Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Elizabeth Warren’s Got a Plan for That!

by Thanh Le

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the US Senate, officially launched her presidential campaign on February 9th, 2019. Senator Warren has been dominating the Democratic primary debate stages, which should come as no surprise considering she was a debate champion in high school and won a debate scholarship to GWU at 16 years old. Most recently, her impressive debate performance in Las Vegas gave a huge boost to the campaign’s fundraising efforts and a considerable rise in the national poll. Though Warren has yet to come out on top in the past three voting states and is now in fourth place in terms of delegates, her campaign could carry the momentum of the recent surge into Super Tuesday where 1,300 delegates will be up for grabs.

The “Warren for President” official website https://elizabethwarren.com serves as the digital platform where all constituents can learn about the campaign plans and the candidate’s story, as well as how to get involved and organized to support Warren in the primary and general election. I noticed when searching for the website that the campaign paid for Google Ads so that the official page comes up as the first result at the top whenever there’s a search of terms related to Warren. The headline’s customized versions include “Working For The Middle Class” and “End Corruption In Washington” which reflect the core messages of Warren’s campaign.



The first landing page of the website, even before reaching the main page, is an immediate call-to-action “Can you chip in?.” The message has changed slightly today to reflect a new update that is the latest CBS national poll “Elizabeth in second!” before asking supporters to chip in. The page that follows then greets visitors with the official campaign slogan “Dream big, fight hard, and win,” emphasizing the grassroots movement, and a simple suggestion to “Stay in touch,” asking for contact information - email address and zip code. The “Donate” buttons are very prominent both with the top-of-the-page banner and end-of-the-page nudge. The campaign marks reaching out and speaking to voters a high priority but only requires quite low commitment, as “Start making call” redirecting to a complete walk-through toolkit where you can make calls from your home or anywhere with Internet access. The “Find an event near you” section offers the chance to get more involved with higher commitment, such as canvass, rally, meet-and-greet, outreach, community events, and so on.



The campaign offers a good mix of opportunities for institutional and entrepreneurial engagement. Inside the “Help elect Elizabeth Warren” page is the comprehensive toolkit with extensive details on how advocates can get involved with Team Warren and be part of the movement. Whether it is contacting voters, hosting an event, or organizing the community, Team Warren provides step-by-step instructions and detailed materials. Supporters are also encouraged to create their own event plans and submit them to the campaign for approval. In short, the campaign gives supporters the basic tools and guidelines, and they can pick and choose what to do with it.



Warren’s campaign is known for their substantial amount of comprehensive plans and detailed proposals - “I have a plan for that” even becomes the unofficial slogan. The extensive plans and fact squad not only reflect Warren’s progressive records but also demonstrate how she’s more than qualified and prepared to hold the highest office in the land. As president, Warren will get things done and her leadership will make a “big, structural change.” “Meet Elizabeth” tells the story of her humble upbringing and incredible journey to become a law professor and US Senator because “America invested in kids like her.” It presents her as a progressive champion but also reflects the disappearing American middle-class - making the “story of self” becomes the “story of us.”



Supporters can apply to join the community of fellow progressives in support of Warren’s presidential candidacy at All in for Warren. However, there is virtually no link on the website directing to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Warren has a great following on all of these platforms and it will be useful to direct visitors there so they can connect, show support, and spread the words on social media. Besides, the campaign has a lot of creative and interesting merchandises but they are not very visible or featured in any innovative way on the website. To sum up, the “Warren for President” official website did a great job overall of providing a digital platform for constituents to learn more about and get engaged with the grassroots movement, but there are a few missed opportunities that they could have used better.

Fun fact: A TikTok featuring a hilarious “recap” of Elizabeth Warren’s stellar performance at the last debate went viral this weekend. The clip ends with this quip “Join me at Elizabeth-Warren-dot-you-just-got-knocked-the-fuck-out-dot-org… Lizzy out!”. This address is now registered and redirects to Elizabeth Warren's official campaign website.

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