Case Study: Victory in Purple
A Winning Sheriff’s Race in One of America’s Fastest Growing Counties
The Problem
Our client, Anthony Hipolito for Sheriff, was running for an open seat in a very purple county, one of the fastest growing counties in the nation, that had Republicans fighting a losing battle based solely on the vote history of expected voters.
The Goal
We needed to craft a strategic voter contact plan that 1) solidified Hipolito’s base and shored up the middle ground and 2) targeted undecideds who could be motivated by top-of-mind issues and Hipolito’s positions.
We needed to flood the zone.
The Plan of Action
We crafted a combined digital and direct mail plan that coordinated messages to targeted audiences whenever possible to maximize the budget and gain traction. The campaign emphasized that messaging by using the same direct mail and digital art as organic content on their social media channels and texting campaigns.
The Details
Majority Strategies targeted over 99,000 unique voters in Hays County.
The final plan included three individual flights of digital advertising that began with introducing Hipolito, moved on to issue messaging, and finished with getting out the vote.
Eight total mail pieces were produced for the larger swing universe and several smaller, more targeted audiences, including border security voters, female voters, and those with children in the household. A doorhanger was also created, both in Spanish and English, for the campaign’s door-to-door efforts.
The Results
Despite being far down ticket on the third page of the ballot, Hipolito for Sheriff won the seat by more than 6,400 votes. For context, Kamala Harris carried Hays County by over 7,000 votes.
The Hipolito campaign was the highest vote-getter out of any contested Republican and the only contested Republican to win a countywide race.
Key Takeaways
Majority Strategies played a key role in helping the Hipolito for Sheriff campaign effectively communicate with the right audiences of voters that needed to be persuaded and motivated to turn out in a deep purple county where Republicans start at a heavy disadvantage in straight-ticket voting. Our data insights were successful in identifying the right people to talk to with the right message, ensuring the Hipolito campaign was able to reach the voters they needed without waste.
“ More than 126,000 people cast ballots in Hays County this election. Voter turnout was at 67.89% — slightly lower than the 2020 turnout rate of 71.2%”
Overall, turnout in the 2024 election was lower than turnout in the 2020 election, but Majority Strategies was successful in persuading 2,355 voters to cast a ballot in 2024 who did not vote in 2020.
View samples of our work and the full case study here.