Hello Merge Tag: Where Social Media and Politics Intersect

About Hello Merge Tag: Where Social Media and Politics Intersect

Hello Merge Tag is a podcast about social media, politics and where they intersect. We check in with candidates, strategists and digital practitioners to find out what's working, what's not and a whole lot more. Stream all episodes at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.

Publisher

Reverbal Communications

Category

business · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Apr 2023

Latest episode

10 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

55 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   10 Aug 2026

   Turning Followers Into Voters with Erika Harrison of Black Girls Who Brunch and Claire Shorall of Sway

   "Don't join my cool kids club if you're not coming to vote. This club votes." Erika Harrison built Black Girls Who Brunch as a food blog. Over ten years, it became a platform where she talks about politics, policy, and culture with an ever-growing audience. She recently started using a tool called Sway to do something most content creators never attempt: turning her followers into an organized voting bloc. The results have been striking. In the primary, her Sway group had 83% turnout. In two races, her group's votes exceeded the margin of victory. She's using Sway to help people navigate Harris County's 100+ item ballot. She's moving people to vote in down-ballot races they didn't know existed. She's doing her part to change how elections work in Texas. Claire Shorall, Sway's founder, joined her to talk about what happens when you give creators the tools to actually organize voters — not just talk to them. Key Takeaways: You don't need a massive platform to move elections. You need an organized one. Erika's 2,400 followers with high intent beat millions of passive followers. The backend data matters. Knowing exactly where your voters live (down to state house district) changes what you can do. Down-ballot races are where organizing can really move the needle. Most people don't pay attention. If they know the name, they vote differently. If you've got a platform — whether it's 500 followers or 500,000 — Sway was built for you. Learn more about turning your followers into voters with Sway (sway.co). Find all links, video of this episode and all additional eps at HelloMergeTag.com (HelloMergeTag.com).

2. 

   18 Jun 2026

   Stop Thinking About Persuasion. Start With The Bedrock Approach.

   Most campaigns are still organizing around persuasion and turnout. But by the time persuasion starts, it's often already too late. In this episode, we dig into what I'm calling the Bedrock Approach — 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. 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. 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. This episode was adapted from a blog post which you can find on my site at joshklemons.com/bedrock (joshklemons.com/bedrock). Along with a full transcript, you can also find lots of fun graphics accompanying the post. I mentioned I had built some new tools. ShareSparrow helps you easily turn tweets, Bluesky posts and articles into Instagram-friendly graphics. Try it out at SharrowSparrow.com (SharrowSparrow.com). FUline.org (FUline.org) helps you write friendly emails to the allies in your life to stop using Uline products. Because friends don't let friends shop Uline. I also mentioned I have a new album out. It's called Live Amongst The Flames. You can listen and download it (for free) at joshklemons.com/music (joshklemons.com/music) or find it wherever you listen to music. Big thanks to our sponsor Civic Shout. Learn more about the great work they’re doing to help Democratic campaigns and progressive nonprofits build their lists ethically at civicshout.com/partners (https://civicshout.com/partners).

3. 

   19 May 2026

   Are Democrats Ready for Our First Truly AI Election?

   "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." — Jack Welty 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. 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. He joined me on this episode of Hello Merge Tag to talk about something I don't think our side is taking seriously enough. 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. A few things that stuck with me: The biggest wins from AI aren't the sexy stuff. 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. AI is a management challenge, not a technical one. 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. Which chatbot a voter uses quietly determines which media ecosystem they're in. 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. ChatGPT indexed a brand new Wikipedia page in 12 minutes. 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! Find links, transcript and more hellomergetag.com (hellomergetag.com).

Who has been a guest on Hello Merge Tag: Where Social Media and Politics Intersect

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• RC Di Mezzo
• Anat Shenker-Osorio
• Jason Paul
• Nate Snyder

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

30,351

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.7 / 5

9 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 35 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

16

Social presence

0

YouTube

72

Engagement

60

Contact Hello Merge Tag: Where Social Media and Politics Intersect

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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