How Mark Van Buren won a five-way primary by 691 votes — against the opponent who raised and spent the most cash in the field.
He started fourth in name recognition and had no digital presence. Six weeks later he was the Republican nominee for County Commissioner.
The situation
Five Republicans. One open seat. A crowded, low-information primary.
When Mark Van Buren entered the Republican primary for Licking County Commissioner, four other Republicans were already running. In a five-way race with no incumbent, the winner would need a plurality — and in a down-ballot primary, most voters walk into the booth having never heard of anyone on the ballot.
Mark had a real story — a quarter-century as a township trustee — but no way to tell it. No campaign website. No email list. No digital presence a voter could find. The other campaigns weren't sophisticated either, which meant the race was there for whoever reached the right voters first.
That's the exact race Bull Moose Strategy is built for.
The plan
Find the voters who actually decide a commissioner primary. Reach them relentlessly.
We started with the voter file, not the ad account. A county commissioner primary isn't won across the whole county media market — it's won among the few thousand reliable Republican primary voters who turn out in an off-year May election. We identified them, ranked them by precinct, and pointed every dollar there.
Then we gave Mark a campaign voters could find and trust:
And then the air war: Facebook-first, geo-precise, because that's where a 55-and-up primary electorate actually spends its screen time — measured every week, spend accounted to the penny.
The result
Fourth in name ID on filing day. First on election night.
Mark took 43.16% of the vote — 7,085 votes, 691 clear of the nearest challenger — in a five-way field where the other four split the rest. Official canvass, Licking County Board of Elections.
The digital program cost $4,706 in Google and Meta ad spend, inside a campaign whose certified filings show $31,184 in committee spending plus $17,278 in in-kind support from the candidate, against an opponent who spent $38,239 in committee cash and started three months earlier. The digital dollars went where mail could not: to the few thousand reliable Republican primary voters, instead of to thousands of Democrats and unlikely voters who were never going to pull a Republican ballot.
Six weeks, start to finish
What "The Blitz" actually looks like.
- Week 1
File loaded, site live
Voter universe built and precinct-ranked; campaign site, donation page, and disclaimers published.
- Weeks 2–3
Introduction phase
Name-ID and record ads to the ranked R-primary households — Mark becomes the candidate voters recognize.
- Weeks 4–5
Persuasion & contrast
Message sharpens; spend concentrates in the highest-density precincts on the map.
- Final week
Turnout push
Get-out-the-vote to confirmed supporters and high-propensity households through election day.
Why it matters for your race
This wasn't a fluke. It's a repeatable method.
Van Buren's win came from doing three unglamorous things well: knowing exactly who the voters were, reaching only them, and measuring every week. There's no reason it only works in Licking County. If you're running a down-ballot race — county, state house, township, school board — the same method is available to you, at a published price.
Mark is now the Republican nominee heading into the November general. The program continues.
Your race is next. Let's map it.
Thirty minutes, free. We'll show you the targets, the budget, and the timeline — and if we're not the right fit, the plan is yours to keep.
Book the strategy call