Real conservatives continue to be right on the issues, but Democrats are leveraging their digital advantage to win elections. With Big Tech in their corner, Democrats expect to run over the GOP in November. Consider the fortune Mike Bloomberg is spending on social media ads through a secretive firm called Hawkfish. Bloomberg’s gun control group spent more on the Virginia election last fall than the NRA did. That gave Democrats landslides in all the right places.
Bloomberg’s creed has long been “In God we trust. Everyone else bring data.” That’s how he became one of the wealthiest in the world selling terminals to process stock market data. Bloomberg announced that he would spend more than $100 million on digital ads alone against President Trump. That wasn’t an empty threat. Already, Bloomberg’s campaign has spent millions on Facebook and Google.
Swing voters who decide elections are more likely to be using the internet than watching TV. Young voters obtain their information almost exclusively online. They deserve credit for electing Obama in 2008 and 2012 and not turning out to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. The viewers of cable television are senior citizens who grew up watching the tube, rather than YouTube. Few elderly voters are undecided about the upcoming election, or any election. Outcomes instead are determined by the voter turnout of young people who don’t watch cable news.
President Trump knows the significance of digital communications. He uses it daily with his Twitter account. He gave a boost to Republican candidates in 2019 and I’m convinced the outcomes would have been better if other Republicans tried as hard online as Trump does. Unfortunately, so many candidates are either stuck in the past themselves or they hire pricey consultants that do nothing but offer the same worn-out strategies from two decades ago.
If conservatives really want to win big in November, they need to follow the President’s lead on the use of technology. Out with the old and in with the new. You don’t have to have a massive campaign war chest to win. You just need to be smart about using what you have to reach the right groups of people with the right message.
