DNC: clips and creators

1. 1

   About 20 creators in January 2025, more than 700 by October 2026, with a combined following above 175 million by the DNC's count: the Signal channel the party used to send out clips.

2. 2

   15 minutes: proposed posts go to a Signal group with research, press and legal, and go live if nobody objects. Paulina Mangubat, who led the program, says the bigger gain was freedom to try new things.

3. 3

   Researchers dug up clips of Republicans from little-watched podcasts and interviews; creators got dozens of clips a day, with no talking points, and decided whether to use them.

4. 4

   The rapid-response account @FactPostNews was, in Mangubat's words, an “unbranded news account”. She argues such accounts are the future; this site keeps them as a red line, although the DNC did announce FactPost as its own.

5. 5

   By the DNC's own figures, its posts got more than 13 billion views this election. That is reach: no source measures an effect on votes.

Copy summary

If you're new to this, start with the fundamentals, from the vote goal to what the research says. Read the fundamentals

In January 2025, the DNC had an official account that posted lists of accomplishments and a Signal group with about 20 left-leaning creators. By October 2026 it was approving posts in 15 minutes, sending clips to more than 700 creators and running @FactPostNews, which Paulina Mangubat herself calls an unbranded news account, although the party had announced it as its own.

700+

creators in the DNC's Signal clip chat in October 2026, up from about 20 in January 2025 (Semafor); combined following above 175 million, a DNC figure (Mangubat)campaign figure Source

15 min

for a proposed post to go live if nobody in the approval group objects (Mangubat; Semafor)campaign figure Source

4.8B

FactPost impressions since its January 2025 launch, a DNC figure (Mangubat, 10 Nov 2026)campaign figure

13B+

views of DNC posts this election, reaching five times as many users as in 2024, per the introduction to Mangubat's account in Link in Biocampaign figure

From a list of accomplishments to a 700-creator channel

1. Nov 2024Democrats lose the White House to Trump. Until January 2025, the DNC's only creator strategy is a Signal group chat with about 20 left-leaning creators.
2. 13 Jan 2025The DNC launches the rapid-response @FactPostNews, led by Arlie Shugaar, run by @KamalaHQ veterans and styled after pop news accounts such as PopCrave and PopBase (Axios). Mangubat later calls it an unbranded news account.
3. Feb 2025A long list of accomplishments posted by the DNC on X is widely mocked. Late in the month, FactPost posts fake audio attributed to Donald Trump Jr. and deletes it; the DNC tells ABC it took the post down once it learned the audio was inauthentic.
4. 19 Mar 2025The DNC's newsletter calls FactPost an account “managed by the DNC” and the party's official rapid-response brand.
5. Spring 2025A weeklong staff offsite. Approval drops to 15 minutes (today, per Mangubat, through a Signal group with research, press and legal), the tone gets harsher and the most online staff gain power. By mid-year, the creator program restarts with 25 people.
6. Oct–Nov 2025During the government shutdown, a DNC explainer with cats passes 750,000 likes on TikTok and confuses people when crossposted to X. In November, a K-Pop Demon Hunters edit celebrating Mamdani, Spanberger and Sherrill reaches 2.9 million likes; a longer 2026 version with the midterm candidates passes 4.1 million (Mangubat).
7. May 2026After Talarico's primary win, Stephen Miller mocks him in reply to a DNC post. Mangubat writes a profane five-word insult in response; it goes live on the party's X account 15 minutes later and passes 59 million views, by her count.
8. 3 Jun 2026Matt Rein writes that the program's flagship group has 550 creators with 75 million combined followers, and sets a goal of 10,000 creators by the end of November.
9. Jul–Sep 2026ABC reports more than 500 creators and briefings with Jason Crow and Jamie Raskin. After the primaries, the party opens chats with campaigns' digital directors, and Ossoff's campaign sends rally clips.
10. Oct–Nov 2026The Signal channel passes 700 creators (Semafor). On 3 November Democrats win the House and the Senate; Semafor publishes its account of the operation on the 8th, and Mangubat publishes her own in Link in Bio on the 10th.

Three layers

The operation combined three parts: fast owned accounts, research that feeds everything with video, and a creator network that decides what to post.

• Owned accountsThe party's official account, with a harsher tone and content made for each platform, and @FactPostNews, an unbranded news account in Mangubat's words, used to set up moments for the main account, though announced as the party's. Approval in 15 minutes.
• Research and videoResearchers hunting for Republican moments in little-watched podcasts and interviews, a clip library, and a team that makes mini-documentaries for YouTube and cuts them for other platforms.
• The networkA Signal clip chat with more than 700 unpaid creators (a combined following above 175 million, per the DNC), dozens of clips a day with no talking points, briefings with lawmakers and, as admins, the digital directors of battleground Senate and governor races.

What was specific to the United States in 2025–2026 and may be missing elsewhere.

Platforms

X

Where @FactPostNews started and where the Democrats' official account changed its tone. FactPost began on X, Threads and Bluesky, with plans to expand to TikTok, Facebook and Instagram (Axios); by March 2025 it was also on Facebook and Instagram.

TikTok and Instagram Reels

Along with X, the operation's focus, per Semafor. Mangubat writes that she hired TikTok producers with ties to online fandoms and that anime-reference edits reached people who did not follow politics: a Jujutsu Kaisen edit mocking Karoline Leavitt got 8.8 million views, more than 65% of them from young men, by her count. The DNC's TikTok also posted “thirst-esque” edits of Ossoff and El-Sayed, per The 19th.

Signal

Two uses. For approvals, a group with research, press and legal, who have 15 minutes to object. For distribution, a clip chat run by Matt Rein: about 20 people in January 2025, more than 700 by October 2026; creators did not reply in it (Semafor), and the digital directors of battleground Senate and governor races became admins (Mangubat).

Group chats with campaigns

After the primaries, the party opened chats with campaigns' digital directors to swap positive and negative clips.

YouTube

The video team travelled the country to find farmers and others hurt by Trump administration decisions, made mini-documentaries and cut them into clips for other platforms.

Little-watched podcasts and interviews

The raw material: the research team looked there for moments from Republicans that almost no one had seen.

Facebook

Not in Semafor's account. Mangubat writes that in the past year it delivered 397 million impressions and 36 million engagements for the DNC, with hits from X remade as simple stacked photos and long copy close to a news article.

Local conditions

• Democrats had just lost to Trump, and an alternative media ecosystem had helped Republicans route around traditional gatekeepers (Semafor).
• The party saw itself as behind: Matt Rein wrote that the DNC still lagged the infrastructure the right had built over decades.
• No federal law requires influencers to disclose campaign payments; the Campaign Legal Center asked the FEC in October 2025 for “paid for by” disclaimers on paid posts (ABC).
• California has a 2023 law on this: the state commission opened an investigation into Tom Steyer's payments to creators in the governor's primary (ABC).
• Platforms that reward conflict: reporter Max Tani's view is that rudeness toward opponents proved popular with the base in this environment.
• A party brand damaged since the 2016 primary, when many believed the party had tipped the scales against Bernie Sanders (Semafor).
• A national wave: on 3 November 2026 Democrats won the House and the Senate, per AP projections.

The DNC swapped a slow, cautious process for speed, swapped talking points for video, made content for each platform and put distribution in other people's hands. Some of this travels well. The third front, spreading party material without the audience knowing where it came from, is the part Mangubat defends as the future and this site treats as a red line.

Three fronts

Speed

Proposed posts go to a Signal group with research, press and legal; after 15 minutes, if nobody objects, they go live. Mangubat says the bigger gain is not speed but freedom to experiment. The cost: in February 2025, FactPost posted fake audio and had to delete it.

Clips instead of talking points

Instead of sending talking points, the team sent video of a Republican saying something embarrassing, dozens of clips a day with no messaging directives, and let each creator decide whether and how to use it. The creator speaks in their own voice; the party supplies the evidence.

Distribution without credit

Mangubat argues for a multiverse of unbranded accounts: FactPost, an unbranded news account, was picked up more by meme accounts and aggregators and set up moments for the main account, and creators repost clips as their own. Her case is reach, and the gain may be real. The DNC did announce FactPost as its own at launch and in its newsletter. This site keeps the rule that party accounts and material say whose they are, and teaches that version.

The operating cycle

This site's reading of what was reported, not a party manual. Where something is the site's suggestion, it says so.

1. Dig Researchers watch little-seen podcasts, interviews and appearances by opponents and log the moments.
2. Cut and store The moments become short clips in a library. The site suggests: each clip keeps a link to the full original, the date and the timestamp.
3. Check At the DNC, research, press and legal see each proposed post in a Signal group and have 15 minutes to object. The site adds, after the 2025 fake audio: one named person actively checks authenticity, rather than silence counting as approval.
4. Distribute Clips go to the Signal chat of more than 700 creators, dozens a day, and the digital directors of battleground campaigns, as admins, send their own. Nobody has to post, and no talking points are attached.
5. Post on owned accounts The official account and FactPost post clips and rapid responses, with fast approval and a harder tone. FactPost can also set up a moment the main account then joins.
6. Go long The video team shoots mini-documentaries with people affected by government decisions and cuts them for TikTok, Reels and X.
7. Take from campaigns Campaigns such as Ossoff's send well-shot rally footage, which goes back out to the channel and to creators. Mangubat asks every campaign to share high-resolution, uncaptioned footage so others can edit it.
8. Translate for each feed The same message is remade for each platform: fandom and anime edits on TikTok, simple stacked photos with long copy on Facebook. Mangubat's lesson from a cat video that confused X: crossposting is not enough.

And again.

First written six days after the election and revised on 10 November 2026, when Paulina Mangubat published her own account of the program as a guest post in Rachel Karten's newsletter Link in Bio. That account is now the backbone; the interviews the DNC's digital team gave Semafor and ABC and the party's own newsletter add to it, checked against news reports.

• Paulina Mangubat

  DNC deputy chief mobilization officer, per her November 2026 byline; described by Semafor as head of content and creative; earlier digital and creative director for Michelle Wu's Boston mayoral campaign

  Rebuilt the DNC's social program after 2024 and wrote the first-person account of it: fast approvals, unbranded accounts, the clip library and content made for each platform.

  Sources

• Tim Hogan

  DNC senior strategist

  Described the restructuring that gave the most online staff more power and traditional operatives less oversight.

  Sources

• Matt Rein

  The DNC's first director of influencer and creative partnerships

  Rebuilt the creator program from 25 people in mid-2025 and, per Mangubat, created the clip library: a Signal chat of more than 700 creators that gets dozens of clips a day; he told ABC the DNC does not pay creators.

  Sources

• Arlie Shugaar

  Led the launch of @FactPostNews in January 2025, per Mangubat

  Led the team that launched FactPost as an unbranded news account and later relaunched KamalaHQ as HQ, according to Mangubat.

• Shelby Cole

  DNC chief mobilization officer at FactPost's launch

  Presented @FactPostNews in January 2025 as rapid response to misinformation, run by veterans of the @KamalaHQ account.

  Sources

• Senate Democrats' Strategic Communications Committee

  Chaired by Cory Booker, with Tina Smith as vice chair and Jeff Giertz as staff director

  Scheduled a summit with creators and independent media at the Capitol for 11 February 2026.

  Sources

• Jon Ossoff's campaign

  The Georgia senator's re-election campaign

  Filmed rallies with several cameras and sent the produced clips to the party's channel and to creators, per Semafor and The 19th.

  Sources

• Qondi Ntini

  Washington organizer, founder of Thirst for Democracy

  Has made content about Democratic candidates since 2020 and distributes buttons at Ossoff's rallies with local activists; warned that engagement without action does not move people.

  Sources

What party staff, allies and creators said in 2025 and 2026, including Paulina Mangubat's own account of November 2026. Paraphrased unless otherwise noted.

• Summed up the digital team's restructuring in one line: “Put the posters in charge.”

  Tim Hogan, DNC senior strategist, Semafor (Max Tani), via Yahoo News, 8 Nov 2026

• On 15-minute approvals: “the biggest benefit isn't the speed”. The gain, she says, is a team free to try new things without dreading sign-off.

  Paulina Mangubat, DNC deputy chief mobilization officer, Link in Bio (Rachel Karten), How the DNC won the FYP, 10 Nov 2026

• Argues that “a multiverse of unbranded accounts is the future of digital campaigning”: FactPost's posts were picked up more by meme accounts and aggregators, likely because they lacked overt branding.

  Paulina Mangubat, Link in Bio (Rachel Karten), How the DNC won the FYP, 10 Nov 2026

• “We were not really concerned with being credited or receiving attribution.”

  Paulina Mangubat, DNC head of content and creative, Semafor (Max Tani), via Yahoo News, 8 Nov 2026

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit.

1. A sourced clip library

   A research team watches opponents' little-seen podcasts and interviews and stores the moments as short clips. At the DNC, this material replaced talking points and fed the network of more than 700 creators.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when opponents talk a lot on long shows and almost no one watches all of it.

   Don't use when

   Fails if the cut changes what was said: one misleading clip exposed discredits the whole library.

   1. Week −30 List the shows, podcasts and events where opponents speak
   2. Week −28 Hire or assign one person to watch and log moments
   3. Week −28 Open the sheet with date, timestamp, link to the original and who checked
   4. Week −26 Cut the first clips and have a second person check each one
   5. Week −24 Send one clip a day to the network, with a link to the original
   6. Week −20 Review each month which clips were used and which needed corrections

   Team

   • Research: watches and logs moments
   • Editing: cuts and captions without changing the meaning
   • Checking: verifies authenticity and context

   What to measure: Clips checked by a second person and sent with a link to the original, per week.

   Risks to watch: Out-of-context cuts or fake material: keep the full original, check before sending and correct in public when wrong.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

2. A creator network that states the source

   A one-way channel where the party sends clips and briefings to creators, who decide whether and how to use them. The DNC went from about 20 to more than 700 creators without paying for posts; this playbook adds the rule that was missing: say where the material came from.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when there are creators who already agree with the cause and want material and access, not money.

   Don't use when

   Fails if the network exists to make party material look spontaneous: then it becomes deception, and when exposed it costs everyone's credibility.

   1. Week −32 Write the rules: source stated, payments disclosed, no script
   2. Week −30 Invite the first 20 creators who already cover the issue
   3. Week −28 Open the one-way channel with sign-up and acceptance of the rules
   4. Week −24 Schedule one briefing a month with a lawmaker or expert
   5. Week −20 Send daily clips with the source written into each message
   6. Week −12 Ask each new member to bring in another creator

   Team

   • Creator relations: invites, runs the channel and the rules
   • Scheduling: books briefings with lawmakers
   • Legal: checks advertising and disclosure law

   What to measure: Creators who accepted the source rule in writing, as a share of all channel members.

   Risks to watch: The audience may not know the material came from the party: write the source in every message, ask creators to repeat it and never pay for posts without disclosure.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

3. Fifteen-minute approval, with a check

   Shorten the path from draft to post and give power to people who know the platforms. At the DNC, proposed posts go to a Signal group with research, press and legal and go live after 15 minutes if nobody objects; in February 2025, FactPost had posted fake audio and had to delete it.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when the team has clear written rules and leadership's trust to post without going up the chain.

   Don't use when

   Fails without someone in charge of checking: speed without verification spreads fake material under the party's name.

   1. Week −20 Map how many people approve a post today and how long it takes
   2. Week −19 Write down what the team can post without asking and what needs sign-off
   3. Week −18 Name one checker per shift, with the power to hold a post
   4. Week −16 Test the 15-minute target for two weeks
   5. Week −15 Write the public correction protocol
   6. Week −10 Review deleted or corrected posts every month

   Team

   • Leadership: delegates and sets the rules
   • Posters: write and publish
   • Checker: verifies authenticity and context

   What to measure: Posts checked by a second person before going out, as a share of all posts that week.

   Risks to watch: Fake material or insults posted in a rush: mandatory checking, a rule against attacking looks, and corrections on the same account.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

4. A mini-documentary cut into clips

   Record long stories with people affected by a political decision and cut them into clips for short-video platforms. The DNC's video team travelled to find farmers and others hurt by the Trump administration and made mini-documentaries for YouTube.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when people are willing to tell their own story with their name and face.

   Don't use when

   Fails if the people filmed do not know who is filming or why: consent and source must be clear.

   1. Week −24 Pick a political decision and find people affected by it
   2. Week −22 Tell each person who is filming, why and where it will run, and get written consent
   3. Week −18 Shoot the long version and post it on YouTube with the source identified
   4. Week −17 Cut three to five short clips with one moment each
   5. Week −16 Send the clips to the creator network and to campaigns
   6. Week −16 Show the result to the people filmed before posting

   Team

   • Production: finds the stories and collects consent
   • Video: shoots and edits the long version
   • Short-form editing: cuts clips for each platform

   What to measure: People filmed who signed consent and saw the final cut before it was published.

   Risks to watch: Exposing people who did not understand who they were talking to: written consent, party credit on the video and the right to withdraw.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

5. A shared channel with campaigns

   After the primaries, the DNC opened chats with campaigns' digital directors to swap clips. Ossoff's campaign sent well-shot rally footage, which circulated through the creator network.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   Works when the party and campaigns share opponents and campaigns film their own events well.

   Don't use when

   Fails where the law bans or limits coordination between party, campaigns and outside groups; check first.

   1. Week −16 List the digital directors of every campaign on the ticket
   2. Week −16 Check with counsel what the law allows party and campaigns to share
   3. Week −15 Open one chat per region or type of race
   4. Week −14 Ask campaigns to film rallies with more than one camera
   5. Week −12 Pass the best material to the creator network with the source stated
   6. 2 week(s) after Hold a review call with campaigns after the election

   Team

   • Campaign liaison: runs the chats
   • Campaigns: send well-shot raw footage
   • Legal: checks coordination rules

   What to measure: Campaigns that sent raw footage to the chat that week.

   Risks to watch: Banned coordination with outside groups or unsourced material: only party and campaigns in the chat, and the source written on everything that goes out.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

The parts that travel, each in its transparent version: speed, clips instead of talking points, a creator network with the source stated, and long formats cut into short ones. The account styled as an independent outlet is left out.

What works anywhere, in its transparent version, and what depended on the United States in 2025–2026.

Choose your country

The transparent version of the DNC's operation, as a checklist. Your progress is saved in this browser.

Five questions, each explained after you answer.

Speed and creator networks are legitimate. Hiding who is behind them is not.

Party accounts say they belong to the party

In the name or bio, visible to anyone who sees a reshared post. Announcing it in a press release or a newsletter is not enough. Mangubat argues that unbranded accounts travel further, and the reach may be real; the cost is that the audience cannot weigh who is speaking. A party account designed to look like an independent outlet is, for this site, a red line.

Source stated on the material

People who receive party clips should be able to say, and be encouraged to say, where they came from. Material the audience cannot identify as partisan comes close to the logic of astroturfing described in the glossary: hiding who is behind it.

Payments disclosed

The DNC says it does not pay creators; Mangubat writes that nonprofits and independent expenditure groups are better placed to do so. Whoever pays, the payment should be disclosed in the post itself. The US has no federal law on this; California has a 2023 law, and the EU requires labels on paid political ads.

Check before posting

A second person checks authenticity and context, even in a hurry. AI-generated audio or video is not posted, not even as unlabelled irony.

Honest cuts

Every clip keeps a link to the original. A cut that changes the meaning of what was said is manipulation, even if every word is accurate.

Real people, under their own names

Creators who post under their own names and in their own words are not coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Identical text on many accounts at once, fake accounts or undisclosed paid profiles are.

Consent from people filmed

People in mini-documentaries know who is filming, why and where it will run, and sign consent.

Local law

Rules on coordination between party, campaigns and outside groups, on paid advertising and on election periods vary by country. Check with a lawyer.

An account that looks independent

Mangubat calls FactPost an unbranded news account, with little blue in the logo and no Democratic donkeys, and writes that its posts were picked up more by meme accounts and aggregators, likely because of that. Semafor reports some admins reshared its material without knowing it was the DNC's. The party announced the account in January 2025 and called it its own in its newsletter. No source read says this broke a law or a platform rule; for this site, it is a red line.

Material without a source

More than 700 creators received clips from the party's research, and the party was not concerned with getting credit, so viewers could not always tell a clip came from a party. Mangubat writes that creators prefer to download a clip and repost it with their own spin, and that this should be encouraged. The creators are real, post under their own names and are unpaid, according to the DNC, and no source read calls this astroturfing or says it broke a rule. This site still treats party material passed on without its source as a red line, because the audience loses the ability to weigh who is speaking.

No demonstrated effect on votes

Semafor and Mangubat report reach, viral clips and Ossoff's profile, not votes. Mangubat argues the clip library widened campaigns' reach in races decided by thousands, or hundreds, of votes; that is her reading. Democrats won the House and the Senate in a national wave, and no data isolates this operation's share.

Unaudited numbers

All the DNC's own: more than 700 creators with 175 million followers and 4.8 billion FactPost impressions (Mangubat), 13 billion views (Link in Bio), 550 creators with 75 million followers and 2 million daily FactPost impressions at the peak (the DNC's newsletter). The “millions” of followers and “billions” of impressions in Max Tani's analysis come without exact figures. None of it is audited.

Speed without checking

In February 2025, FactPost, created to fight misinformation, posted fake audio of Donald Trump Jr. and had to delete it.

A tone that becomes the story

In May 2026 the party's X account answered a Stephen Miller post mocking Talarico with a profane five-word insult. Mangubat writes that she drafted it, that it went live 15 minutes later and that it passed 59 million views; she presents it as a product of the new system. Around the same time, a Memorial Day post was deleted after criticism from both parties (Newsweek). Reporter Max Tani's view is that rudeness pleases the base; the cost with other voters has not been measured.

Looks over substance

The DNC's TikTok posted “thirst-esque” edits of Ossoff and El-Sayed, The 19th reported. The same piece said there can be a fine line between thirst and objectification, citing fan videos of Ossoff, not the DNC's posts.

Engagement is not action

Organizer Qondi Ntini warned that engagement does not move people. No source shows how many viewers of the clips became volunteers, donors or voters.

Platform dependence

X, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Signal change rules and algorithms without notice. A network built on them can lose reach overnight.

This playbook was built mainly from Paulina Mangubat's own account (Link in Bio, 10 November 2026), interviews the DNC's digital team gave Semafor and ABC, the party's own writing, and reporting published between January 2025 and November 2026. Pages were accessed on 9 November 2026; the Link in Bio post was read on 10 November 2026.

Updated 10 November 2026