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ELECTIONS 2016
Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz raises $2 million for White House bid

Texas Republican relies on cutting-edge digital strategy as he seeks to raise $50 million

Fredreka Schouten
USA TODAY
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks about his presidential bid Wednesday on Bloomberg Television.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz, the first major Republican candidate to declare his White House candidacy, raised $2 million during the first three days of his presidential campaign — as his team deployed a mix of complex social-media strategy and behavioral analytics to reach and sway potential donors.

Hours before his announcement speech Monday in Lynchburg, Va., Cruz tweeted the news that he was running for president. That day, he had 5.7 million interactions on Facebook. So far, nearly two-thirds of his fundraising haul has flowed in through the Internet, aided behind the scenes by a team of data scientists who closely monitor social media and digital traffic to determine who's reading their messages, who's sharing them and who's clicking through to his website and taking action.

The communication is two-way. Relying on marketing techniques common in the world of commerce, Cruz's team has tailored its web advertising to reach seven different "psychographic" clusters — groups of people with similar attitudes, personalities and interests. It has crafted 17 different advertising messages to reach those potential donors.

For instance, pro-gun "traditionalists" saw online banner ads with a grandfather and grandson heading out to hunt, while another targeted people concerned about personal safety with an image of a home break-in. Another talked about "bringing ... faith in God back to America" to attract religious conservatives. They all directed people to visit www.tedcruz.org.

"Our entire culture here is to build engagement," said Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe. If a potential supporter first visited the Cruz website via her tablet Tuesday evening during the Texas senator's interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, the campaign will direct future online ads to that voter's device during the evening hours.

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In all, Cruz hopes to raise $40 million to $50 million by March 2016.

The Cruz rollout is the latest sign that the world of data analytics is fast taking root in American politics — as candidates race to build out a digital strategy for a contest that will require each party's nominee to raise at least $1 billion.

Increasingly, political campaigns are "targeting people based on their hopes, dreams, worries, fears and motivation," said Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center. However, all the data-crunching in the world would not succeed without Cruz also having a message and persona that appeals to some voters, she said.

"If this were all about high-altitude baking techniques, nothing would come of it," Rutledge said. "He's managed to tap into the underdog archetype."

President Obama's team is widely credited with breaking new ground in the use of social media and digital marketing during his two presidential campaigns. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is expected to announce her candidacy soon, is building a team that includes Teddy Goff, the digital director of Obama's 2012 re-election effort, The Washington Post and other news outlets report. Clinton's aides have not confirmed who has been picked for the digital operation.

Building a network of small donors will be crucial for Cruz, a Senate firebrand who has trailed behind other likely GOP contenders, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush, in early polling.

Small donors can be tapped repeatedly for contributions until they hit the $2,700 maximum contribution for the primary election.

Cruz's decision to announce first allowed him to dominate political coverage for several days and quickly attract small donors. Nearly 10,000 of Cruz's online donations came in amounts of $99 or smaller, according to figures released by his campaign.

For all its digital savvy, the campaign confronted Internet challenges this week as trolls scooped up similar domain names and directed traffic to other sites, including the federal government's online insurance exchange. Cruz has made repealing the federal health-care law a top priority.

Roe said those issues did not appear to affect the flow of donations. "It was almost like someone took the bolt off the fire hydrant," he said.

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