The Netflix shows you watch, the books you read and the food you eat are all part of a broad set of data that political operatives use to determine whether you will vote in this year’s midterm elections and give money to their candidates.
Democratic data firm Sterling Data Co. told The Washington Times that it has developed a donor behavior algorithm capable of finding people willing to fund Democratic campaigns regardless of whether they have ever done so before.
“I think most people don’t really understand how their data is being used, and I’m not saying that in a bad way,” said Martin Kurucz, Sterling’s CEO. “Everybody’s data is used for advertising. There’s nobody on this earth whose data isn’t out there.”
Sterling acquires troves of data from brokers such as Experian and Acxiom and reviews hundreds of categories of online behavior by individual potential voters, including their streaming choices and preferences for fiction or nonfiction books.
Mr. Kurucz said he started developing the algorithm while working for Gil Cisneros, a California Democrat in Congress who was struggling to raise money ahead of the 2020 election. After applying the algorithm, he said, Mr. Cisneros’ team saw a spike in dollars raised per hour their candidate spent on the phone.
Mr. Cisneros lost the election, but the technology drew the interest of other Democratic candidates. Mr. Kurucz turned the work into a business with the help of other Democratic operatives.
His team has worked for more than 1,000 Democratic clients this cycle, including campaigns, committees and nonprofits. Clients include John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate nominee in Pennsylvania, and Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic challenger in the Texas governor’s race.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee paid Sterling’s data team $20,000 in July, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Democratic candidates are not singularly reliant on aligned firms like Sterling to leverage people’s data for dollars and voter turnout. Mr. O’Rourke’s team has taken advantage of Meta’s tools for Facebook and Instagram to target ads to specific Texans.
During a 30-day period ending Oct. 9, the Meta Ad Library shows Mr. O’Rourke used the tools to exclude people interested in NASCAR and deer hunting from seeing his ads. Instead, he pushed the ads to those interested in the television show “Parks and Recreation,” the fast-food restaurant Whataburger, consumers of soy milk and almond milk, and people interested in the category “latte,” among other things.
“Democrats have a very, very bad tendency of always s—-ing on ourselves, about where we’re behind in terms of the campaign operations in general, and this is something we’re doing right,” Mr. Kurucz said. “Thanks to AI, we’re connecting the right donors with the right organizations, and they’re converting [donations] because of that.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, did not use detailed targeted ads during the same 30-day window, according to the Meta Ad Library.
Republicans are no slouches, however, when it comes to using data to reach voters. The Republican National Committee said it has spent more than $350 million over multiple election cycles to invest in its data technology, and it shares its data with state parties and candidates down the ballot.
RNC spokeswoman Emma Vaughn said sharing the data free of charge with affiliates helps separate Republicans from their Democratic competition.
“Our data-driven ground game, coupled with our winning message on top issues like the economy and crime, will secure Republican victories in November,” Ms. Vaughn said in a statement.
Democrats and Republicans each contend they are ahead in the data wars.
Mr. Kurucz said his team measures success based on the return on investment for candidates and campaigns, including conversion rates for fundraising pitches.
He said the midterm elections this year were “supposed to be terrible” for Democrats, but the data his side is hoovering up and crunching will position his party well for the future regardless of the outcome on Nov. 8.
“The big thing to recognize here is because of what we’re doing, odds are regardless of what level of enthusiasm we have, we can keep building this very large sustainable donor base,” he said. “And that is such a huge fundraising advantage, especially when the Republicans are not only so behind on this but they’re actively shooting themselves in the foot with all the different things that they do.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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