I originally was going to do a joke thread that Conservatives should join the Democrat Party to the advantages of media and culture. But a more important subject has come up that I need to discuss.
On last night’s radio show AZ Old Dog, Eagle Soars, Osprey and I discussed the technological machine that is Organizing for Action. This machine which led to Obama’s re-election triumph in 2012 despite a bad economy. Yes the Democrats advantage with the popular culture and Media helped, but it was the technological advantage that really is the key to the Democrat’s strength. Now OFA is setting its sight on a new target, Texas.
Some on the blog scoff at the notion at Texas turning blue, do so at your own peril. Organizing For Action’s data mining techniques and manipulation of voters through slick messaging works. I saw first hand how in Florida they turned the once solidly Republican Cuban American vote, into swing vote that broke narrowly for Obama. They did through a combination of fear mongering by claiming Republicans were going to take away Dry Foot, Wet Foot and using bigoted words of people like Ann Coulter in emails. The result was Cubans got angry and scared of the Republicans and broke with a Party they have backed for nearly 50 years. It was dirty, but i worked.
Texas is currently solidly Red, but many from Blue States have move in. Although the Texas Republican Party does better with the Hispanic vote (35%-40%) than the party does nationally (27%), using the Florida blueprint of fear mongering and propaganda, OFA hopes to make them solidly Democrat. They also plan to target younger Texans who may not be as culturally Conservative as their parents. The trick OFA will use is to try to convince these younger voters that the Democrats are fiscally Conservative but Socially tolerant. They then will use Republicans like Santorum, who is OFA’s greatest asset, into shaming voters from voting Republican. I met people who really believe that on fiscal and economic matters that there is no difference than Republicans and Democrats. They vote Democrat because OFA has convinced them Republicans are hateful bigots. Republicans have never refuted any of these allegations, because they are not aware of what OFA is doing.
The man who is tasked with turning Texas blue is Jeremy Bird. Using OFA’s micromanagement tactics he pulled a surprise win for Obama in Florida. Now he is being given the resources to make Texas a Battleground state and then eventually a Democrat stronghold. He is the head of the OFA offshoot, Battleground Texas.
But who is capable of pulling just this scenario off? Enter: Battleground Texas and its senior adviser, Jeremy Bird.
Last month, Politico reported that Mr. Bird — President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign national field director — was in Austin, Texas to meet with local Democrats on Battleground Texas, “a large-scale independent group aimed at turning traditionally conservative Texas into a prime electoral battleground.”
In his early 30s, Mr. Bird is a current and future star of the Democratic Party’s awesomely effective campaign machine. As Mr. Obama’s field director, he revolutionized the effectiveness of the traditional field model, registering, among a great many others, 361,000 left-leaning voters in Florida, 156,000 left-leaning voters in Colorado and 96,000 left-leaning voters in Nevada. Not bad, considering Mr. Obama’s candidacy was no longer an historic first.
[….]
“Bird wouldn’t play in Texas on a hope,” Vlytics partner Scott Tranter told TheDC. “He can pick his next job; choose his next salary. If he’s moving to Texas, it’s because he thinks he can win — and he’s proven that he can.”
Over his three presidential campaigns, Mr. Bird has been responsible for millions of door knocks and tens of millions of phone calls that didn’t simply target Democrats — they targeted Republican and undecided Americans that Mr. Obama’s data operation knew were likely to respond favorably.
“Our approach — using smart data, people-to-people organizing, and digital strategies and analytics — can win even the toughest of campaigns,” Mr. Bird said on a Tuesday conference call with reporters, “and we know it will work in Texas too.”
Indeed, Mr. Bird is at the cutting edge of the technological prowess that helped the Democrats so effectively defeat the Republicans in 2008 and 2012. The Wall Street Journal described his approach as “one part data and one part emotional connection. He keeps close track of which states are making their targets each day, but also preaches the value of relationships — between the campaign and its volunteers, and between volunteers and voters.”
[….]
On Feb. 24, Mr. Bird retweeted a Huffington Post article in which Mr. Perry said that Texas going blue “is the biggest pipe dream I have ever heard.”
Mr. Bird added two words: “Love this.”
Tags: Battleground Texas, Data Mining, Jeremy Bird, Organizing For Action
