The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Warren’s big crowds? She has a plan for them, too
AUSTIN, Texas — Thousands of people packed under the marble arch of Manhattan’s Washington Square Park to hear Elizabeth Warren on Monday. They didn’t show up by accident.
The crowd was the product of a carefully planned, data-driven strategy to identify supporters, attract them to a rally and ultimately convert them into voters, a plan that goes well beyond producing a compelling scene for television.
In an era where campaigns increasingly try to leverage technology to tactical advantage, the attention to detail by Warren’s team stands out. Like other candidates, before an event, her campaign invites past donors and other likely supporters who live nearby using email, mass text alerts and “peer-to-peer” text messages that staffers write to individuals.
But that’s just the start. At the venue itself, attendees must line up and check in using their phones, even if they’ve previously RSVP’d. When finished, they’re sent a picture of the senator’s Golden Retriever, Bailey, which they show at the door to be issued a reddot sticker proving they’ve complied.
Warren’s campaign spent months testing how best to collect information, trying out things like different colors of paper signup sheets before settling on the current system since attendees get a doggie picture they’re likely to enjoy.
“It’s efficient but also fun,” said Tessa Simonds, the Warren campaign’s director of grassroots mobilization.
Warren has mastered the art of drawing thousands to her rallies, but, more importantly, those turning out are also a proxy for her recent rise in the polls. And the crowds have been building for weeks in places that have received relatively little attention from other candidates, including Seattle, Minneapolis and Austin, Texas.
In 2016, the enormous crowds who flocked to see Bernie Sanders were an early sign of the enthusiasm that would build around his campaign and lead him to nearly defeat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. This cycle, Sanders and other Democrats have also staged large rallies, but it is Warren who seems to hold the energy edge. Her rallies serve as an outlet for liberals to embrace an alternative to the populism that swept President Donald Trump into office, with crowds frequently chanting “two cents” backing Warren’s proposed wealth tax rather than “build the wall.”
Trump’s large crowds four years ago hinted at his coming Election Day upset. Similarly, Barack Obama was still largely unknown nationally when he launched his presidential bid in 2007 — yet demonstrated his early strength by drawing 20,000 at a Super Bowl Sunday rally in Delaware.
“When you get a big crowd and reporters are covering that and they’re like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of energy in the room,’ … that can absolutely get you free earned media,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist and former top, conservative grassroots organizer. “And if we learned anything from 2016, earned media is really valuable and can — pardon the pun — trump the paid media.”
Big crowds aren’t everything, of course. Many Democrats bitterly remember throngs watching Clinton, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall the night before Trump’s 2016 victory. Democrat Walter Mondale attracted massive 1984 crowds in New York and Boston days before losing 49 out of 50 states to President Ronald Reagan.