METHODS & PROCEDURES
Interviews with Campaign Staff
This project relied largely on performing interviews with staff from the two 2016 U.S. Senate campaigns. I began by speaking to the “team captain” of each campaign digital segment – Alex Johnson, who was Director of Strategic Operations for Richard Burr’s campaign, and Jonathan Bray, Campaign Manager for Deborah Ross.
I used an interview guide to structure these conversations, but also asked other questions as they arose, or as the conversation went in other directions. I contacted both Johnson and Bray via LinkedIn.
I then spoke to others from the two campaigns: Burr’s Digital Media Coordinator Elizabeth Minton, Ross’ Finance Director Ben Waldon, Ross’ Data Director Karthik Balasubramanian, and Deborah Ross herself. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and used to shape my thesis project.
Federal Election Commission Data
I used data from the Federal Election Commission (fec.gov) to both inform and supplement the interview process. I looked through Burr and Ross’ disbursement data to find out how much money was raised by each campaign, and likewise, how much money was spent by each campaign. In looking at campaign expenditure, I focused specifically on how much each campaign spent on digital media planning, creation or consultation.
This data also told me whom this money was given to – specifically what companies were hired. For example, from the FEC data, I could see that the Burr campaign paid its data consultant, i360, over $80,000 – the bulk of it (over $65,000) being spent in the month before the election. Likewise, I could see that the Ross campaign paid its marketing firm, Well & Lighthouse, $260,000 on the day before the election. I could also see, for instance, that the Burr campaign spent almost $80,000 on Google, and that the Ross campaign spent barely over $1,000.
Social Media Content
Another supplement to my interviews was the content posted by Burr’s and Ross’ social media accounts – focusing Twitter. I examined the content of those posts and identified trends and differences. I also took note of the changes in posting content and habits throughout the 2016 campaign, and how (and how often) each campaign talked about their opponent.