Memorandum

To: Candidate Smith

From: Sabrina Rueda, Campaign Consultant
Date: September 28, 2014
Re: Smith Campaign

In light of your recent announcement to campaign, I have analyzed the previous election between
Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. Campaign videos are a major part in
this campaign. How to target potential voters is crucial to strategizing our campaign. Knowing
what swing states are in our favor is also a great help.

In the 2012 election between Obama and Romney, Obama (s) campaign spent $47 million on
digital spending. And the Romney campaign spent $4.7 million (PBS). That means they had
advertisements on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and any other social media site you can
think of. Obama had many advertisements encouraging people to register to vote, to participate
in voting and to donate money to their foundations. People were also announcing their votes on
social media which made peers more susceptible to vote for the same candidate. This made
Obama successful in his 2012 election.

Advertisements are the way to spread your future plans for the United States. Advertisements
such as ones that outline your plan, have a peaceful tone to them, and show diversity are
affective advertisements. However, sometimes advertisements dont always work the way you
want them to. In Mitt Romneys Campaign Ad 2012- Believe in America, even though the video
promotes all the great things Romney has accomplished throughout the video we see lack of
diversity. The video shows him with many people who happen to be Caucasian and who look
older than 50 years old. This corresponds to Romneys voting demographic percentage at ages
50-64 at 43% and ages 65+ at 47%. Also Romneys racial demographic is 52% Caucasian, 8%
Black and 22% Hispanic. As you can see Romney excels in Caucasian votes but never gets more
than 25% in any specific non-Caucasian race. In contrast, Barack Obamas The Choice-
Obama for America TV Ad shows a diverse montage of all the communities he supports.
Caucasian, African American, Latino, gay, straight, young, old, men, woman he supports it all.
This gave Obama the upper hand by the majority vote in African- American (86%) and Latino
(64%) vote.

For our campaign well take Obamas technique and give you a broad spectrum of diverse
people to associate with. Also, for our Advertisements we will be supporting the underdogs.
By underdogs, I mean the communities that most Republicans do not win support from. These
communities include minorities, LGBT, women, lower class and inner city kids. Showing that
we care and that were here to change and potentially make things easier for these communities
will raise our voting demographic.

As you know, swing states play a crucial role in deciding who the next President of the United
States will be. In most elections in the past, especially given Obamas slim victory in the 2012
election, swing states have decided the nations fate. I do not think I have to further stress how
important it is to win these areas.

Given that, I have decided to analyze two key swing states that played roles in the 2012 election,
Nevada and Virginia. I chose these states because they are on opposite sides of the country and
can therefore reflect the diverseness of our nation. In the end, both of these states won the
democrats vote. Therefore, our analysis of these states is vital for success.

Nevada won the democrats vote by a larger margin than in Virginia. We can blame this on
several factors. Nevada has a larger percentage of Latino within its border. As discussed earlier,
the Latino vote acted as a huge portion of Obamas victory. In this case, 26.5% of Nevadas
population is Hispanic; in contrast, Virginia has only 7.9%. With Obamas promised support of
immigrants and immigrant children, the larger Latino vote in Nevada could have been the
deciding factor in Obama winning by a larger margin.

Nevada also has a higher poverty level than Virginia, representing 14.2% of its population in
comparison with Virginias 11.1% . This could have been a deciding factor because Obama, with
his humble roots and relatable rhetoric, appealed more to poverty stricken people. Romney, on
the other hand, had policies such as his decision to cut aid to many social projects that
seemed to alienate the poor. If citizens in poverty feel threatened by Republican rhetoric, than it
is clear that they stepped up to the polls to defend themselves against these cuts. I advise you to
advocate for similar polices that protect the poor rather than Romney-like policies. These
policies could mean the different in these swing states, such as Nevada and Virginia.

It is interesting to note that both swing states had roughly 49% of its population under 54, clearly
a big portion of the population. These groups of people are generally more responsive to social
media campaigns that characterized much of Obamas race. As mentioned above, social media
greatly assisted President Obama. Id like to explore that further.

A president who is familiar with the latest technology and social media, especially places such as
Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, can better relate to younger generations of citizens. It shows
the masses that this candidate is in-touch with current society. Being in-touch therefore implies
that the candidate will not bring back any archaic policies, especially ones that are tinged with
racist or sexist material. This, of course, is important for gaining womens vote and minority
vote. Social media campaigns are therefore more than simply advertising for your campaign.
Most of these 49% certainly received this message.

I therefore urge you further to use as much social media as you can in this campaign if you want
to win over younger generations. It provides a better platform for communication, such as when
Obama live streams speeches and opens the floor for questions on his policies, and shows the
public you are intelligent. I am certain this had a huge impact in both of these swing states.

In summary, Mr. Smith, analyzing the 2012 race gives us great ideas and tactics whose
effectiveness is shown in the analysis of the swing states for the 2016 race. Using social media
campaigns is crucial in this day and age. Your commercials must include minorities, women, and
other historically marginalized groups. They must feel empowered and welcomed. Giving these
groups a voice will encourage them to voice their opinions and vote. You must also emphasize
policies that are geared toward these groups, especially Hispanics, which make up an ever-
increasing portion of this great country. Emphasizing your humble roots and reaching out to
relate to the populace is equally important. If you use these tactics, I ensure that you will have a
huge advantage.

I look forward to working with you. We will make a great team and steer the country onto a
better course.

Regards,

Sabrina Rueda, Campaign Consultant

Work cited
Nevada:
U.S. Census Bureau. Income. ONLINE. 2014. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF [21 Sep.
2014]
U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty level. ONLINE. 2014. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml [21 Sep. 2014]
U.S. Census Bureau. Education. ONLINE. 2014 Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml [21 Sep. 2014]
U.S. Census Bureau. Ethnicity. ONLINE. 2014 Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=C [21 Sep.
2014]
U.S. Census Bureau. Age and Gender. ONLINE. 2014 Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF [21 Sep.
2014]

Virginia:
U.S. Census Bureau. Income. ONLINE. 2014. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml [21 Sep. 2014]
U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty level. ONLINE. 2014. Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml [21 Sep. 2014]
U.S. Census Bureau. Education. ONLINE. 2014 Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml [21 Sep. 2014]
U.S. Census Bureau. Ethnicity. ONLINE. 2014 Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF [21 Sep.
2014]
U.S. Census Bureau. Age and Gender. ONLINE. 2014 Census Bureau. Available:
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF [21 Sep.
2014]

Obama Spent 10 Times as Much on Social Media as Romney. PBS Daily
Download http://video.pbs.org/video/2305745720/ (Links to an external site.) Posted by PBS on 11/16/12.
Retrieved on September 17, 2014

Edward S. Greenberg and Benjamin I. Page, Struggle for Democracy. S.l.: Prentice Hall, 2012.