Message Box and the Battle Against MAGA

In just four years, the Message Box Community has grown to more than 80,000 people fighting to protect democracy from MAGA extremists.

Four years ago, during the height of a Presidential campaign, I found myself stuck at home and feeling the urge to write again after just finishing my book.  The campaign was incredibly important and captivating, and I had more thoughts than I could express in just one episode a week of Pod Save America. That's when I decided to start this newsletter.

I created Message Box as a resource for people at all levels of politics, including those trying to persuade the people in their lives to get off the sidelines and vote against MAGA extremists up and down the ballot. I believed that as the reach and credibility of traditional media declined, the future of political communication would shift to the conversations we have with our friends and family. I wanted to provide my readers with the same message advice, political analysis, and polling analysis I used to provide President Obama and other politicians.

At the time, I viewed this as a temporary project that would last through the campaign, but then there were the Georgia runoff elections, January 6th, and Trump’s second impeachment. I grew to enjoy writing the newsletter and providing the kind of in-depth analyses that are difficult to cover on a podcast. But what really kept me coming back was all of you. 

This community has grown to more than 80,000 people who are working at all levels of politics—candidates, campaign operatives, Capitol Hill staffers, full-time activists, and folks just trying to persuade their friend/cousin/son/daughter to get off the couch and head into the voting booth.

Some of you have been loyal readers for years, and many of you have joined much more recently, particularly in the last two months with the unprecedented deluge of news, including the debate, the assassination attempt, the Vance pick, the GOP convention, President Biden’s decision, and the incredibly successful launch of the Harris-Walz campaign. The Message Box community has doubled in the last year!

I always look forward to our regular Subscriber Q&As and my interactions with readers. I am so impressed by the thoughtful conversation and the work everyone does in their communities to save our democracy.

I couldn’t be more excited for the coming days. This election will almost certainly be incredibly close. Trump and the Republicans have some structural advantages and a favorable political environment. However, Kamala Harris has tapped into something so hopeful and joyous; I haven’t seen anything like it in Democratic politics since Obama. People who hadn’t thought about politics in years — or ever — have tuned in because they want to learn more about Harris and Tim Walz.

This project's urgency has only increased over the last four years. It’s never been more difficult to follow the news with clarity and context. Elon Musk has rendered Twitter (X) into a rotting husk of its former self. Meta will no longer promote political content on Threads, Instagram, and Facebook. TikTok is awash in misinformation and pro-MAGA propaganda.

I plan to write more often, do more Q&As, and give you more of the content you need for your efforts to win this election. More specifically, you will see more of the following pieces offering message guidance on talking about important topics and events based on my experience and the available polling, like this piece I wrote right after Harris became the presumptive nominee.

If you want to support this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. I am offering a 20% discount for a year.

Paid subscribers get access to all of the posts, the full archive, and a weekly chat where I answer your questions about the elections (and anything else).

Over the last four years, Message Box has grown into a much larger enterprise. Editing, research, bookkeeping, and web hosting now take more time and incur more overhead costs. Every new paid subscriber helps sustain this work, enabling me to expand the community and pursue new projects. Your support is deeply appreciated, but most of all, I want to thank you for being a part of this journey. 

When I hit send on that first post in 2020, I had no idea anyone would even read it. I could not be more grateful for the opportunity to work together with all of you to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and defeat MAGA extremists up and down the ballot.