“Lauren Baer faces a tough task on Election Day: She’s a first-time Democratic candidate for Congress vying against a veteran Republican in “one of the swingiest swing districts” in southeastern Florida, as she puts it.
Like many in her party, Baer says she benefits from a secret weapon – one that is 2,500 miles away from her slice of the Sunshine State. In Silicon Valley, Baer is among a flood of candidates capitalizing on new apps, activist groups and other organizations that spawned after President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory with the explicit goal of triggering a Democratic wave this November.
As voters prepare to head to the polls, the tech industry’s talented, well-heeled engineers and entrepreneurs have been plugging into Democratic campaigns around the country. They’ve donated their time and money toward giving the party a digital edge, aiding the most distant local candidates and the Democrats’ more ambitious quest to snatch control of the U.S. Congress from Republicans’ grasp.
Many of these newly awakened tech workers are motivated by Trump’s controversial policies on issues including immigration, and they’re focused on closing what they perceive to be an innovation gap with the GOP, two years after Trump effectively tapped Facebook, Twitter and other data-heavy tools on his road to victory. One outgrowth of the Valley’s efforts, an app called MobilizeAmerica, has helped Baer find potential supporters in Florida’s 18th District, a chunk of the state about the size of Rhode Island. The app helped the campaign knock on more than 2,000 doors during a campaign event held a month before Election Day, aides said.”
The LOWE-Down!
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