Joe Kent
U.S. Congress, 2022
Synopsis
Joe Kent began his campaign for congress in Washington’s 3rd congressional district at the behest of former President Donald Trump, who insisted that “We need his voice and leadership in Washington, D.C.” KTR formed a relationship with Kent at an early stage after he announced his candidacy.
Kent, a former Green Beret whose wife Shannon was killed fighting ISIS in Syria, wanted to run on a platform of ending America’s endless wars, reforming our corrupt federal agencies, fixing our broken elections, and protecting the values and liberties that Americans have always enjoyed. We supported Kent’s campaign with media and communications services that matched his vision of constituent-focused politics that would disrupt a callous establishment.
Operations
Brand Identity & Graphic Design
Social Media & Reputation Management
Media Monitoring & Clipping
Opposition Research
Video Production & Editing
Digital Communications and Ghostwriting
Brand Identity & Graphic Design
Our approach with the Kent campaign was to take his compelling message and create a brand identity that aligned with his bold approach. With this, we created a renewed version of his logo and various campaign iconography to solidify his brand. Since Joe Kent is a powerful speaker with bold ideas, we wanted to create quote graphics that would reflect his tone through bold text styles and stark visuals. We created a full suite of graphics for quotes, issues, events, media appearances, and endorsements. We also took these principles toward designing bold print material such as campaign mailers, door hangers, and literature.
Social Media & Reputation Management
One of the biggest success metrics of our work on the Kent campaign was the growth of his social media from practically nothing to nearly 150,000 followers on Twitter and tens of thousands more on other platforms. We accomplished this staggering growth through an accelerated campaign of design and brand elevation—not just content production, but ensuring that each post and product was targeted at both the national and the constituent audience. We also identified areas of harmonic reinforcement with traditional media and journalism to bring as large an audience as possible to Kent’s signature issues.
Media Monitoring & Clipping
As a charismatic and well-spoken candidate, Kent’s greatest strength was his ability to reach a broad national audience through shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and conversations with other America First, populist hosts. We produced strategically-themed clips of Kent’s media appearances for use on social media, attracting a large audience that prefers video content.
Opposition Research
Opposition research is meant both to uncover potential attacks against a candidate before they become media issues in the election, and to uncover attacks that can be used against opponents. We used vetting techniques to ensure that the few questionable aspects of Kent’s background were impervious to media attacks.
We also gathered opposition research on one of Kent’s primary opponents who sought to position herself to his right, as a social conservative. The research seeded multiple attacks that were coordinated at several degrees of separation from the campaign. These attacks undermined her reputation with WA-03 voters on the issues she touted as her primary platform.
Video Production & Editing
Our video capabilities include visual language, audio and video footage editing, animation, and all the necessary components of the standard campaign ad. The campaign already had a strong lineup of these types of ads before our work with Kent began. KTR’s challenge was to originate content that would reach a different type of audience to build online momentum.
We developed a viral video for the campaign that would be unrecognizable to the standard audience for political ads. The video was not intended for a typical TV viewer—it was seeded anonymously on Twitter, garnering hundreds of thousands of views without ever reaching the attention of the candidate or his opponents. It sparked a conversation among social media influencers that suggested Kent was a new kind of candidate who transcended past politics, someone willing to try new methods and shake up established procedures.
Digital Communications & Ghostwriting
One of the biggest disconnects many candidates have with their constituents is poor email communication for fundraising and campaign announcements. It is better to not communicate at all than to send stock, mass-produced messages from a large “Republican” firm that fail to land with locals.
The e-mail messages we assisted with ghostwriting for the Kent campaign were not generic attacks on “the left” or donation appeals designed to manipulate the elderly. They were informative, impactful, and provocative—designed to stir up controversy on local issues and galvanize action from supporters.
