration, and his name is the first thing out of the ad’s male narrator’s mouth and repeated six times total in the spot. “President Trump is back in the White House and he means business,” the narrator says. “Arizona needs a strong governor who will help President Trump lock down our border.”
Robson won Trump’s endorsement in December, and she doesn’t intend to let primary voters forget it, plastering it on her website and X avatar and banner image. The video includes a clip of Trump’s endorsement, characterizes her campaign as “answering President Trump’s call,” and seeks to draw parallels between her career and Trump’s, with the narrator saying “like Trump, she knows how to create jobs.” It’s packed with Republican campaign ad tropes, including a shot of Robson at the U.S.-Mexico border wall and shooting a gun.
In contrast, Haaland’s ad, which she narrates herself, features mostly shots of her speaking straight to camera or meeting with voters. The ad is one part biographical, with Haaland speaking about growing up in a military family, being sober for 35 years, and starting a business, and another part resume. Haaland, the first Native American to serve in a cabinet position in U.S. history as Interior Secretary in the Biden administration, characterizes her record there as one of change, mentioning work like growing solar energy in the state.
Though Biden won New Mexico in 2024 by about six points and the state’s current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is a Democrat, the state has a history of semi-regularly electing Republican governors and Haaland’s ad challenges the status quo.
“Why can’t our families pay our bills?” she says. “Crime, poverty, homelessness, addiction. They will keep pulling us down if we do the same things and expect a different result.”
Other lines in the ad speak to concerns traditionally thought of as conservative, like “preventing crime so that you feel safe raising a family here” and alluding to cutting government regulation. “When creative, hardworking New Mexicans want to grow a small business like I did, government should make it easier, not harder,” she says. This is not a candidate promising to make war with Trump if elected but one focused on kitchen table issues. She closes the ad saying she’ll travel the state to meet with voters and hear their hopes and concerns.
These two announcements offer a glimpse into how candidates are recalibrating for Trump’s second term. More than year and a half out from Election Day, these messages may shift over time, but they show that at least for now, candidates are campaigning for a country that elected Trump — even if narrowly — by popular vote. Robson is embracing Trump’s brand of Republicanism as a prerequisite for primary success while Haaland is running not as a partisan warrior, but a pragmatist.
Previously in YELLO:
The right has an advantage on social media and here’s how wide the gap is
In a news media environment where partisan influencers and social media are taking attention share from traditional media, the right has an advantage, and new data shows the extent of it.