Biden digital game outmatched by Trump in virtual race

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump’s campaign boasts it needed just 24 hours to switch into virtual mode after coronavirus lockdowns ended his signature, high-energy rallies. For Joe Biden, who thrives on the personal connection of retail politics, the transition is taking much longer.
Trump’s digital operation dominates the digital space in no small part thanks to the presidential bully pulpit and his massive Twitter presence. But Biden, a month after the pandemic forced him off the trail, has yet to beef up his digital team and is still working to expand his outreach to quarantined voters.
Unlike rivals like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders who relied on innovative technology to reach supporters during the Democratic primary season, Biden ran a traditional campaign leveraging his name recognition, political contacts and skills in retail politics.
Biden has hired no new staff with expertise in digital politics, the campaign said, instead relying on existing aides.
Biden’s digital director, Rob Flaherty, acknowledged that the campaign has to catch up.
“This month has given us a good opportunity to figure out where there are needs and where we need to fill in holes,” Flaherty said in an interview. “We’re going to grow in time but for now we’re drinking from the fire hose but still punching way above weights.”
Playing Catchup
The Biden camp is just now beginning to ramp up its digital efforts, with some help from former rivals. He has held
virtual town halls, hosting family-oriented YouTube users and started an interactive broadcast with coronavirus frontline workers. Biden’s video content has reached 52 million viewers over the past month, the campaign says.
“We have some opportunity of undivided attention from screens to reach people exactly where they’re at, which is on their phones,” said Carla Aronsohn, who was Sanders’s lead mobile strategist in 2016
and then founded Cultivate Strategies, a progressive digital agency. “They need to invest in hiring some of the most brilliant technical and digital minds onto their campaign.”
Beginning in March, the campaigns were forced to find alternatives to crowded events and rope lines as social distancing protocols and stay-at-home orders were imposed around the country.
Trump, harnessing the power of incumbency and without the distraction of a primary challenger, got right to it. He launched virtual rallies, some with popular surrogates like Donald Trump Jr.
Other virtual events cater
to specific constituencies, like Women for Trump, Black Voices for Trump and Latinos for Trump. The groups have their own accounts across social media channels.
By the end of April, the campaign plans to hold about 90 of these coalition specific events to get access to new volunteers, donors and data.