Inside the Democrats' Plan to Win Back the Internet

By Charlotte Alter
August 6, 2020

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For more than half a century, Democrats have put their faith in field organizing as the key to campaign success. But this year, instead of marching through neighborhoods with clipboards, Democratic staffers, Biden campaign volunteers and activists across the party are texting, messaging and commenting at their neighbors’ virtual doorsteps. Instead of sharing beer in field offices, they’re trading memes on Slack channels. Instead of finding volunteers at farmers’ markets or school-board meetings, they’re scouring Facebook groups and Twitter threads for potential recruits. Campaign events that were once held in high school gyms are now held on Zoom and promoted on Instagram and TikTok. Because in order to win Florida, or Arizona, or the White House, Democrats know that they first have to win the Internet.

You could think of the Internet as a battleground state in its own right. It has its own regions and cultures, its own communities and constituents, its own gatekeepers and power players. Just as operatives like to talk about the “five Ohios,” or deploy different political messages in disparate parts of Pennsylvania, cutting-edge campaigns in 2020 are varying their pitches to voters by platform, storming different corners of the Internet with different tactics. They recruit volunteers in Facebook groups, blast factoids on Twitter and host Instagram Lives with celebrities. “Digital is the new field,” says Democratic strategist Tim Lim. “You’re basically taking 80 to 100 years of political organizing and throwing it out the window.”

Across the party, operatives and volunteers alike are adjusting to their new roles. In late July, the Biden campaign unveiled an app, Vote Joe, that allows volunteers to cross-reference their phone contacts with the voter file so they can target infrequent voters. Sign-ups on Mobilize, an events and volunteer-recruitment platform used by many Democratic campaigns, have increased 87% from April to July, and the vast majority of those sign-ups are now for digital events. State parties are training field organizers in online canvassing, grassroots groups are designing Instagram graphics, and teens are posting the hashtag #SettleForBiden to warn disaffected young voters against voting third party. TikTok videos with this hashtag have been viewed more than 50 million times.

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Long article, but informative.