Tools and Weapons: The Promise and The Peril of the Digital Age

by Brad Smith

Shortly after Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012, Reince Priebus was reelected to a second term heading the Republican National Committee, or RNC. He and his new chief of staff, Mike Shields, undertook a top-to-bottom review of the RNC’s operations in the wake of the 2012 defeat, including its technology strategy. And as often happens in the fast-paced world of technology, there emerged an opportunity to leapfrog the competition. Priebus and Shields utilized data models from three Republican technology consulting firms and embedded them in-house at the RNC. While they lacked easy access to the Democratic-leaning talent pool in Silicon Valley, they brought in a new CTO from the University of Michigan and a young technologist from the Virginia Department of Transportation to build new algorithms for the world of politics. The two RNC leaders believed—and proved—that there was top data science talent everywhere.