A Voter Engagement & Storytelling System
PREMISE
Across the country, people are living under increasing economic pressure:
rising cost of living
unstable work
inaccessible healthcare
strained public systems
These experiences are widespread, but they are often felt in isolation.
Broken is designed to change that.
By documenting lived experience in battleground regions and translating it into high-impact digital content, the project makes these pressures visible, tangible, and impossible to ignore.
Because when people see what others are going through and recognize it in their own lives, something shifts.
It becomes real.
And when it becomes real, it creates a different kind of response:
Not just empathy, but frustration.
Not just concern, but a sense that something is wrong.
Not just awareness, but a feeling that it cannot continue this way.
That is where engagement begins.
opportunity
The issues are not distant.
They are being lived every day.
The problem is isolation.
People don’t see each other.
They don’t feel unity.
They don’t believe their voice carries weight.
At the same time:
digital platforms amplify division more than connection
misinformation fills the gaps left by real understanding
traditional messaging fails to reflect lived reality
This creates a clear opportunity:
To use shared human experience to reconnect people, build a sense of community, and help them realize they are not alone.
Because when people see that others are going through the same thing, something shifts.
It creates connection.
It creates clarity.
And it begins to restore a sense that, together, their voice can actually matter.
approach
The project is organized around a series of regional deployments.
Each deployment focuses on a single battleground region and unfolds in two phases over time:
Story Capture
The first phase of each deployment focuses on documenting lived experience.
We follow 3 individuals whose circumstances reflect broader structural pressures, such as:
a teacher in an underserved community
a family navigating medical debt
a young person struggling to find stable work
a nurse in an understaffed hospital
These are not interviews.
They are immersive, real-world stories that show:
What life looks like
What it feels like
What it costs
This phase is designed to build recognition and emotional connection.
It introduces audiences to people they can relate to and creates a growing sense that these challenges are not isolated, but shared.
Community Convergence
The second phase returns to each region closer to the election.
By this point, the stories are no longer new.
They are familiar.
The individuals we’ve followed, along with members of their communities, come together in a town hall-style event to discuss the challenges they are facing.
This creates a moment where:
Individual experiences become collective
Frustration becomes shared
Community begins to form around common challenges
Because the audience has already connected with these stories, the town hall becomes more than a discussion.
It becomes a continuation.
A moment where recognition turns into shared understanding, and shared understanding begins to translate into engagement.
content
ENGINE
Each deployment produces a structured set of content designed for both depth and reach.
Character Stories
3 Mini documentaries (3–5 minutes each)
Town Hall
Full discussion (45–60 minutes)
3–5 topic-based chapters
Short-Form Content
30–60 Social videos per deployment
Optimized for TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube
This creates a continuous stream of content that can be used across social media, fundraising, and voter engagement efforts, and distributed strategically to reach the audiences that matter most.
Engagement
Model
Broken functions as a system that supports three core areas:
Voter Engagement
Makes issues personal and immediate
Creates emotional connection
Drives participation
Fundraising
High-impact storytelling for donors
Continuous content pipeline
Stronger engagement than traditional messaging
Field Amplification
Surfaces real stories from communities
Strengthens connection between organizing and narrative
Increases visibility of on-the-ground work
Digital
Strategy
This project is designed for how attention and influence actually work today.
Algorithms prioritize content that:
Stops the scroll
Holds attention
Creates an emotional response
Gets shared
Most political content fails because it feels like messaging.
People scroll past it.
Broken is designed to work differently by combining storytelling with strategic distribution.
Attention
Each piece begins with a moment that creates immediate tension:
“She works full-time and still can’t afford rent.”
“They did everything right. It still wasn’t enough.”
These are lived realities, not talking points.
Retention
We show, not tell:
Unpaid bills
Overcrowded hospitals
Empty classrooms
Job searches
Visual proof builds credibility and keeps people watching.
Emotional Response
Recognition → Frustration → Connection
Not division.
A shared sense that something is not right.
Social Strategy
Optimize formats and hooks
Test and refine content
Maintain consistent cadence
Targeted Distribution
Amplify high-performing content
Target battleground audiences
Reinforce key narratives
The 2026 Pilot
The 2026 pilot is designed as the foundation for a larger, multi-cycle storytelling system.
Rather than a standalone effort, this phase establishes the structure, workflow, and narrative approach that can scale into 2027 and 2028.
By beginning in 2026, the project has the opportunity to:
build familiarity with audiences over time
refine both storytelling and distribution strategies
establish a repeatable model across multiple regions
This allows the work to evolve from early engagement into sustained narrative presence.
In 2027, the project expands into a consistent cadence of deployments, strengthening audience connection and integrating more deeply with on-the-ground efforts.
By 2028, the system is fully operational, with increased volume and coordination across regions, creating a sustained presence leading into the general election.
The 2026 pilot is not just a test.
It is the starting point for building long-term engagement, where each phase builds on the last and increases in impact over time.
2026 Pilot Timeline
May – Early June
Research and alignment
Identify regions
Surface stories
Coordinate with field teams
Late June – July
Story Capture
Film characters
Begin rolling edits
August
Narrative Build
Release short-form content
Build familiarity
September
Community Convergence
Return to regions
Host town halls
October – Election
Activation
Promote strongest content
Highlight cross-region patterns
Reinforce urgency
lARGER
Rollout Plan
2026 (Pilot)
2–3 deployments
Test and refine the model
Establish content and distribution system
2027 (Expansion)
Quarterly deployments
Build consistency and audience
Deepen integration with field and fundraising
2028 (Election Cycle)
6+ deployments
Sustained content leading into the election
Coordinated narrative across regions
The 2028
Convergence
2026 establishes shared economic clarity in competitive regions.
2027 builds cross-state pattern recognition.
2028 consolidates that recognition into national alignment.
This is not episodic storytelling.
It is cumulative narrative conditioning.
Three years of documented lived experience converge into a disciplined national synthesis.
Feature documentary moves into final consolidation
Cross-region comparison accelerates
Economic through-lines become explicit
Pattern recognition solidifies
Audiences have already encountered the stories.
Now we reframe them as a cohesive national arc.
The Role of
Turnaround
Project
This initiative is designed to integrate directly with and strengthen the work you’re already doing.
Rather than operating independently, Broken functions as a narrative layer that captures, amplifies, and extends the impact of your existing efforts.
Identifying Communities and Stories
Your team is already working closely with the communities you’re focused on engaging.
That proximity allows you to:
surface real stories that reflect what people are actually experiencing
identify individuals whose experiences will resonate beyond their immediate community
ensure the project is grounded in the realities your organizers are seeing every day
This ensures the storytelling is not only authentic, but aligned with where engagement matters most.
Strengthening Voter Engagement
By translating lived experience into widely distributed content, the project helps:
make issues feel immediate and personal
increase emotional connection to participation
reinforce why engagement matters at an individual level
This creates a bridge between experience and action, helping more people see themselves in what’s at stake.
Amplifying Field Work
The project builds around the relationships and access your team has already established.
This allows the content to:
highlight the communities you are actively engaging
reinforce conversations already happening on the ground
create a stronger connection between local organizing and broader narrative
In doing so, it makes the work more visible and more impactful beyond the immediate community.
Supporting Fundraising and Communication
The content generated provides a continuous stream of high-impact storytelling that can be used across your ecosystem.
This includes:
emotionally resonant content for small-dollar fundraising
deeper storytelling for major donor engagement
ongoing narrative support for email, social, and campaign communication
Because the stories are rooted in lived experience, they carry a level of authenticity that traditional messaging often lacks.
The Partnership
The goal is simple:
To make the work you’re already doing more visible, more relatable, and more impactful.
By combining your on-the-ground presence with a structured storytelling and distribution system, this creates a multiplier effect across voter engagement, fundraising, and communication.