Pulse Check: Where Campaigns and Tech Stand Heading Into the Midterms
Sep 16, 2026 · 37 min · 10 segments
Sep 16, 2026 · 37 min · 10 segments
Eric WilsonHostFarz SokhansanjGuest
The gist of it is I think for those of us who are on the call who are thinking about this and working on this, we are abnormal in more ways than one.
way that we talk about politics, the fact that we even would post about politics on social media, and that we follow the news kind of obsessively.
And so this is something that we've been tracking at the Center for Campaign Innovation in our own research over the last couple of years, probably really seen in the last post-2024, where there are people who are still voting but aren't paying attention to the news.
And so I think the Pew Knight Foundation research had a good way of synthesizing this, and they break American adults into four groups.
Well, anyone who knows about sort of participation in equality, knows that that 9% isn't an accident, right? Basically, you see 9% of a group create most of the content.
And then the connectors, these are people who are civically engaged, but they're not as public about their political beliefs, 28% of adults.
And then there are the spectators, the 31% who sort of keep an eye on things, but they keep their opinions to themselves.
They, importantly, only 41% of the outsiders say that they follow national news at least somewhat closely.
They're somewhere on your voter file, but maybe they're that one of four or a two of four that you're cutting off right now, but they decide to show up because the weather is nice on election day, or they just get the right nudge from a friend.
The gist of it is I think for those of us who are on the call who are thinking about this and working on this, we are abnormal in more ways than one.
way that we talk about politics, the fact that we even would post about politics on social media, and that we follow the news kind of obsessively.
And so this is something that we've been tracking at the Center for Campaign Innovation in our own research over the last couple of years, probably really seen in the last post-2024, where there are people who are still voting but aren't paying attention to the news.
And so I think the Pew Knight Foundation research had a good way of synthesizing this, and they break American adults into four groups.
Well, anyone who knows about sort of participation in equality, knows that that 9% isn't an accident, right? Basically, you see 9% of a group create most of the content.
And then the connectors, these are people who are civically engaged, but they're not as public about their political beliefs, 28% of adults.
And then there are the spectators, the 31% who sort of keep an eye on things, but they keep their opinions to themselves.
They, importantly, only 41% of the outsiders say that they follow national news at least somewhat closely.
They're somewhere on your voter file, but maybe they're that one of four or a two of four that you're cutting off right now, but they decide to show up because the weather is nice on election day, or they just get the right nudge from a friend.
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