Strategy Memo: A Unified Message for 2026

Welcome to the first-ever Message Box Pro strategy memo. Thank you for joining this community and putting your faith in me. I'm doing this because I want to fix what I see as a yawning gap in Democratic infrastructure — and, if I'm being honest, because I miss the direct help I can give candidates and others working on the front lines of politics. Don't get me wrong, I love co-hosting Pod Save America and writing my newsletter, but I want to be more actively involved, and Message Box Pro is my attempt to do that.

I also love writing strategy memos. I can't fully explain it, but the process of constructing, researching, and writing one is incredibly clarifying.

If you have any questions or concerns as we get things up and running, don't hesitate to reach out by replying to this email.

Let's get to work.

In this week's memo, I'm going to cover my broader philosophy and lay out a potential narrative for the midterms.

This product and my original newsletter are named after the most basic and important messaging exercise in political communications — the Message Box. Many of you probably know it and use it in your work, but I'm constantly surprised by how many people in political messaging have never encountered it.

The Message Box was created by Paul Tully, a legendary political operative who worked on the 1992 Clinton campaign but tragically died a few months before the election.

The core concept is simple but powerful: before any campaign communicates, it maps out a 2x2 grid capturing the four essential messages in any race:

One of my cardinal rules of politics: if you can't easily and succinctly answer these four questions, you shouldn't be running for office. At the bare minimum, go back to the drawing board before launching any communications effort. This works beyond politics too — every brand has a rival or threat it needs to address, explicitly or implicitly, in its messaging.

I wanted to lay that out so you understand a) why this thing you signed up for has such a specific name, and b) the mentality I bring to every messaging question.