Political campaigns are traditionally top-down, with political strategists running workshops and focus group messages, analyzing data, and targeting narrow groups of persuadable voters and donors. But over the past 12 days, we’ve seen the birth of something truly new: crowdsourced campaigns.
Kamala Harris has already done unprecedented things, including raising $200 million in her first week as a leading candidate, an unprecedented amount in political history. But Harris’s campaign is the exact same organization as the Biden campaign that has been struggling for months, except for a new logo. How can that be?
The answer is that the campaign itself didn’t really do much other than ride the wave.
This is not a criticism. This is the smartest thing they could have done, and shows incredible agility and adaptability. Former President Donald Trump’s campaign couldn’t keep up. Despite having months to prepare for a possible Harris campaign, Trump is still workshopping insulting nicknames.
Consider the evidence. The tsunami of excitement that Joe Biden’s withdrawal generated has led to tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of organically coordinated grassroots campaign activities. Online memes alone are a political goldmine, something the Harris campaign could never have created on its own, no matter how much time and money it invests. The campaign isn’t pushing “Bratt Summer” and coconut trees. They’re just grabbing onto it and riding it for all it’s worth.
The same goes for volunteers and fundraisers. The campaign registered 170,000 new volunteers in just one week. But the campaign didn’t go out and recruit these people or persuade these donors. They just registered and donated.
The Zoom call phenomenon is a great example. Over the past 12 days, several massive video calls, often with hundreds of thousands of participants, have been organized to raise money and enthusiasm for Harris. The energy of these calls was not generated by the campaign. In fact, many of these calls had nothing to do with the campaign at all. The Harris campaign did not organize a “White Dudes for Harris” coalition. In fact, they were probably quite nervous about the idea at first. But a three-hour, grassroots-organized event attracted 180,000 participants and raised nearly $4 million, so I’m sure they’ve pulled through.
The campaign’s messaging is also being outsourced. Important information from independent focus groups is being shared publicly. And the campaign didn’t develop and A/B test the “those people are weird” message internally. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz first used it, and the campaign adopted it after seeing the idea catch on.
It’s only now that the campaign has started to create its own issue-related content, but it might be a mistake to go too far in that direction. Serious policy discussion is fine, but this campaign is better off with a catchy slogan.
There are no undecided voters in America who will be swayed by a 50-page white paper on border security and immigration reform. The rest of the voters who can be persuaded are not policy experts. They are more likely to be moved by the zeitgeist of the campaign. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” and “Drill, baby, drill” are not policy statements. They are effective because they conjure up images that even the busiest voter can immediately think of.
The Harris campaign needs to come up with a great slogan and feed off tens of thousands of creatives who can spread her message if given the chance. Instead, they’re showing signs of wanting to explain things. If you’re explaining things in this election, even if it’s policy, you’re losing.
Consider border security, one of the most important issues in this election. Harris needs her own version of “Build the wall!” Instead, the campaign is making it a three-minute issue. How much better would it be if Harris simply said, “I’m a prosecutor. I want order at the border. I’m all for Senator Jim Lankford’s strong border security bill.” It’s short, memorable, and content creators will have a blast with it.
The Harris campaign is already a campaign unlike any other. The impulse to channel the fire department of energy and creativity Harris has unleashed into more traditional channels is understandable. It’s also a mistake. For Democrats, this is turning into a wave election. It’s unclear how high the wave will rise, but with three months left, Harris has little choice but to ride it as long as possible.
Chris Truax An appellate attorney who served as Southern California chapter chair for John McCain’s 2008 primary campaign.
