Now Is The Time for Campaigns to Invest in Creator Programs

In the fall of 2025, Abigail Spanberger won the Virginia gubernatorial race. And while a lot of things went right for that campaign, one of them doesn’t get talked about nearly enough: they started their creator work in the spring.

Months before election day, the Spanberger campaign was already deep in the work of finding Virginia-based creators – many of whom weren't political – whose audiences genuinely trusted them and who cared about the same things Virginians care about. For weeks, those creators posted about real issues – cost of living, child care, what everyday life in Virginia actually feels like – before Spanberger's name ever came up. By the time the campaign needed to move, the groundwork was already there.

That's the version of creator work that actually moves people. And right now, there's still time to build it.

The Value of Creator Work Lies in The Relationships

The post itself isn't really the point. What campaigns are actually getting access to when they work with creators is the trust those creators have built with their audiences over months and years of showing up and earning the right to be heard.

When you start early (before there's a deadline driving everything) creators have the time to get to know your campaign on their own terms and find their own angle on the issues. By October, they're already invested, and that investment shows up in everything they make in a way that audiences can feel immediately. The difference between a creator who genuinely cares about something and one who was handed a brief a week ago is not subtle.

What a Debate War Room Looks Like When You’ve Done the Work

The best example of this from the Spanberger campaign was the debate war room – a real-time, coordinated content response that generated over 100 pieces of content in 24 hours and dominated the post-debate conversation online. That kind of output is only possible when the relationships already exist. Creators already know the messaging, trust the team, and have their own genuine point of view on the candidate. When the debate ends, the only question is execution.

What the Next Few Months Look Like

If you're a campaign or organization seriously thinking about creator work for November, the most valuable thing the next few months can give you is time. Time to find the right creators for your race, to build real relationships before you need anything from them, and to let those relationships develop into something solid enough to hold up when things get intense. Here's what that actually looks like in practice:

• Find the right creators for your race or issue area. Look beyond follower counts and think about relevance. A creator with 80,000 deeply engaged followers in your district will outperform one with 800,000 broadly distributed ones every time.

• Reach out before you have an ask. The first conversation should be an introduction – who you are, what you're working toward, and why you think there might be alignment. Let them get to know you before you need anything from them.

• Let them engage on their own terms. Give creators the space to find their own angle on the issues your campaign cares about. That's the only kind of content that cuts through when audiences are getting really good at tuning out anything that feels manufactured.

• Build the relationship before the moment arrives. Whether that's a debate response, a news hook, or a final GOTV push – the campaigns that dominate those moments are activating people who have been ready for months, not briefing them for the first time.

November Will Be Here Before We Know It

The Spanberger campaign's creator program worked because they had spent months making sure the right creators were ready, informed, and genuinely invested – so that when the big moments came, all they had to do was activate. That same opportunity is in front of every campaign thinking about 2026 right now.

Interested in building a creator program for your campaign or organization? Reach out to our team today.