Mobile app designed to empower the individual activist
Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. FreedomWorks for America a nationally organized grassroots organization lead by former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas
with close ties to Tea Party groups around the country plans to debut the tool nationally in the coming weeks. But what remains to be seen is whether this sort of cutting-edge technology will help conservative Republicans win or not.
Conservative activists have created a mobile tool that makes it easier for them to direct volunteers in the field.
The mobile-canvassing application
developed by Texas-based Political Gravity
uses the GPS feature on smartphones to help volunteers identify voters in their neighborhood that the campaign wants to target.
Campaign headquarters can also use the app to deliver real-time data on the target and the volunteer can respond with information on how the meeting went. The resulting information can feed into a database making it easier to track voters and lure them with specific messaging.
Its just another way that technology is making it easier for political campaigns to organize their outreach and make better use of data they collect.
In election campaigns you cant work any harder so youve got to find a way to work smarter" said Roy Magno of Political Gravity.
Magno said the application which was created in partnership with the conservative group
American Majority Action is available only to conservative campaigns and organizations. He said his company is very
motivated to play catch-up" with Democrats who Magno said are ahead when it comes to using technology in campaigns.
The FreedomWorks for America PAC has purchased a list of conservative voters it seeks to influence ahead of Senate races in Ohio Pennsylvania and Virginia this fall.
FreedomWorks for America plans to use the canvassing tool as part of a larger mobile app designed to empower the individual activist according to Chief Operating Officer Ryan Hecker.
This is the sort of cutting-edge stuff that will help Republicans win" Hecker said in an interview.
Though the tea partyer is far from supportive of President Barack Obama Hecker credited the president and his advisers for a perfect campaign" in 2008.
They realized how important it was to give the individual the capability to get involved in the campaign on their own" Hecker said.
