Case Study: Rob Portman achieves broad cross-party support and a 21-point Senate victory with NationBuilder

How Rob Portman built broad support for his Senate win

Rob Portman, the Republican candidate in the 2016 U.S. Senate race, faced an intensely competitive campaign and needed to build broad, cross‑party support while turning out‑of‑state backers into donors and in‑state voters into advocates. To run a disciplined, targeted digital strategy that spoke to local Ohio concerns, Portman’s team used NationBuilder.

Using NationBuilder as part of a holistic digital approach, the campaign coordinated messaging and outreach at every level—targeting moderates and engaging a wide-ranging group of voters through digital and advertising efforts. That strategy helped make “almost everybody in play” and contributed to Rob Portman’s decisive 21‑point victory.

Rob Portman

Jessie Markell

Senior Account Executive