Michigan's Supreme
Court Race

Down Ballot, Underfunded, and Under-Appreciated:
Making the Case for Justice

Bridget Mary McCormack
and Elizabeth Welch for
Michigan Supreme Court

In 2020, the Michigan Democratic Party came to us asking for a smart, targeted program to help them gain the majority on the state’s highest court. To do this, we needed to flip one seat and retain another. With no partisan designation on the ballot and low name recognition amongst the candidates, we created a program that ensured Democratic-leaning voters knew their candidates’ names and reminded them how important it is to finish their ballot.

The Targeting

By early September, nearly 2 million Michigan residents had already requested their early vote ballots. With this information in mind, we created a three-pronged approach to most effectively target our audience:

The Advertising

All of our targeted voters were list-matched across a multitude of advertising techniques, resulting in nearly 40 million touches to likely voters and building valuable name ID for our candidates.

Over 30 million list-targeted ads.

We used Facebook
& Instagram Pages

Display and pre-roll
video across the web

And addressable streaming
TV, OTT, and VOD premium
video content

To reach voters in the right place at the right time

The Advertising

All of our targeted voters were list-matched across a multitude of advertising techniques, resulting in nearly 40 million touches to likely voters and building valuable name ID for our candidates.

Over 30 million list-targeted ads.

We used Facebook and Instagram Pages

display and pre-roll videos across the web

and addressable streaming TV, OTT, and VOD premium video content to reach voters in the right place at the right time.

An aggressive search campaign,
right at the top of the page.

We used search ads to effectively target anyone searching for the court candidates. This resulted in over 7.3 million additional search ads served to voters.

And lastly, texting.

We sent 1.6 million text messages to our list of voters, using a combination of GIFS, videos, and website links

The Results

The open seat went to the Democratic candidate by a nearly 240,000 vote margin, 3.2pp over the nearest competitor.

The Overview Stats

0 +
List-Targeted Ad Impressions
0 +
Search Ad Impressions
0 +
Text Messages Sent
Margin of Victory = 0 Votes
Awards Won

Reed Award

Best Use of Online Targeting for Statewide Campaign

(Non-Federal)

Pollie - Gold

Internet Advertising

Best Use of Search Engine Marketing

Internet Advertising

For Statewide (Non-Federal/Non-Gubernatorial)

Pollie - Silver

Digital Independent Expenditure

For Statewide (Non-Federal/NonGubernatorial)

Ready to chat with our team about your State Supreme Court project?

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