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Smith Memo

The memo provides recommendations for the 2020 presidential campaign of Smith. It suggests focusing efforts on swing states like Pennsylvania and Florida by advocating for higher education issues, which polls show are important to educated voters. It also recommends learning from both the Clinton and Trump campaigns' media strategies in 2016. While Clinton took a professional approach, Trump borrowed tactics from Silicon Valley startups by moving quickly without permission and creating addictive content, which helped him win. The memo concludes the Smith campaign should focus on attracting new voters by using media in a traditional yet attention-grabbing way focused on policy rather than scandal.

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127 views2 pages

Smith Memo

The memo provides recommendations for the 2020 presidential campaign of Smith. It suggests focusing efforts on swing states like Pennsylvania and Florida by advocating for higher education issues, which polls show are important to educated voters. It also recommends learning from both the Clinton and Trump campaigns' media strategies in 2016. While Clinton took a professional approach, Trump borrowed tactics from Silicon Valley startups by moving quickly without permission and creating addictive content, which helped him win. The memo concludes the Smith campaign should focus on attracting new voters by using media in a traditional yet attention-grabbing way focused on policy rather than scandal.

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Memo

To: The Smith Campaign


From: Chaniiz Baeza
Date: October 1, 2017
Re: Campaign Recommendations for the 2020 Presidential Election

To run a successful campaign in 2020 we must look at the potential to influence educated people,
particularly in the swing states, in this memo we will look at Pennsylvania and Florida. Also,
understanding and effectively utilizing media for a campaign is crucial, this form of public
presence has a lot of potential to increase your chance to attract the most voters. In the 2016
election, the Clinton and Trump campaigns each had different approaches in their
advertisements, Clinton was more traditional and professional in her ways, and Trump used a
more spontaneous, disruptive approach. Evidence shows the Trump campaign manager Stephen
K. Bannon, borrowing tactics from Silicon Valley start-ups, and learning how to make addictive
content much like video game companies. Which ultimately resulted in Trump winning the
election, a surprise to many Americans.

The Educated Know More About Politics

In Greenbergs, The Struggle For Democracy, for how and why peoples political attitudes
differ, he says that education is more likely to help expose people to new views, and educated
peoples policy preferences tend to be protective of civil liberties and individual freedom. Our
newest president attracted a different population. According to an article by Charles Duhigg
written for the New York Times, How Trump Became the First Silicon Valley President, March
2017, Trump attracted a lot of first time voters, and was elected by a big boost from Americans
who do not have college degrees. Perhaps for the next election, the education policy should be an
important issues to address throughout your campaign. Here are statistics pulled from the United
States Census Bureau website, of two swing states to consider when advocating for higher
education. In Pennsylvania, out of 9,710,416 voting population there are 303,996 18 and over
females enrolled in college, and 259,847 males enrolled in college. In Florida, of the 13,933,052
voting population, 409,471 females, and 344,646 males of the ages 18 and over are currently
enrolled in college.

Campaigning In Terms of Media Presence

Social media, marketing strategies, and advertising play a huge role in our generation. In this
case, during the 2016 election, we saw a lot of content via Facebook and Twitter, that some
Americans agree negatively impacted the overall outcome. The overwhelming effects set aside,
the opportunity to reach the majority of American voters is endless through public media
platforms like, Youtube commercials that eventually make it onto Facebook and Twitter. For the
2020 election working together with these outlets to assure content is filtered appropriately, and
that what is being shared publically, isnt political scandal but material driven by actual policy.
This will increase the trust of your targeted voters. Confusing Americans with scandalous
content, that ultimately overwhelms them, will only discourage them to vote. If we take into
account the two different approaches the Trump and Clinton campaigns took, we have valuable
ideas to adopt from both sides. Clinton had a much more professional presence in her campaign
commercials, by stating her accomplishments and continued desire to help underprivileged
people. Trumps team, on the other hand, was more disruptive, he tackled his supporters by
pointing out all the issues he thought were problematic and offered his way to fix them.

Donald Trump Won the 2016 Election by Start-Up Tactics

Donald Trumps victory was a surprise to many of us, but there is no doubt that the tactics his
campaign team used were effective, he did win after all. When the Trump campaign manager
Stephen K. Bannon met with the Republican National Committee, he provided many details
about where ideas for the 2016 Trump campaign came from. The most important influences was
adopted from Silicon Valley start-up playbooks, surprisingly enough. The looked into tech
company management techniques so their staff would start to conduct rapid digital tests to push
advertising campaigns without the permission or approval from officials. (Duhigg) Bannon said
to the RNC, your job is to move fast and break things...figure out what needs doing, and then
just do it. Dont wait for permission. This was the language Trump campaign staff members
were motivated with. It caught some of them by surprise, but when they won the election, the
idea of borrowing these start-up tactics became interesting to the RNC. Even though, the Silicon
Valley doesnt necessarily stand for Trumps belief, and most tech employees are angry with his
immigration ban, hes known as the first Silicon Valley candidate. Hes hasnt transitioned to a
mature commander like successful start-up have, but there is value in his tactics that can benefit
the Smith Campaign in 2020.

By focusing on what currently attracts the attention of this new generation, being media and
business like, we will have a supreme advantage. Learning from Trumps new approach on
campaigning can lead us in the right direction, only we will need to focus on more traditional
content that does not overwhelm voters. We want their participation!

Attachments: Duhigg, Charles. 2017. "How Trump Became the First Silicon Valley President."
New York Times, Mar 09
https://login.ezp.pasadena.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1875294813?acco
untid=28371.

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