Hello Merge Tag: Where Social Media and Politics Intersect
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<p>Hello Merge Tag is a podcast about social media, politics and where they intersect.</p> <p>We check in with candidates, strategists and digital practitioners to find out what's working, what's not and a whole lot more.</p> <p>Stream all episodes at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.</p>
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4/14/2023
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Recent Episodes
June 18, 2026
Stop Thinking About Persuasion. Start With The Bedrock Approach.
<p>Most campaigns are still organizing around persuasion and turnout. But by the time persuasion starts, it's often already too late.</p> <p>In this episode, we dig into what I'm calling the <b>Bedrock Approach</b> — the idea that winning campaigns aren't built in the final weeks before Election Day, they're built over time through consistent, authentic content that creates familiarity long before voters are ever asked to decide.</p> <p>We get into why traditional persuasion is less powerful than most campaigns assume, what brand marketers have understood about this for decades, and why your real competition isn't your opponent — it's everything else competing for attention in the feed. Plus a few stories from actual races where this approach turned underdog candidates into household names.</p> <p>If you're working on a campaign, an advocacy org, or just trying to build genuine support for something you believe in, this one's for you.</p> <p>This episode was adapted from a blog post which you can find on my site at <a href="joshklemons.com/bedrock" target="_blank"><b>joshklemons.com/bedrock</b></a>. Along with a full transcript, you can also find lots of fun graphics accompanying the post.</p> <p>I mentioned I had built some new tools.</p> <p>ShareSparrow helps you easily turn tweets, Bluesky posts and articles into Instagram-friendly graphics. Try it out at <a href="SharrowSparrow.com" target="_blank">SharrowSparrow.com</a>.</p> <p><a href="FUline.org" target="_blank">FUline.org</a> helps you write friendly emails to the allies in your life to stop using Uline products. Because friends don't let friends shop Uline.</p> <p>I also mentioned I have a new album out. It's called <b>Live Amongst The Flames</b>. You can listen and download it (for free) at <a href="joshklemons.com/music" target="_blank">joshklemons.com/music</a> or find it wherever you listen to music.</p> <p>Big thanks to our sponsor <b>Civic Shout. </b>Learn more about the great work they’re doing to help Democratic campaigns and progressive nonprofits build their lists ethically at <a href="https://civicshout.com/partners" target="_blank">civicshout.com/partners</a>.</p>
May 19, 2026
Are Democrats Ready for Our First Truly AI Election?
<p><i>"Every day that we are not adopting this stuff, the other side is moving faster. And I think ultimately that's going to translate into votes."</i> — Jack Welty</p> <p>This is the first election cycle where what ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok say about candidates could actually shape how voters decide. And as Jack Welty sees it, our side isn't ready. </p> <p>Jack served as Deputy Chief Analytics Officer on the Harris for President campaign and led paid digital analytics for Biden-Harris in 2020. He co-authored a paper on practical AI adoption for campaigns and is the co-creator of Caucus AI, a tool that monitors what AI chatbots are telling voters about candidates across more than 1,100 races. </p> <p>He joined me on this episode of Hello Merge Tag to talk about something I don't think our side is taking seriously enough. </p> <p>The conversation covered a lot of ground. But the through line was this: Democrats are falling behind Republicans on AI adoption, and the gap isn't closing. The American Association of Political Consultants found that 44% of Republican consultants use AI daily. Only 28% of Democrats do. </p> <p>A few things that stuck with me: </p> <p><b>The biggest wins from AI aren't the sexy stuff</b>. Jack's argument is that the most underrated use of AI on campaigns is automating the boring, high-volume work that eats up staff hours. On the Harris campaign, his team fed thousands of post-shift volunteer feedback surveys into a language model and got back structured reports by date, state, and issue type. What would have required an engineer and custom code 18 months ago, he says you could now do by dragging a folder into Claude. </p> <p><b>AI is a management challenge, not a technical one</b>. This reframe is the most useful thing I took away from the conversation. You don't need to know how to code. You need to know how to delegate, review, and give feedback. The analogy Jack uses — treating AI like an eager but inexperienced junior staffer — is exactly right. You wouldn't hand an intern a blank page and say "write me a report, see you at five." You'd give them examples, context, and check in along the way. Same deal here.</p> <p><b>Which chatbot a voter uses quietly determines which media ecosystem they're in.</b> Caucus AI tracks what ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok tell voters about candidates. The responses are broadly factual — nobody's telling voters who to pull the lever for. But the sources each model cites are very different. Grok cites social media. ChatGPT leans heavily on its national media partnerships — Axios, AP, Washington Post. Gemini casts a wider net and is more likely to cite local news. Same question, three different information worlds. -Your .gov site matters more than you think. This is something I had definitely been sleeping on. Caucus AI found that official government sites get cited by these models at a much higher rate than campaign sites. If you're an incumbent and your official site is a graveyard of four-year-old press releases, you're leaving something real on the table. Same goes for Ballotpedia — candidates can fill out their own candidate surveys, and Ballotpedia is one of the top two or three cited sources across most of these models. Most campaigns aren't doing this. They should be. </p> <p><b>ChatGPT indexed a brand new Wikipedia page in 12 minutes</b>. Caucus AI created a Wikipedia entry for a lesser-known candidate and within 12 minutes, ChatGPT was citing the brand new page. Two-thirds of all sources in its subsequent answers about those candidates came from that single page. There's no fact-checking layer. No delay. It's pretty clear your campaign needs a Wikipedia strategy! </p> <p>Find links, transcript and more <a href="hellomergetag.com" target="_blank">hellomergetag.com</a>.</p>
April 22, 2026
Democrats Don't Have a Tactics Problem. We Have a Strategy Problem. With Murshed Zaheed
<p><i>"It doesn't matter if Democratic senators or members of Congress put out TikTok videos or bring influencers for special hearings. Ultimately, if it's not in their bones that they want to fight with everything they have, the people will see right through it." </i></p> <p>Murshed Zaheed has more than 30 years of experience as a leader, organizer, and advocate in a career stretching from D.C. to San Francisco. He’s the founder of Pacifica Strategies, a boutique public affairs firm working with prominent organizations engaged in policy and politics. </p> <p>He served as the Political Director of CREDO Mobile, empowering its over five million members to fight for progressive change in Washington, D.C., and in state capitols across the country. </p> <p>He also served as Director of New Media for then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a senior leadership role and was a member of Gov. Howard Dean’s groundbreaking digital team during Dean’s presidential campaign. </p> <p>He has watched the Democratic Party cycle through the same conversations about tactics — from blogs in 2006 to TikTok in 2026 — and he's tired of it. </p> <p>Not because tactics don't matter. But because tactics without strategy are just noise. </p> <p>We covered a lot of ground — from what Harry Reid's war room actually looked like from the inside, to why Congressional staffers quitting Bluesky is exactly the wrong response to getting yelled at online, to how the Dean campaign's approach to email was the soul of what we've since lost. </p> <p>Some top takeaways: </p> <ul><li>Strategy first, always. You cannot layer better tactics on top of a weak political position and expect people not to notice. </li><li>Democratic leaders need to stop treating their email lists as ATMs and start treating them as communities worth actually communicating with. </li><li>Getting yelled at online is not a reason to log off. It's a reason to show up more and listen harder. </li><li>The Dean campaign raised $55 million with a blend of communications, organizing, and fundraising anchored in a real political position. That model exists. We abandoned it. </li><li>Indivisible is one of the only progressive organizations whose emails Murshed actually reads. Pretty sure he's not the only one. </li></ul> <p>Find links, transcript and more at <a href="HelloMergeTag.com" target="_blank">HelloMergeTag.com</a>.</p>
54 total episodes available
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- What is Hello Merge Tag: Where Social Media and Politics Intersect?
<p>Hello Merge Tag is a podcast about social media, politics and where they intersect.</p> <p>We check in with candidates, strategists and digital practitioners to find out what's working, what's not and a whole lot more.</p> <p>Stream all episodes at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 9 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
No, this podcast does not typically feature guests.
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