This is no longer a battle between the contenders – it is now a battle between big data firms, according to the latest article by Campaigns and Elections.
Iowa could be defined by a battle between two data analytics firms: Cambridge Analytica, which consulted for the Texas senator, and Optimus Consulting, which worked for his Florida rival (Marco Rubio).
Both Republicans relied heavily on data analytics but it was Cruz that credited Cambridge Analytica in December with his “rising success.” Jeff Roe, Cruz’s campaign manager told the Washington Post.
“The conventional wisdom has been destroyed. What you can do is rely on data.”
- Jeff Roe, campaign manager, Cruz for President
Cruz embedded CA’s statisticians and behavioural psychologists into the campaign to help with psychographic targeting.
Stuart Stevens, Romney’s top strategist in 2012, praised Jeff Roe: “Data analytics helped them know where their vote is. I think Jeff Roe did a superb job,” said Stevens. “But Cruz really worked it. He did it the old fashioned way and voters rewarded him for it.”
Ian Patrick Hines, a GOP consultant who specializes in pairing digital and field, said it was more than just the tech side of the Iowa campaign that propelled Cruz.
“Cruz invested early in digital, data, and field in Iowa, and that investment is a huge part of what carried him to victory tonight,” he said. “Time and time again, we’ve seen that the campaigns who pull out big game-day wins — Obama 2008, Rick Santorum 2012, Cruz 2016 — are the ones that invested early in their field program. That’s no accident, and other campaigns should take notice.”