Digital Technology and the Midterm Elections

Politicians and their staffs are using technology more and more to connect with voters and glean insights into demographic statistics and voting trends, and as the 2014 United States Congressional midterm elections draw nearer, many political observers are looking at both parties’ use of digital technology in their fundraising and voter turnout efforts. By and large, officials in both parties acknowledge that the Democrats’ use of digital technology was exponentially more effective than the Republicans’ in the 2012 presidential election and that this disparity played a large part in President Obama winning reelection. When the Republican National Committee released its official “post-mortem” of the 2012 presidential election, the report specifically stated that the Republican Party needed to address this gap if it hoped to compete in future presidential elections.

I would be curious to find out how this gap in technology capabilities between the two parties developed. Some observers have hypothesized that the best political technology consultants in Silicon Valley tend to vote Democrat and thus have no interest in helping Republicans win. Regardless of the reason, it will be interesting to see if Republicans are able to close the gap in this election. Though Republicans are all but guaranteed to retain their majority in the House of Representatives, the battle for control of the Senate is still too close to call, and digital technology may end up being the deciding factor.

Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/2014-election-technology-111368.html