“GOP Pierces Democratic Monopoly on Technology, Targeting, and Voter Mobilization”

BY RON FOURNIERNovember 5, 2014

GOP Pierces Democratic Monopoly

21st Century Campaigning: Data-Driven“The ability to collect and crunch vast amounts of data on virtually every American and use that data to shape how people shop, eat, work, worship, play, and, of course, vote.”

Example: Tom Cotton 2014 Senate Campaign: “High Value GOP voters”“For each young white man – thousands of them – Republican Party operatives had a name, an address, a voting history, and most important, a rich attitudinal profile based largely on their online activities.”

GOP Pierces Democratic Monopoly

GOP Eager to Catch up with Dems on Technological FrontOver the last decade, the Republican Party virtually ceded a technological monopoly to Democrats, foolishly blinding the GOP to tens of millions of potential voters. Until now.

GOP Pierces Democratic Monopoly

GOP First to Use Data-driven strategies in 2004 “Ten years ago, it was the Republican Party that introduced Washington to the micro-targeting tactics long used by U.S. corporations and mega-churches.”

GOP Pierces Democratic Monopoly

Bush Campaign: Revolutionized Voter Targeting in 2004

- Started with public voter lists- Lists were enhanced with data on organizational memberships- Sent lists to data-mining company: Acxiom, which combined them

with consumer data- Bush got back a “mega-list” with data (divided over 400 categories) on:

a. Stage of life (age, martial status, number of children…) b. Lifestyles (hunter, biker, home renter, religious

affiliations)

GOP Pierces Democratic Monopoly

Bush Campaign: Data Strategy

- Polled 5000 people from Acxiom list over the phone- Grouped the respondents into 30 segments (“Virtual Communities”)- Assigned the remainder of their list, numbering the millions, into one

of these segments based on whether they shared lifestyle and political characteristics with those already in the segment.

It was a highly effective strategy.

GOP Loses The AdvantageBut after 2004, the GOP failed to stay on changes in targeting strategy and were

outdone by Obama and the Democrats in 2008 and 2012.

GOP Pierces Democratic Monopoly

Bush Campaign: Data Strategy

- Polled 5000 people from Acxiom list over the phone- Grouped the respondents into 30 segments (“Virtual Communities”)- Assigned the remainder of their list, numbering the millions, into one

of these segments based on whether they shared lifestyle and political characteristics with those already in the segment.

It was a highly effective strategy.