The 2020 Montana gubernatorial race was the top pick-up opportunity across the nation for Republicans—and a key seat for Democrats to defend. Arena was engaged to provide targeted political advertising in the form of political mail for Republican Greg Gianforte.

The Problem

Despite his extensive personal wealth and robust fundraising ability, Republican Greg Gianforte was outraised by Democrat Mike Cooney over several quarters. In addition, public polling pegged Gianforte’s lead to the low single digits in the weeks leading to Election Day.

The Strategy

As the political mail consultant for the Gianforte campaign, Arena took action by crafting an aggressive direct mail plan targeting moderate Republican voters who needed a reason to disqualify the Democrat candidate and cast their ballots for Gianforte instead. 

Our message was simple and unwavering: During 42 years as a career politician, Cooney supported raising taxes by $300,000,000.

Arena focused on disqualifying Cooney with swing voters and increasing Gianforte’s support from Republican-leaning women. In total, we delivered 8 pieces of mail that defined Cooney with swing voters, and another 6 pieces designed to build support from Republican-leaning women (see some samples of that political mail below).

The Results

After saturating our message to the target audiences, Republican Greg Gianforte beat Democrat Mike Cooney by 13 points on Election Day. This was the only Republican gubernatorial pick-up in 2020 and the first time in sixteen years that a Republican won the Governor’s office in Montana.

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Arena’s expertise in targeted political advertising has helped Republican clients win in all 50 states. Contact us now, and learn how we can help your campaign or ballot initiative win on Election Day.