Progressive Digital Organizing in a Red State with Beth Thorpe | Hello Merge Tag Ep 6

Beth Thorpe is a Kentucky Digital Communications Strategist. She refers to herself as the KY Digital Director. She’s worked a ton of races throughout the bluegrass state, ranging from legislative and judicial to statewide campaigns. She focuses on digital and social media strategy, content, and targeting; as well as digital organizing and training for campaign and progressive advocacy organizations.

She’s currently serving as digital director for Colonel Pam Stevenson, candidate for Kentucky Attorney General.

We checked in with Beth and throughout our conversation, we covered a ton of ground.

We talked about

• how she got her start in professional politics,
• how Mitch McConnell keeps her motivated for the fight,
• the power of Facebook Groups and segmenting,
• what’s working on TikTok and Instagram,
• the campaigns she’s looking to for inspiration
• and a whole lot more!

We had a fascinating discussion about “scaling intimacy through digital,” specifically related to Elizabeth Warren’s Presidential campaign. We also spoke about how John Fetterman’s brilliant digital program helped keep his supporters engaged with him and his personal struggles as a sitting Senator.

And we of course spoke in depth about Colonel Pam Stevenson and how she’s lighting a fire with the youth in Kentucky and what it’s like to work on a race where the candidate has become a full-fledge “rock star.”

We gave some shoutouts throughout the session to places folks can learn to become active in digital organizing. Resources mentioned were Beth Becker’s Digital Trainings, Wellstone (now defunct), Arena and the Center for Digital Strategy.

During the episode, I referenced that I had written two blog posts about John Fetterman’s phenomenal digital program. You can find those here:

• Breaking Down The Digital Programs of Pennsylvania Senate Candidates John Fetterman and Dr. Oz
• A Meme Masterclass From the Fetterman Campaign

You can connect with Colonel Pam at PamForAG.com and find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, where she’s @PamForAG.
You can find Beth on Twitter at @BethinLouavul.

Listen to the full episode right here or wherever you stream podcasts.