Opinion: The Right knows how to shape public opinion. When will Democrats catch up?

By Danielle Butterfield, Executive Director, Priorities USA

The 2024 election loss proved what happens when Democrats wait for voters to come to us instead of doing the work to shape public opinion. Voters won’t suddenly wake up to see Trump as an authoritarian threat, or list “democracy” above the economy or abortion on a poll. The art of political persuasion is how you identify opportunities to grow support.

Trump’s administration pressuring ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel following his comments on Charlie Kirk was one of the clearest acts of censorship yet, and people noticed. It caught the attention of Americans in a way that no other event caused by the Administration has in recent months. Bridging the insights from polling, as well as clear signals we see from how voters are engaging with this moment online, my team at Priorities sought to understand the opportunity for Democrats.

From new polling we conducted September 20-21, we can see that awareness of the events was unusually high across political parties and social media platforms: only 19% of voters had heard “nothing” about Jimmy Kimmel’s removal from ABC – in contrast, half of voters said they hadn’t heard anything about the One Big Beautiful Bill the week before it passed. Not only are voters hyper-aware of what’s going on in the news, at least half of voters — including many Independents (55%) and even some Republicans (23%)— viewed it as a violation of free speech.

The juxtaposition of both opinion and awareness here signals to us a unique opportunity for Democrats to grow our support. 

According to the team at Resonate, posts from right-leaning pages in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination on September 10th generated more social media engagements (likes, comments, shares etc.) than the July 2024 assassination attempt against Trump, the November 2024 celebrations around Trump’s election win, or Trump’s January 2025 inauguration. In our own polling, 65% of Trump voters (and 58% of Harris voters) said they saw MORE posts about political stories online this week than normal. A clear majority (61%) of all voters say the news events of this week felt “scarier than normal.”

The two parties will react to this data in two different ways.

Republicans have the infrastructure and know-how to seize these moments. Over the last five years, they’ve invested billions into right-leaning online media machines that amplify emotion, reframe narratives, and grow their base. Turning Point USA turned millions of views from Kirk’s funeral into new followers, spotlighting the one clip that could resonate beyond their base: Erika Kirk forgiving her husband’s killer. Kirk's memorial service was streamed so widely online that Rebecca Dunn, the first speaker who spoke about being Turning Point USA's first investor, was one of the top searches on Sunday alongside only NFL-related queries. Republicans don’t just push messages – they have a keen understanding of how to use the internet as a vehicle for message distribution, but also as a temperature check on their strategies, listening to voters and repeating back exactly what they want to hear.

Democrats, by contrast, will point to polls showing that voters want to hear more about the economy over Democracy, cut another :30 “kitchen table” commercial, and throw money at a big ad buy, thinking it can adequately shift the conversation. That playbook failed in 2024 – when Democrats outspent Republicans 2:1 on digital and still lost – and it will continue to fail.

Or, Democrats can turn the page. A clear majority of Americans reject extremism. Protecting democracy and building a strong economy are not at odds with each other. Voters across the political spectrum – even those who normally tune politics out – are scared right now. We can dismiss this moment, or we can meet people where they are, connect their fear to Trump’s failures, and offer a better vision.

That means not looking backward at past election results to argue that messaging on authoritarianism “didn’t work,” but recognizing that it may simply resonate more when people see it unfolding in real time. Censorship, for example, feels far less abstract when it happens to someone as visible as a late-night TV host. If Trump is willing to silence them, he could silence you too.

In the aftermath of Kimmel’s suspension, the internet was flooded with organizing campaigns to boycott Disney, and ABC quickly realized that Trump was not the only audience they needed to please. The groundswell of opposition from everyday Americans collectively canceling their Disney+ subscriptions was remarkable and moved Disney to claw back its decision.

The Democratic Party has shown us it knows how to harness big moments — it uses this muscle mostly to raise money. But we can also use big moments to persuade and mobilize voters.

As Democrats, our mission should be clear: we urgently need stronger, lasting digital communications infrastructure, built to grow our base of support and to outlast a single election. Breakthrough moments like the events of the past week are rare, especially with voters who don’t usually follow politics. Republicans understand this. Voters are paying attention. The question is whether Democrats are ready to meet them there and use this moment to build support.

Priorities surveyed 1,569 nationally representative registered voters via online panels from 9/20-9/21/2025. Data is weighted to representativeness based on age, gender, race, education, and 2024 recalled presidential vote.