Changing Dynamics is a political consulting and PR firm, founded by Riley and Natasha Sutton, that works with local and statewide electoral, labor, nonprofit, and advocacy campaigns. More specifically, Changing Dynamics works with individual candidates on their campaigns, running the day-to-day operations to ensure progressive down-ballot wins. Changing Dynamics has used Impactive to conduct efficient and reliable voter outreach since 2020. 

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Adopting Impactive for Down-Ballot Clients

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“Peer-to-peer texting makes the most difference in down-ballot races when the candidate adopts the technology and can send a lot of messages themselves.” 

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Changing Dynamics first started using Impactive in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic restricted traditional forms of campaigning (door-knocking and in-person meet and greets, etc.). As the firm started to use Impactive for more and more clients, it recognized the ongoing benefits of using a digital outreach and engagement platform to reach voters — especially for local races, where a few hundred votes can be the margin of victory. 

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Changing Dynamics has found that its clients adopt Impactive quickly. While the campaigns recruit volunteer texters from time to time, most texting efforts are carried out by a very small team, including the candidate themselves. Since candidates directly text voters, ease of use and quick onboarding are stand-out factors for Changing Dynamics. 

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Additionally, Impactive allows the firm to monitor and execute texting programs for multiple clients efficiently. Considering that Changing Dynamics often runs up to 15 campaigns per primary or general election cycle, time is of the essence. On Impactive, Changing Dynamics can set up individual Impactive campaigns for each client and pre-generate their peer-to-peer texting actions, complete with message scripts. Then, candidates are free to text voters in their own time. Impactive’s flexibility to add scripts in real time is particularly useful, as the firm can tweak scripts based on responses candidates receive in the middle of texting.

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Winning Elections and Driving Progressive Change

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“Peer-to-peer texting absolutely crushed it for clients in 2020 and again in 2022.” 

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Changing Dynamics’ clients in small, competitive races have to be highly intentional about their time and budget, which makes Peer-to-Peer Texting a perfect fit. Peer-to-Peer allows campaigns to conduct effective, personalized outreach, even with limited resources. 

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In one county-wide family court judge race, Changing Dynamics’ candidate was up against a well-known opponent with a fundraising advantage. Using Impactive’s Peer-to-Peer Texting tool, the candidate personally sent an impressive 50,000 texts to introduce herself to the community whenever she had the time; she often sent initial texts in the evening while preparing dinner for her son, and responded to voters after putting her son to bed. These efforts paid off, and she eventually won 55% of the vote in her race. 

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In another local race, Changing Dynamics worked with a candidate running to be the first Black female judge elected in Sparks, Nevada. She used Peer-to-Peer Texting as her primary form of voter outreach, which ended up being crucial to her win. After days of uncertainty in an extremely tight race, she won with a slim margin of just over one thousand votes and made history.

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Texting outreach that comes directly from candidates is great for GOTV — but even beyond electoral outcomes, Changing Dynamics has found that its clients genuinely enjoy texting with voters and forging meaningful connections in their community. Regardless of victory on Election Day, this type of grassroots organizing work builds power for future mobilization beyond election cycles. 

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We’re grateful that Changing Dynamics chooses to use Impactive to help its clients win elections, and are excited to continue innovating digital tools that help consultants create winning campaigns.