Nebraska State Senator Dan Quick

The Challenge: Win Back A Democratic Seat In One Of The Most Conservative Districts In The Country. In 2016, Dan Quick won Nebraska’s Legislative District 35 seat by just 75 votes. In 2020, he lost his bid for reelection to opponent Ray Aguilar by 900 votes, while Trump won the district by 25 points. LD 35 is also located within Nebraska’s Third Congressional District – the single most conservative congressional district in Nebraska and one of the most conservative in the country. The entire local and statewide political establishment backed Ray Aguilar. This group of backers included, among others: Governor Jim Pillen, two US Senators, three US Congressmen, Grand Island Mayor, and over thirty Nebraska state senators. And Aguilar had previously held the seat until he was term-limited out in 2008. This gave him name recognition not only through his 2016 and 2020 candidacies, but also through his previous tenure as a state legislator.

Not only was the field challenging, but the stakes were incredibly high. The fair-minded coalition of the (officially nonpartisan) Nebraska legislature was teetering on the brink of losing their 1/3 minority. If that happened, Democrats would be powerless to prevent extremist right-wing legislation from passing. The race ended up being Nebraska’s most competitive and expensive legislative district in the 2024 cycle.

Our Solution: Saturate The Field With Hypertargeted Digital Ads. Ray Aguilar was in a prime position to discuss one of Nebraska voters’ top issues: property taxes. Not only had Aguilar himself voted to pass legislation which provided over a billion dollars in property tax relief, but he also had plenty of elected officials publicly stating that “we can trust Aguilar to lower property taxes” on the radio, digital ads, and in mailboxes. To counter this, our digital campaign focused on direct voter outreach on the topic of property taxes with information that would raise doubt in the validity of Aguilar’s ability and commitment to keeping property taxes low.

Quick’s district, located in Grand Island, is geographically prime for canvassing. Unlike 2020, when Quick could not canvas as aggressively due to the pandemic, Quick and his wife Alice knocked over 12,000 doors. The digital campaign, using Geofenced Addressable technology, was able to target directly into the same homes that were included in the field program. Unlike IP- and cookie-matching, Geofenced Addressable technology was able to target the doors that were being canvassed at a 90% match rate. We were also able to provide the list of unmatched addresses, so the field department knew which addresses might need additional field contacts–door knocks, texts or phone calls. The saturation of field and highly-effective targeted digital with a message that resonated with voters allowed Quick’s campaign to successfully counter Aguilar’s property tax claims and win on this most important issue.

The Result: A Democratic Anomaly In Deeply Conservative Rural Nebraska. Even though Donald Trump gained ground in the district, Dan Quick won by 135 votes. Quick is now the only Democratic state legislator representing a portion of CD3 and the only one outside the Lincoln and Omaha metro areas. The fair-minded coalition in the Nebraska legislature was also able to maintain their 1/3 minority and retain the ability to filibuster.