The secret GOP tech summit to plot 2016

The Republican Party’s top operatives — including strategists representing the Koch brothers’ political operation and several leading prospective 2016 presidential candidates – on Monday huddled behind closed doors to discuss how to synchronize their sometimes competing tech efforts, multiple attendees confirmed to POLITICO.

The all-day meeting attracted about 40 of the right’s biggest names in tech and strategy – including Koch operatives Michael Palmer and Marc Short, leading strategists from many of the major super PACs and all of the party committees, as well as close allies of Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry and Scott Walker.


The session was at least partly intended to quash a rivalry simmering in the right’s tech ranks. Some party operatives worry that the competition between would be data-wizards could emerge as a problem for Republicans, since Democrats under President Barack Obama have coordinated their technology efforts relatively closely.

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Dick Boyce, a California investor who’s made it his mission to help Republicans cooperate on the tech front in order to avoid the data debacle they suffered in 2012, organized Monday’s session at the K Street offices of the law firm Wiley Rein.

GOP outreach efforts lagged far behind Obama’s vaunted voter-targeting machine in 2012, culminating in the embarrassing Election-Day snafus that plagued the turnout platform built by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign. The platform, called ORCA, was ridiculed as “ Romney’s fail whale” and became emblematic of the tech deficiencies plaguing the GOP.

After 2012, conservatives generally agreed that addressing those deficiencies was a driving imperative since data is increasingly central to all phases of politics — from fundraising to messaging to getting out the vote. But they disagreed on how — and who — best to do it, and a competition for data supremacy has emerged between the Koch operation’s technology company (called i360), the Republican National Committee’s effort ( Data Trust) and various other outside players.

According to multiple participants, Boyce told attendees it is essential for conservatives to start working more closely together soon — well before the 2016 GOP presidential primary — otherwise the party’s nominee will have to play catchup in the general election like Romney struggled to do. Boyce did not respond to an email message seeking comment on Monday afternoon.

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A former CEO of J.Crew and partner in Bain & Co. who maintains deep connections in Silicon Valley, Boyce previously collaborated with GOP uber operative Karl Rove on Liberty Works, a post-2012 effort to recruit top tech talent and build a data platform, but it didn’t pan out. Now, Boyce is back with a new for-profit company called Ready to Win, which organized Monday’s confab.

One attendee praised Boyce and his new outfit for taking the initiative in trying to address a tricky problem seen as key to the GOP’s chances in 2016.

“Building the party-wide technology that improves the Republican ecosystem is difficult, expensive work,” the attendee said Monday. “And Ready to Win brought together valuable decision makers today that can provide our 2016 nominee’s team with the tools they need to win.”

Sean Spicer, an RNC spokesman, didn’t comment on the meeting specifically, but he said “Having the entire Republican team all focused on winning the White House in the 2016 cycle is crucial.”

One of the roughly half-dozen panels at Monday’s meeting focused on the GOP’s improved tech performance in 2014. It featured RNC Chief Digital Officer Chuck DeFeo, National Republican Senatorial Committee Deputy Executive Director Matt Lira, National Republican Congressional Committee Deputy Political Director John Rogers, as well as Eric Wilson, the digital director for Ed Gillespie’s 2014 Senate campaign in Virginia. While Gillespie lost narrowly, his campaign was celebrated for making pioneering use of social media to close a wide gap with incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Warner.

The panel featured the results of a survey done by Ready to Win of Republican congressional campaign managers on the effectiveness during the midterms of various tech tactics – from email fundraising to social media outreach.

“It was kind of an after action report from 2014,” said one attendee.

Spicer said that the midterms, during which the GOP captured control of the Senate, “proved that the Republicans and the Republican National Committee is back on top when it comes to data and digital.”

During a lunch panel (sandwiches and finger food were served in an adjacent room), Boyce interviewed Univision advertising executive Steve Mandala about connecting with Hispanic audiences.

Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of the data security giant Palantir Technologies, addressed the group via video about how conservatives can do better reaching Silicon Valley types by focusing on methodology and competence rather than ideology. Lonsdale has hosted a fundraiser for Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a likely 2016 presidential candidate who has assiduously courted techies.

Other panels featured discussions of best practices for utilizing the non-partisan voter targeting platform NationBuilder as well as Facebook’s newest offerings.

Another presentation covered how the commercial data firm AIMIA builds customer loyalty, and how its techniques could apply to politics. And someone affiliated with Ready to Win talked about courting influencers who can help win over others.

The turnout of so many top-level operatives Monday suggested that Boyce could be a major player in GOP data efforts going forward, despite his last effort’s lack of traction.

In addition to the officials from the Koch operation (who left around midday) and the Republican party committees, Monday’s gathering drew close allies of many of the GOP’s top 2016 prospects including Keith Gilkes (who has worked for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker), Rob Johnson (Texas Gov. Rick Perry), Mike Murphy (former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush) and Josh Perry (Texas Sen. Ted Cruz). Doug Stafford, a top political strategist for Rand Paul, was invited to the gathering, but it’s unclear whether he or strategists for other prospective 2016 candidates attended.

Representing Rove’s American Crossroads outfit was communications director Paul Lindsay and Rove’s chief of staff Kristin Noel Davison, while Joe Rickett’s Ending Spending super PAC was represented by operative Brian Baker. Also attending were tech strategists Andrew Barkett (the chief technology officer of the RNC), Lindsay Conwell (an executive at i360), Gerrit Lansing, (Digital Director of the NRCC) and Ned Ryun (who runs a voter data company called Voter Gravity).

“It was a who’s who of representatives of Republican groups and candidates,” said one operative who attended.