Prioritizing Authentic Digital Within Your Campaign

Working on Governor Tim Walz’s Digital Team in 2022

Within the last few months of the 2024 election cycle, we saw major shifts in the political landscape —one being the continued movement toward authentic (seemingly organic) digital content. While authenticity is not new, a less polished, more meme-culture and personality type of content is breaking through the noise. We’ve seen this before with many candidates, particularly in 2022, but this social strategy was incredibly important as the country was introduced to former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz. And it will remain essential as we continue refining strategies to break through today's crowded information landscape.

While I was working on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s reelection campaign in 2022, our digital team knew that we had to capitalize on what America saw over the last few months: the Governor’s midwestern dad energy. What everyone is seeing online is who he is in real life—someone who cares deeply, is not afraid to tell it like it is, and brings joy to a campaign.

As the Digital Director for the former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, Hannah Flom, put it:

“Our motto: Let Tim Walz be Tim Walz.”

And that is exactly what the 2022 digital team set out to do. By working with teams across the campaign—from communications to research to political—we were able to create situations where Tim Walz could be authentically himself.

When we were heading into the thick of election season in August of 2022, together the political and digital teams created a seemingly simple idea of having the Governor deliver lawn signs to supporters. Not only was the Governor thrilled to have the chance to directly talk with supporters on a cloudy Sunday morning, but our team was able to capture several layers of content from placing lawn signs and interacting with supporters to photos of him with some new dog friends.

Similarly, during the Minnesota State Fair, the Corn Kid song was conveniently everywhere. We already had a day with the Governor at the fair where he was trying out all sorts of foods, so handing him a piece of corn and simply asking, “Hey, Governor, could you just say ‘It’s corn’ to the camera,” seemed like the perfect opportunity to not only lean into a trend but also showcase Tim Walz’s go with the flow “dad energy.” Overall, this became one of our most-watched videos of the campaign.

Whether it was the Governor talking with teachers, compassionately rallying folks up in Southern Minnesota, heading to the dog park, or even creating Scout in a Scout merch, the digital team in 2022 knew that our best content would come from leaning into Tim Walz being Tim Walz.

The Harris-Walz team worked incredibly hard to create more and more authentic, relatable, and viral digital content so the country could learn more from Governor Walz. Whether it’s a seemingly simple idea of a video of the Governor talking to voters or content similar to their “The Manual” video, making personal, authentic digital a priority in campaigns has only grown in importance, and we at CMG look forward to seeing how this grows in 2026 and 2028.