Winning the ground game
The Obama campaign is at once highly centralised and localised
‘Welcome to the president’s campaign!’ This was the message I woke up to on my first day with Organizing for America, the grassroots campaign to re-elect President Obama. The field organiser delivering the wake-up call told me to get ready – there was a lot of work to do to prepare for the first lady’s visit that day. As an introduction to the campaign I could not have been luckier: Michelle Obama’s visit to us here in Virginia showcased the passion of supporters, the commitment of volunteers and the determination of campaign staffers. As the audience left I awaited a celebratory drink – only to be told it was back to the office for a long evening of data entry. Information is sacred to the campaign and two thousand ticket stubs from the rally with supporters’ names and addresses was a treasure trove not to be wasted.
Weeks on, the glamour of that first day has not been equalled, but the energy and drive remains. The campaign places huge importance on the ‘ground game’ in swing states like Virginia, and the pressure is intense. Building on Barack Obama’s own experience as a community organiser, and his conviction that neighbours speaking to neighbours is the most effective way to communicate his message, the grassroots campaign is driven by evidence and data. Research by the Analyst Institute is used to target people in ways that have been shown to increase their likelihood to vote. For example, asking questions that encourage visualisation of election day travel plans increases turnout above and beyond traditional ‘remember to vote’ interventions.
Putting these behavioural insights into practice requires a massive organisational effort. In some ways, the campaign is highly centralised with weekly goals for voter contact passed down from national campaign headquarters in Chicago. But the ground game emphasises local neighbourhood teams. Districts are characterised as ‘shield’, ‘sword’ or ‘arrow’: areas that will vote Democrat, areas that Democrats are fighting to win and areas that will vote Republican overall, but where a few Democrat voters will help Obama to win the state. Running phone banks, canvassing and recruiting volunteers is tough in the suburban sprawl of Stafford – the ‘arrow’ area I am working in – but staffers stay motivated by the knowledge that there is no route to the White House for Mitt Romney that does not pass through Virginia.
Despite a tightening of the race, Obama’s message of a sustainable economy supporting a growing middle class is cutting through on the doorstep. The Republicans are expected to flood Virginia with advertising campaigns, but there is still no evidence that Romney has any sort of ground game in the state. As the campaign slogan goes, the president’s supporters here are ‘fired up and ready to go’. And they will have to be in a state that has only voted blue once in the last half-century.
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Sarah Bickerstaffe is a former political adviser and a fellow with the Obama for America campaign in Virginia