I’m Reading Every Email from Every Presidential Candidate, So You Don’t Have To

(The Presidential Email Project)

tl;dr: I’ve subscribed to the email list of every 2016 presidential candidate. I read every email and track the topics covered, key phrases mentioned and other interesting statistics. Every couple of weeks I’ll report on trends that I’m seeing. This piece explores why I’m doing this, and the methodology for tracking the emails. You can find the first report, covering June and July, 2015, here.

Introduction: Obama vs Romney. In My Inbox

I first subscribed to presidential candidate e-mails after the first Presidential debate of the 2012 general election. As President Obama radiated an aura of “I can’t even be bothered to debate Mitt Romney” I wondered: How would each side portray the event for its loyal email subscribers? Would the marketing mavens at Team Obama write careful excuses of how busy the President was on other issues? How would Team Romney capitalize on what appeared to be a disinterested President?

I subscribed to the email lists of both candidates, and then compared the emails dropping daily into my inbox. Both candidates bashed each other on the issues, flaunted endorsements, and asked me to donate money to their campaign (they asked me to donate money a lot…). But the underlying styles were different: Team Obama wrote casual emails, filled with calls to action and sent from a variety of aliases. Romney’s emails were more stoic, written with perfect grammar and punctuation, and sent only from a few key people.

This experience left me with a bigger idea: If I tracked all of the emails from presidential candidates from an entire election cycle, what would the data show? How often do candidates ask for money? What issues are more important to Democrats vs. Republicans? Are there particular buzzwords mentioned more or less often by individual candidates?

The Presidential Email Project

Welcome to the Presidential Email Project. This project is meant to give an overview of the messages that the 2016 presidential candidates are sending, and to highlight general differences between how campaigns portray themselves. Since late May 2015 I’ve been reading and tracking every email message from every current 2016 presidential candidate. I’ll be giving periodic updates on my findings in Medium articles. This article lays out my general methodology for the project.

General Methodology

The Basics: When a candidate officially declares that he or she is running, I subscribe to the email list from three different accounts: One from my home zip code in San Francisco, CA (94103), one from a staunchly Republican zip code near Andrews, TX (79714) and one from a “purple” zip code near Charlottesville, VA (22901). When I receive an email, I read it and track the issues and phrases mentioned, along with other statistics in a giant spreadsheet (see below). In case the campaigns are doing some advanced tracking on the emails, I open them as soon as I see them; I do not click on anything in anyone’s emails.

Limitations: This project will not provide an exhaustive review of all emails that a campaign is sending. I know from experience that email marketing is a nuanced activity, and if these campaigns are doing it well, even little variations in my actions can have a big result on the emails that I receive. For instance, some campaigns have asked for my name, and therefore can surmise that I am probably not a woman. In the case of at least the Clinton campaign, this makes a difference (my girlfriend is receiving different emails from Hillary than I am). Additionally, the time it takes me to open an email, or my accidentally clicking on a link (which occasionally happens) may also have an influence on the future emails that I receive.

Detailed Methodology

I’m primarily tracking two types of data: The first is whether a candidate discusses general issues; Here is a full list of those issues (with definitions):

Fundraising: Asks for a donation at any point in the email (Does NOT include post-signature “donate” button, which appears in almost every email)

• 2nd Amendment/Gun Control: Discusses Americans’ rights to bear arms
• Abortion: Discusses abortion or the issues commonly associated with it (e.g. Planned Parenthood, life begins at conception, etc.)
• Climate Change: Discusses any aspect of climate change
• Common Core / Education: Discusses educational policy, including Common Core State Standards, college tuition, etc
• Debate: Mentions a debate
• Economics / Tax Code: Describes American economy, including Federal Reserve, taxes, etc. (not including wealth disparities)
• Foreign Policy: Discusses America’s stance toward other countries around the world
• Healthcare: Discusses healthcare for individuals or the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
• Hillary Bashing: Compares the candidate to Hillary Clinton, mentions Clinton’s record on a particular issue, or states that candidate can beat Clinton
• Homeland Security / NSA: Discusses Dept of Homeland Security, Domestic national security (e.g. securing the borders), or the NSA
• Immigration: Discusses immigration policy or undocumented immigrants
• Inequality / Wealth disparities: Discusses inequality between people in the US
• Information on Candidate’s Record: Elaborates on a candidate’s past voting habits or stances (or lack thereof) on a particular issue (NOTE: does not include general “belief” statements)
• Marriage Equality: Discusses the definition of marriage
• Merchandise: Advertises for the candidate’s merchandise store (Note: starting July 1, emails touting merchandise automatically counted as fundraising emails)
• Military / Military Spending: Discusses America’s military, spending on the military, or veterans
• Org building: Asks readers to share information about the candidate, news about the campaign or campaign team, or participate in the campaign (volunteering, signing petition, etc.) Includes giveaways and contests. Does not include “click here to <consume media about the candidate>”
• Poll Ratings: Highlights a candidate’s recent poll numbers
• Social Security: Discusses Social Security
• “Traveling & talking”: Tells specific states or events where the candidate has been traveling
• Women’s rights: Specifically discusses equality for/ the rights of women (not including abortion)

Second, I track specific key words or phrases. I count these phrases only when they show up exactly as written (e.g. an email is marked with “2nd Amendment” when an email literally says “2nd Amendment.” The email would not be marked if the candidate says, “The right to bare arms given in our Constitution.”) The phrases that I am tracking are:

I also track a few additional statistics:

• Subject of the email
• Word Count: Number of words from salutation through the sender’s name. If PS is included, word length includes all words through the end of the PS. If longer text is included below the signature, this text is counted only if the main body of the email specifically mentions this post-signature text. Side bars, headers and footers are not included in this count
• Reading level: Tracks the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, as given by Microsoft Word.

Thanks for Reading

That’s it! Although there are many long nights ahead trying to reach Presidential Inbox Zero, I’m looking forward to reporting out what I find. Please send any questions, comments, or follow up requests my way!

You can read the first post in the series here.