Inside the Democratic Candidates’ War for Your Inbox
An exhaustive 2,700-email analysis of donation requests, emojis, and dog pictures
For all the influence social media has in our lives, it’s still far from a universal medium. It’s true that some 70% of us check Facebook at least once in a while, but only 37% are on Instagram. A Reddit AMA will reach only the 11% of U.S. adults who have ever logged into the platform, and just 22% of U.S. adults ever bother to peer into the pit of rage and despair that is Twitter.
But if you are a person on the internet in 2020, you almost certainly have an email address. And if you are a voting age adult in the U.S., at least one hopeful for political office has likely acquired it by now.
Unlike social media, where the public-facing likes and reshares a post generates are practically as important as the message itself, email is a more private and less performative platform. It allows senders the space to persuade, and the recipient time to be persuaded. And for as long as the internet has factored in political campaigning, it’s been a key part of candidates’ outreach.
