Forget the broken social media feeds and endless emails — your website is the only digital space that’s truly yours. It’s where you can tell a story that inspires, attract donations, and recruit the people who will help you rewrite the future. Everything starts with your website.
Stop wasting time on broken digital tools. Spend three days IRL in deep work to build a website centered on your vision for a brighter future — one you can update anytime without knowing HTML. This is the new way to communicate in 2025.
By Mike Reid | August 2025
Ok, look. Back in 2017 — Trump’s first year in office — if you’d asked me whether your campaign website mattered, I would’ve laughed, and replied, "No way! What matters is calling people who can contribute at least $500, convincing your biggest donors to host parties where their friends also cough up $500, blasting out endless $5 and $25 emails, and then dumping everything you raised into TV ads and mail. The internet...? Sure, it matters — but only for raising as much money as possible."
And look — that strategy worked well (enough) in 2018.
Democrats raised a ton of money.
We took back the House in 2018.
But then? Democrats lost House seats in 2020.
And then we lost lost control of the House in 2022.
And in 2024, we didn’t just lose the House — we lost the Senate too, and we lost every single swing state to Donald Trump.
So here’s what I think in 2025: Throw out the usual playbook.
Your website is now hugely important.
If you want to participate in the political conversation — which now happens basically entirely online — your #1 priority should be to drop everything and spend three days creating a brand‑new site.
Day 1:
Deep work messaging retreat
Day 2:
Rapid content creation and design
Day 3:
Bells, whistles, fun, and joy
Why does your website matter so much more now than it did in 2017? Because the entire digital landscape has flipped upside down.
Social media — that once drove the entire conversation — has collapsed. Facebook isn’t where your audience is anymore. Twitter turned into X, and then turned into chaos. Algorithms are broken, trust is shattered, and your message barely reaches anyone who doesn’t already agree with you.
Email? Fatigued. Everyone’s inbox is overflowing with the same $5 asks, the same doom‑scroll subject lines. Nobody opens them anymore, and even when they do, it’s background noise.
And so what’s left? Direct storytelling. Owning your own space on the internet. Having a website where you set the tone, where people can engage deeply with your vision instead of just scrolling past another headline. A place where voters, donors, and future staff can actually see — and believe in — the exciting story you’re telling.
And in 2025, you can’t just slap together a static website — the kind you barely touch except to toss up the occasional press clip.
Oh no. That era is over.
You don’t just need a new site — you need a new kind of site. One that you and your tech‑savvy team can update constantly (without needing to know any HTML at all) with fresh and exciting content people actually want to consume.
This is a major and crucial shift in strategy: In 2025, your website can't be an afterthought. It’s your digital HQ, your messaging hub, and the launchpad for your bold new political idea.
And the most effective way to build a site that lets you successfully communicate about politics online?
Three days of uninterrupted deep work — IRL.