The savvy tech strategy fueling Bernie Sanders' upstart 2016 campaign
By Evan Halper
July 16, 2015
Bernie Sanders is more likely to sport a rumpled suit than a hoodie, has no affinity for geeking out on the gadgets of Silicon Valley and may prefer the company of protesters over programmers — yet no candidate running for president is more successfully leveraging technology.
The liberal Vermont senator’s rapid rise from a token leftist to a rival with the potential to disrupt Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton’s path to the nomination confirms that technology, as political data wizards like to say, has become an equalizer in modern campaigns.
“It is extraordinary how this has revolutionized politics in America,” Sanders said in an interview. He is the first to admit that he is no techie. “I consider myself smart enough to hire excellent people who know its importance.”
The Sanders ascent is built on deft use of the campaign tools first developed a decade ago by fellow Vermonter Howard Dean. During his 2004 campaign for president, Dean also was not particularly tech-savvy, but his message resonated with those who were.
Sanders is the same. Recently, he overtook Clinton in the number of people searching for his name on Google. His Senate Facebook page has 1.3 million followers, more than any other senator.
An online effort to get volunteers to throw house parties in support of Sanders on a day this month has so many people signing up that the campaign is trying to figure out how to coordinate it all.
“Can you imagine 20 years ago anyone thinking you could sit down in front of your computer and talk to tens of thousands of people in America at once and do it at such a reasonable cost?” Sanders said.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-sanders-campaign-technology-20150715-story.html
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