Billboards & Big Signs
It’s Up to Us
By Robbin Warner
Beginning last August, Trump billboards began to dominate the highways in the Philadelphia region. Funded by a private individual, Dan Newlin, these boards were sparse on words but heavy on impact, promising lower taxes, more jobs, equal rights, closed borders and even world peace.
Although Pennsylvania is a battleground state where the Harris-Walz campaign makes personal appearances every couple of days, there were no Harris billboards to be seen. Volunteers from an Indivisible group decided to counteract the Trump billboard offensive by putting together a rapid response team.
Working in combination with a small PAC, they raised $12,000 to put up 6 digital billboards. It was a start. But they needed a way to show how much the Harris campaign was being outgunned on the highways of Pennsylvania.
Members of the team took pictures of the billboards and sent them to another volunteer, who created an interactive ArcGIS map that helped donors visualize the impact of the Trump boards on Pennsylvania motorists.
Together, they raised over $48,000 to purchase 30 digital billboards to run all the way through the election. Most of the donations were the result of a single email, 💥 The Philly area is surrounded by Trump Billboards, the most successful fundraising appeal this all-volunteer group has ever sent.
What we’re seeing this election
Since 2017, grassroots groups have been learning, organizing, and preparing to get things done. When it comes to yard signs (see the Connector’s “Custom Yard Signs Are a THING This Election”) and now billboards, grassroots organizations have taken outdoor messaging into their own hands.
Perhaps nowhere are billboards more effective than in rural areas. As a rural Virginia farmer (and Political Director of Rural GroundGame), Lynlee Thorne sees her neighbors putting up large signs (4 x 4 ft) and billboards.
For years, Rural GroundGame has been messaging on the policy implications of being a good neighbor, a concept that resonates with many rural people. Adapting Virginia Senator Danica Roem’s simple message — “Feeding kids and fixing roads” — Rural GroundGame has turned policy into signs and billboards.
Recently, Lynlee traveled over 5,000 miles across Virginia, delivering signs to enthusiastic, fired up Dems. From the Eastern Shore to Southside, up and down the Shenandoah Valley, Northern Neck, and Southwest Virginia, the response was pure gratitude.
— “I’m overwhelmed! We’ve never had so many people reach out to get involved!!”
— “Hey, you know how I said we couldn’t find places for more than 12 of those big signs? I was wrong, when can we get more?!”
People putting up billboards take the task personally. When local activists on the Eastern Shore saw their billboard blocked by bushes, they demanded that the foliage be removed for an unobstructed view. And it was.
You can see more of Rural GroundGame’s work — from billboards to newspaper ads to stickie notes — here.
Recently Rural GroundGame helped put up a billboard in Brunswick, a majority black rural county in Virginia’s Congressional District 4. The billboard proudly features local Democratic committee members with a “Stop Project 2025” message. The local party chair was so proud that when the chair of the Minnesota Democratic Party visited, he made sure to drive over the bridge with their billboard.
“We know the value of billboards,” said Finale Norton, former candidate, super organizer, and a major proponent billboards on Virginia’s rural Eastern Shore. “Like so much in organizing to save democracy right now, it’s up to us.”
Thank you so much! This article captures exactly how we feel! We love our Democratic Party! But we realized to fill in the gaps our communities had to do it ourselves! In many instances, it is up to us! I remember asking a donor to help us get billboards up during the time I called white space (no one was thinking about politics, we would own the narratives) they weren’t interested, only in ground in person door knocking. You need both! More people will see my sign than the number of people who will actually open the door, or read the literature I leave. I am simply saying it’s “it’s all the things” no such thing as “or” anymore. The world has changed!
The MSM and pollsters have no idea of the force and infrastructure of the grassroots. Stories like these are going to save us. Thank you for all you do!!