How Precise Digital Targeting Helped Flip Arkansas House District 70 for Under $1 Per Vote
Overview
In the March 2026 Arkansas Special Election for House District 70, TargetSmart’s Media Buying Platform (MBP) helped power a decisive Democratic victory.
Democratic candidate Alex Holladay won the seat with 57.4% of the vote, defeating Republican Bo Renshaw by 1,038 votes through a coordinated campaign that combined field, phone, and digital outreach. In 2024, Halladay narrowly lost his bid for this seat by 286 votes.
Despite a highly constrained budget and compressed timeline, the digital program delivered exceptional efficiency — costing just $0.97 per vote.
The Challenge
Arkansas House District 70 is one of the most competitive legislative districts in the state, but it is also defined by a relatively small electorate and historically low-turnout special elections.
With turnout inherently unpredictable and resources stretched thin, the Democratic Party of Arkansas faced an uphill battle from the outset. The campaign was further constrained by an ongoing legal battle with Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders over whether the special election would occur at all, limiting both preparation time and available resources.
The challenge was clear: reach the right voters efficiently, maximize every dollar, and drive turnout in a compressed election window.
Strategy: Precision Targeting Through the MBP
The Democratic Party of Arkansas deployed a highly targeted display advertising campaign using TargetSmart’s Media Buying Platform.
The ad campaign targeted “super Democrats of all turnout propensities,” aligning digital targeting directly with the campaign’s field and phone universes. By leveraging the VoteBuilder API integration, voter universes could be shared directly into the MBP, ensuring message consistency across organizing channels.
Three separate creative variants ran simultaneously throughout the campaign, allowing for real-time optimization across placements and formats.
Results
Democratic candidate Alex Holladay won the seat with 57.4% of the vote, defeating Republican Bo Renshaw by 1,038 votes.
The campaign’s 1.31% CTR performed at nearly 3x the industry benchmark for programmatic display advertising.
Programmatic display advertising typically averages a 0.46% click-through rate across industries, with political campaigns often performing even lower due to audience fatigue.
The Democratic Party of Arkansas campaign significantly outperformed those benchmarks because the MBP was designed specifically for voter file-driven political advertising — not adapted from commercial advertising tools.
What Made the Campaign Work
Voter File-Based District Targeting
Unlike traditional programmatic platforms that rely on broad geographic or behavioral audiences, the MBP was built specifically for political campaigns and voter file targeting.
The campaign’s voter file manager was able to target voters precisely by:
- Legislative district
- Partisan score
- Custom campaign universes
This ensured that impressions were reaching persuadable and mobilization voters instead of broad citywide or statewide audiences.
Cross-Channel Audience Alignment
Digital audiences mirrored the field and phone programs, reinforcing messaging consistency and improving voter contact efficiency across channels.
Creative Optimization
Running three creative variants simultaneously enabled the campaign to continuously optimize performance and maximize engagement rates throughout the election period.
Mobile-First Delivery
More than 75% of impressions were delivered on mobile devices, allowing the campaign to reach voters where they were most active and most reachable throughout the day.
How Precise Digital Targeting Helped Flip Arkansas House District 70 for Under $1 Per Vote
Overview
In the March 2026 Arkansas Special Election for House District 70, TargetSmart’s Media Buying Platform (MBP) helped power a decisive Democratic victory.
Democratic candidate Alex Holladay won the seat with 57.4% of the vote, defeating Republican Bo Renshaw by 1,038 votes through a coordinated campaign that combined field, phone, and digital outreach. In 2024, Halladay narrowly lost his bid for this seat by 286 votes.
Despite a highly constrained budget and compressed timeline, the digital program delivered exceptional efficiency — costing just $0.97 per vote.
The Challenge
Arkansas House District 70 is one of the most competitive legislative districts in the state, but it is also defined by a relatively small electorate and historically low-turnout special elections.
With turnout inherently unpredictable and resources stretched thin, the Democratic Party of Arkansas faced an uphill battle from the outset. The campaign was further constrained by an ongoing legal battle with Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders over whether the special election would occur at all, limiting both preparation time and available resources.
The challenge was clear: reach the right voters efficiently, maximize every dollar, and drive turnout in a compressed election window.
Strategy: Precision Targeting Through the MBP
The Democratic Party of Arkansas deployed a highly targeted display advertising campaign using TargetSmart’s Media Buying Platform.
The ad campaign targeted “super Democrats of all turnout propensities,” aligning digital targeting directly with the campaign’s field and phone universes. By leveraging the VoteBuilder API integration, voter universes could be shared directly into the MBP, ensuring message consistency across organizing channels.
Three separate creative variants ran simultaneously throughout the campaign, allowing for real-time optimization across placements and formats.
Results
Democratic candidate Alex Holladay won the seat with 57.4% of the vote, defeating Republican Bo Renshaw by 1,038 votes.
The campaign’s 1.31% CTR performed at nearly 3x the industry benchmark for programmatic display advertising.
Programmatic display advertising typically averages a 0.46% click-through rate across industries, with political campaigns often performing even lower due to audience fatigue.
The Democratic Party of Arkansas campaign significantly outperformed those benchmarks because the MBP was designed specifically for voter file-driven political advertising — not adapted from commercial advertising tools.
What Made the Campaign Work
Voter File-Based District Targeting
Unlike traditional programmatic platforms that rely on broad geographic or behavioral audiences, the MBP was built specifically for political campaigns and voter file targeting.
The campaign’s voter file manager was able to target voters precisely by:
- Legislative district
- Partisan score
- Custom campaign universes
This ensured that impressions were reaching persuadable and mobilization voters instead of broad citywide or statewide audiences.
Cross-Channel Audience Alignment
Digital audiences mirrored the field and phone programs, reinforcing messaging consistency and improving voter contact efficiency across channels.
Creative Optimization
Running three creative variants simultaneously enabled the campaign to continuously optimize performance and maximize engagement rates throughout the election period.
Mobile-First Delivery
More than 75% of impressions were delivered on mobile devices, allowing the campaign to reach voters where they were most active and most reachable throughout the day.
