With Democrats losing many seats in the House of Representative in this year’s presidential elections, everyone is worried about what happened in the winning Democrats ranks. There is only one answer to this question. The Democrats online election campaign was less effective compared to the Republicans, who left no stone unturned in promoting their online election campaign.
The loss of the Democratic incumbent Donna E. Shalala against Republican Maria Elvira Salazar in the state of Florida tells a similar story. How did her weak online election campaign leave her vulnerable, and what are the digital numbers telling us? Let’s have a look.
| Parameters | Donna E. Shala’s website (Democrats) | Maria Elvira Salazar’s website (Republican) | Comments |
| Website Authority Score | 36 | 38 | The number according to which search engines determine the credibility of the website |
| Organic Traffic | 820 | 5000 | Traffic that both candidates got on their websites from search engines |
| Branded Traffic | 312 | 4100 | Traffic that both candidates got on their websites from search engines when someone searched their name |
| Organic Keywords | 176 | 316 | Keywords that are ranking on search engines, especially Google |
| Organic Traffic in September | 160 | 5000 | Traffic from search engines in September |
| Organic Traffic in October | 260 | 4800 | Traffic from search engines in October |
| Organic Traffic in November | 820 | 5000 | Traffic from search engines in November |
What are the numbers of online election campaigns telling us?
The most surprising thing is that the votes difference between the two nominees is just 9416 votes. Now, look at the above numbers again. In the last three months, the Republican nominee attracted an average of 4900 people on her site, over ten times more than the Democratic candidate, who attracted only 350 people per month. This is where things went wrong for the Democrats, and people started voting for the Republican candidate as she was reaching out to people.
As a matter of fact, Florida is a swing state, and the elections were closely contested this year in Florida. With this much competition, every single vote matters, and this is exactly what happened in Florida. Almost 4100 people searched Republican candidate Maria Elvira Salazar this month, compared to only 312 people who searched for the Democrat’s incumbent Donna E. Shala.
The problem is not only with the website of the Democrat candidate. The problem lies in the mentality, and this stone-age mentality was also being reflected in the social media digital marketing campaign of the Democrats. Consider, for example, the following social media statistics of both the candidates.
| Parameters | Maria Elvira Salazar (Republican) | Donna E. Shalala (Democrat) |
| Total Audience | 198,911 | 38,264 |
| Facebook audience | 110,893 | 2,915 |
| Twitter Audience | 88,018 | 35,349 |
| Recent Activity Change on Social Media | 64 | -71 |
| Facebook Activity | 204 | 173 |
| Facebook engagement | 403,183 | 8481 |
Democrats Online Election Campaign: What do these social numbers mean?
The online election strategy of Democrats is alarming. The Republican candidate has a total audience of 198,911 on all the social media outlets, where the Democrat candidate had an audience of a mere 38,264. Remember, the losing margin of the Democrats was just 9416 in this district. A proper online election management strategy would have won the Democrats this seat by a huge margin, but still, they decided to caucus by the old-established methods of campaigning, resulting in the lost seat.
Similarly, the engagement on the recent posts of the Republican candidate is almost 403,183, while the engagement on the Democratic posts is just 8481. This is a whopping difference of more than 395,000. No wonder why Democrats lost this seat, which they could have won easily.
One of the most significant contributing factors to online election campaigning is that it grows exponentially. This Republican candidate has got the idea of what to do to win the election.
However, it is a great time for Democrats to learn from it because otherwise, this Republican candidate will be all over the Internet, and Democrats will have no clue in this congressional district in the next Congressional elections. If Donna E. Shalala wants to keep her political career alive, she has to start her online journey right now; otherwise, the Republicans will be all over the Democrats in the next election in this Congressional district.
Read more about Democrats’ poor digital campaign: How mismanaged strategy cost Democrats a congressional district in New York?
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.