Data and Democracy

Chapter 2. Data Management for Political Campaigns

Audra Grassia

Audra Grassia leads political engagements at Civis Analytics. She has spent the majority of her career working on political campaigns across the country, including statewide, local, and federal races. Additionally, Audra was the Deputy Political Director for the Democratic Governors Association during the 2014 election cycle.

“Big Data in politics is just a fad!…said no one. Ever.”

This is the joke a non-data, political colleague of mine recently made while we were discussing the future of electoral politics. Her joke was correct in its sarcastic tone: we all know big data in electoral politics is here to stay. But it wasn’t too long ago when some believed it would fade into the background as the next new, shiny thing came on the market.

The reality is that data is now in the background—and the foreground. It now informs every campaign decision and is talked about by pollsters, pundits, and even candidates. The level of granularity and the breadth of insight that one can produce using all of the data at our disposal is unmatched, and we are rapidly growing our understanding of who voters are, how to reach them, and what we say to them. Our ability to draw actionable insights from our data has been enhanced as data and analytics technology becomes more available, sophisticated, user-friendly, and decision-maker centric.

Just because we now have access to more information about voters than ever before, though, ...