Jake Lee spent much of last year attending rally after rally for Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic congressman from El Paso running for U.S. Senate. He felt inspired to become more involved with the campaign, but he didn’t know how.

Last month, the 25-year-old from Austin found his answer. Lee, a longtime lurker on Reddit, developed the Beto_bot, a bot that gets the word out about O’Rourke’s campaign by spreading his policy stances to curious commentators on several subreddits.

“I thought, at one point, I didn’t know a lot about Beto, so I figured probably a lot of other Texans don’t know a lot about Beto,” Lee said. “I figured a bot on a big website like Reddit could potentially have more of an effect than even I could phone banking.”

Beto_bot works by scanning several subreddits, parsing through comments to see if a user has asked a question about O'Rourke and his stance on a specific policy. For example: If a user comments on the r/TexasPolitics subreddit asking, "What is Beto's health care policy?", it would trigger the Beto_bot to reply with an answer directly from O'Rourke's website under the issues tab.

The Beto_bot is one way candidates and their supporters are attempting to replicate the success of Barack Obama, who was one of the first to harness the power of social media during his 2008 presidential campaign.

Donald Trump also used his massive Twitter following to attract supporters and free media attention on his way to winning the presidency in 2016. But aside from Trump, most Republicans haven’t invited supporters to “virtually join” in on their campaigns, said Stephanie Martin, a political communications professor at Southern Methodist University.

In his Senate race against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, O’Rourke has used Facebook Live, Twitter and Reddit, mirroring what Obama did in 2008, Martin said.

“I don’t see that happening as much on the Republican side,” she said. “It’s not just messaging; it’s inviting people to virtually join.”

Cruz, however, is an exception to the rule. The Republican often openly banters with other politicians and celebrities on Twitter and interacts with supporters through hashtags like #CruzCrew. His office plans to host a Facebook Live from an event Wednesday night in San Angelo. And with his national profile, Cruz eclipses O'Rourke in number of Twitter followers — 3.2 million to the Democrat's 251,000.

O'Rourke, who has visited all 254 Texas counties as he barnstorms across the state, is facing what will be an expensive uphill battle to unseat the first-term senator.

The Beto_bot is active on r/TexasPolitics, r/Austin and several other subreddits, which together have a combined 150,000 to 200,000 subscribers. Moderators for the Houston and Dallas subreddits rejected Beto_bot when Lee was seeking approval.

To be clear, Lee’s Beto_bot isn’t an official effort by the O’Rourke campaign, though “it’s an interesting idea,” said Chris Evans, O’Rourke’s communications director.

When asked about the Cruz campaign’s social media strategy, spokeswoman Emily Miller said: "Our campaign is utilizing social media to ensure as many people as possible are aware of Sen. Ted Cruz's record of fighting for Texans.”

“As far as specific strategies,” she added, “we can have a conversation after he’s won re-election.”

O'Rourke has used his social media presence to his advantage, focusing on Facebook Live broadcasts that rack up thousands of views and spending more on Facebook ads than any other U.S. candidate except for Trump. Social media has also helped the Democrat raise funds that have eclipsed the incumbent's in recent quarters.

On Reddit, O'Rourke has also hosted several Ask Me Anythings, or AMAs, on r/Politics, a subreddit with 3.9 million subscribers. Users asked questions on a range of topics, from how to combat gerrymandering in Texas to how to better communicate with conservatives across the aisle.

Before he was elected president in 2008, Obama's campaign revolutionized how candidates use the internet to win elections, bringing the race to them through everything from social networking sites to mobile messaging.

By November 2008, Obama had more than 2 million American supporters on Facebook versus 600,000 for Republican John McCain; on Twitter, the Democrat had 112,000 followers compared to McCain’s 4,600.

Found a comment on Reddit that works as an argument for both @BetoORourke fans and @TedCruz fans #TXSen pic.twitter.com/O0PMfM2oQ4 — Aman Batheja (@amanbatheja) July 9, 2018

Martin said Obama’s run changed digital campaigning forever when it shifted from traditional mailers to social media “microtargeting,” in which candidates single out messages about a specific policy position to a potential voter based on their interests — information provided by social networks.

“Wherever you have the opportunity to join — even just for a moment, digitally — that invitation is really smart,” Martin said. “A person might do something in the privacy of their home and get a message that they would never engage with or never get, that would actually require more energy from them,” like having to drive out to a town hall or rally.

Still, several commenters on r/TexasPolitics and other subreddits were skeptical of how effective Beto_bot would be for O’Rourke’s campaign in the long run. One commenter sarcastically wrote that they’re “sure this bot in a subreddit with 2,000 subscribers is gonna win Beto the election” in November.

Martin disagrees. In fact, she said, if O’Rourke does unseat Cruz, it will be by a razor-thin edge, so he’ll need every vote he can get — and campaigning on sites like Reddit might make the difference.

“We are still learning what campaigning looks like in a world where you can’t just send mailers and turn people out,” Martin said. “You have to reach them in other ways."

CORRECTION, 3:41 p.m., Aug. 8, 2018: An earlier version of this story said Cruz's campaign was hosting an event, but it was his office.