Answer extracted from the Pod Save America podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How does Priorities USA study the media habits of less politically engaged voters?
Priorities USA operates an always-on survey where participants are paid to send screenshots of their screen-time apps, which the organization validates against self-reported data to track shifts in platform usage, subscriptions, and new app adoption. They supplement this continuous monitoring with quarterly or monthly deep dives focused on specific topics—such as audio consumption—and layer in third-party behavioral data including search histories to build a comprehensive picture of how disengaged voters consume information.
A real-time approach to tracking platform migration
The foundation of Priorities USA's research is its always-on survey operation, a departure from traditional snapshot polling. Rather than capturing voter behavior at discrete intervals, the organization maintains continuous contact with survey participants, asking them to submit evidence of their daily media consumption. This method produces hard data—not estimates—about where voters spend their attention.
Validation is built into the process: self-reported app usage is cross-checked against actual screenshots of screen-time data, eliminating recall bias and intentional misrepresentation. This dual-layer approach ensures that when Priorities USA reports a shift in platform adoption or usage patterns, the research reflects measurable behavior, not guesswork.
Deep dives and behavioral data to close knowledge gaps
The always-on baseline is supplemented with targeted, deeper investigations. Priorities USA conducts quarterly or monthly studies on specific platforms or behaviors—examining how voters discover content on TikTok, what they watch on YouTube, or how they interact with AI chatbots. These focused research sprints answer questions that broad surveys cannot.
To add another dimension, Priorities USA acquires third-party behavioral data, including search histories from major search engines. This reveals intent and curiosity at a granular level—what voters are actively seeking, not just passively consuming. As detailed in this episode, Priorities USA's search behavior study alone analyzed approximately 6 million searches across two time periods—late 2024 and a portion of 2025—providing a window into voter concerns and information needs in real time.
"Nine out of the ten top YouTube ads in 2024 were just 30-second ads that ran on TV first. We are quite literally practically taking 30-second ads that we run on TV and then putting them on YouTube and expecting people to watch them — and that is quite literally lighting money on fire."
Danielle Butterfield — Executive Director, Priorities USA. Butterfield joined the organization in 2017 following the Hillary Clinton campaign, initially as Digital Director. She negotiated to establish an in-house innovation team rather than relying on outside consultants, and has since transformed Priorities USA from a traditional presidential super PAC into a digital-research-driven organization focused on understanding how voters actually consume media across election cycles.
The research methodology points to a broader insight: campaign strategies must be built on evidence of actual voter behavior, not assumptions inherited from the television era. Priorities USA's investment in continuous measurement—paying participants for authentic data, validating what they report, and diving deeper into platform-specific behavior—reflects a recognition that the platforms defining elections now (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, AI chatbots) demand a fundamentally different approach to understanding voter attention.
See also
What did Priorities USA's post-2024 research reveal about YouTube consumption and vote behavior?
Priorities USA found that YouTube consumption was more predictive of vote choice and vote swing from 2020 to 2024 than age, demographic, or geographic factors, with men watching more than 3 hours per day showing among the highest vote swing toward Trump.
What role do political consultants play in perpetuating outdated digital strategies?
Butterfield points to the consultant-driven nature of campaign decision-making as a core obstacle: producing 20 tailored digital ads instead of one TV spot creates inefficiency and misses unified messaging opportunities.
Why is running TV ads on YouTube a failed strategy for Democratic campaigns?
Nine out of the ten top YouTube ads in 2024 were simply 30-second TV ads repurposed for the platform, which wastes budget and fails to engage the platform-native audiences that will decide future elections.