The Highest ROI in Politics
October 8, 2020
TFC Cofounder and CEO, Jessica Alter, speaks with StrictlyVC about the state of local Democratic campaigning in 2020
Jessica Alter, Tech for Campaigns Cofounder and CEO, recently caught up with Connie Loizos for the most recent episode of StrictlyVC to discuss the state of digital campaigning in this year’s election, and the different philosophies that Republicans and Democrats bring to campaigning overall.
Connie is a veteran Silicon Valley tech and business reporter who covers venture capital and startups. In addition to her newsletter and podcast, StrictlyVC, she’s also the Silicon Valley Editor of TechCrunch.
You can check out the full episode here, and read some of the highlights below:
TC: You were previously a tech founder. For those who don’t know you, why start this organization?
“I was pretty uninvolved in politics. I was just a typical techie working at and starting early-stage companies. But in 2017, my cofounders and I got very frustrated. The crucible moment for me was the first Muslim ban. And given what our skill sets are and who we know, we decided, ‘Let’s look at helping on the tech and digital front.’
We had a hunch that in the 2016 election, Trump sort of wiped the floor with [the Democrats] on tech and digital, and we were more right [about that hunch] than we wanted it to be. We realized pretty quickly that the Democrats are probably 8 to 10 years behind the Republicans That’s hard for people to believe, and usually people say, ‘But what about Obama? [His campaign] was good at tech and digital.” But all of that was thrown out. I mean that in the most literal sense. No other candidate or campaign got access.
[For example] in 2018, for all of the media attention that digital advertising gets, only three to five cents went to digital for every donor dollar that was given. Most of the rest went to TV and mail.”
TC: Where are you focusing most of your time and energy?
“At the state legislative level — where there is a concentric circle overlap between incredibly strategic, incredibly cheap, and incredibly ignored. This is where the Republicans fight, too. The [Democratic] elbows are a lot less sharp, so we’ve been able to make major inroads, helping almost 500 campaigns on almost 700 digital projects over the last three years. We’ve also launched several tools that are used across campaigns.
State legislatures control basically every major issue that anyone cares about. That includes healthcare, voting rights, the environment, education, [and] a woman’s right to choose. If Roe v. Wade gets overturned, it’s not that abortion [becomes] illegal; it’s that the states will decide. Plus, the state legislatures in most states also control federal redistricting. So if you own the state legislatures, you actually own all those issues and how federal congressional lines are drawn for a decade.”
State legislators are about 1/100th of the cost of a federal race. People need to understand that Republicans run things like a business, and they make very good ROI-based decisions. I don’t find that to be true with Democrats nearly enough. You have very analytical people who, in their normal lives, are extremely focused on ROI, yet when it comes to politics, they’re just purely emotional.
Republicans run things like a business, and they make very good ROI-based decisions. I don’t find that to be true with Democrats nearly enough.
[Here’s an example of how this mindset can help]: People are very focused on the US Senate. Thom Tillis is the current Senator in North Carolina that’s up for reelection, and he’s a Republican. Directly before he was elected to the US Senate, he was the speaker of the North Carolina House. His last race in 2013 cost $170,000 so we could have beat him for that amount. Now we’re spending $50 million — probably more — to try to beat him in the US Senate.
The Republicans decided that they were going to spend $170,000 all day long and that that’s just a better way for them to spend money. Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Barack Obama, Maxine Waters — all of those people came up through state legislatures. Instead of focusing on races where we can lift candidates like that up, we focus on [federal races] when it’s super expensive. We could be preventing the next Thom Tillis or Marco Rubio for a lot less money, but we just get the shiny object syndrome, and throw money at a $50M race.”
TC: You’re saying it’s chaos out there. You’re giving these campaigns tools and information they didn’t have, but of course, campaigns disband. Is anyone holding on to the tools and information that you’re providing them?
“The whole mission of Tech for Campaigns is to be the permanent tech and digital arm for the Democrats. As you rightly said, campaigns disband every two years and break down completely. Within a week and a half, everyone scatters. So you can’t expect that to change completely.
[But we hope to be] this lasting presence in tech and digital that subsists cycle over cycle and in between cycles — to be this permanent presence that can build a real competitive advantage. Because if you break everything down every two years, you’ll never win at tech and digital.”
Tech for Campaigns mission is to be the lasting presence in tech and digital that subsists cycle over cycle and in between cycles — to be this permanent presence that can build a real competitive advantage. Because if you break everything down every two years [like the Dems have been doing], you’ll never win at tech and digital.”
TC: Some readers are Donald Trump supporters. Some are Biden supporters who might want to help. Is there anything specific you’d want them to know, heading into the election?
“There’s a lot more desire for people to be outspoken in the last few years, even more so than between 2016 and 2018. Because things have gotten so out of control, people really want a way to channel their frustration and anger and sadness. So we don’t find that people want to hide it, no.
We are solving this. [But] it’s not a one-month or even a one-cycle solve, so get in touch with us about what you can do.”
