Progressive Democrats Fight For Access to the Party's Voter Data

In the early days of Anthony Clark’s campaign for Congress, the special education teacher and military veteran spent most of his free time knocking on doors in Illinois’ 7th Congressional district. Unlike most Democratic candidates who canvass in the age of data-driven everything, Clark didn't know whether the people in those houses leaned Clinton or Sanders in 2016, or even if they were Democrats or Republicans. He had no idea, in fact, whether they’d ever cast a vote in their entire lives.

That information and more—down to who put up lawn signs for which candidate in the primary—lives in VoteBuilder, a database managed by the Democratic National Committee. VoteBuilder has become the central nervous system of every Democratic campaign, housing years of information on just about every contact the party has ever made with every voter. Developed through a partnership between the DNC and a company called NGP VAN, the tool gives campaigns the inside track on potential donors, volunteers, or voters out of a pool of thousands or, in the case of a presidential election, millions of people.

But thanks to an intricate system of state-by-state rules governing who gets access to that data—a system critics say is tailor-made to protect incumbents—some Democratic primary challengers, like Clark, are being denied access to this critical pool of information by their own party.

Anthony Clark, Justice Democrat Candidate

The rules and bylaws dictating access are hardly new, and several state Democratic parties allow full access to VoteBuilder for all candidates. But the 2016 election created a groundswell of energy among first-time progressive candidates, looking to challenge sitting members of Congress not only in red districts, but in blue ones they believe need shaking up. For many Democrats mounting a primary challenge, the process of merely gaining access to the party's voter data is emblematic of the entrenched system they’re running against.

“The machine protects incumbents,” says Clark, who is running against representative Danny Davis, who has held his seat for 20 years. “What’s one more way you can stack the deck against me? Deny me access to valuable information and data.”

In Illinois, the state party prevents any candidate running against an incumbent from gaining access to VoteBuilder. “We talk about growing the Democratic party, so how do you grow the Democratic party if you go after incumbents?” says Steve Brown, a spokesperson for the Illinois Democrats. “The Democratic party is creating and maintaining and enhancing a tool. Why would you want to give it to outsiders who may or may not actually be Democrats?”

Clark is running as a so-called Justice Democrat, a group that spun out of Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign, and is challenging incumbents across the country with a progressive platform that mirrors Sanders' own. Still, the 35-year-old has been a registered Democrat since he was 18 years old. He decided to run at the urging of members of his local community, and hopes to fight back against what he views as political complacency. "They're trying to maintain power," Clark says of current members of Congress. "They're focused on a career, rather than on the people."

Rather than allow access to VoteBuilder, the state party instead directed Clark to a tool called SmartVAN, another NGP VAN product that lacks proprietary DNC voter data. While better than flying blind, as he had going door to door at the campaign's outset, SmartVAN still lacks data that could provide an edge. "Is it as effective? No," Clark says. "But we’re going to make do with what we have."

At least Illinois's rules are cut and dry. In Washington's 9th district, Sarah Smith, a Justice Democrat running a primary campaign against incumbent Democrat Adam Smith, was told that access to VoteBuilder required the endorsement of 50 percent of legislative district clubs, plus one, as well as the backing of the state party chair. But state legislators often wait until close to the actual primary to make an endorsement, Smith says, meaning her campaign would have to spend the majority of the race waiting around for endorsements before gaining access to the data. And even then, the likelihood of sitting party officials endorsing a challenger over an incumbent is low.

Smith says she asked to see where that bylaw is written down, but was refused. The Washington state party didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.

Sarah Smith, Justice Democrat Candidate

As a last resort, Sarah Smith's campaign spokesman asked the party for a letter stating they were being denied access to VoteBuilder; at least then, they could get access to SmartVAN. In response, the Smith campaign says they received a Kafka-esque email claiming that even though campaigns can't access VoteBuilder without the endorsements, "in our eyes, a campaign that doesn't have endorsements hasn't been denied."

"I didn't expect them to welcome me with open arms," Smith says. "But I expected a lot more from the state than this back and forth."

Now, Smith's campaign is using a tool called Political Data, which costs $10,000, substantially more than VoteBuilder or SmartVAN. They're also using targeted social media ads to reach key voters. But, for Smith, the fact that alternatives exist doesn't make up for the party withholding information from newcomers. She's currently petitioning the state to change its rules. "I have a platform to be able to fight against what they're doing right now to make it better for people who come after me," she says.

In New York state, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another Justice Democrat, had no problem accessing VoteBuilder. But rather than the wealth of information about where voters stand on issues and who they've supported in the past, her campaign found only a stripped down voter file. "It was all gone," Ocasio-Cortez says. They'd paid $6,000 for little more than names, phone numbers, and addresses.

That's despite a provision in the campaign's contract with the New York Democrats, which guaranteed Ocasio-Cortez access "to all Proprietary ID Data collected or developed by other Licensees in prior election cycles."

When Ocasio-Cortez's spokesperson asked about that provision, the VoteBuilder coordinator at the New York Democratic party said that it only applies to data Ocasio-Cortez may have collected herself in a previous election cycle, if, for instance, she had run for a different office in the past.

One member of the New York Democrats notes that the contract Ocasio-Cortez signed is outdated, and should have been updated to limit access. In theory, this policy makes sense. Its goal is to protect voters' privacy and ensure their information isn't being shared with campaigns they may or may not support. And Ocasio-Cortez's opponent, Joe Crowley, has worked in government—both the New York state assembly and House of Representatives—since before his 28-year-old challenger was born, amassing loads of valuable information about his constituents along the way.

Ocasio-Cortez isn't asking for access to Crowley's data, of course. She's contractually prohibited from doing so. But, she says, the promise of VoteBuilder is to give any candidate a window into the institutional knowledge collected by past campaigns—a window that's been closed off.

One representative of the New York Democrats sees the situation differently. "The whole point of the voter file is to create a system of going out and communicating with voters and collecting that data so you can use it for your campaign," the representative says. "If you're looking for the easy way around it, you're not going to have a successful campaign anyway."

To be sure, access to more data is far from a guarantee these first time candidates would win. Even NGP VAN's CEO Stu Trevelyan acknowledges as much. "Technology and data is important, but only for campaigns that are within striking distance," he says. "Good tech and data is not going to help a candidate that’s outside of the range of winning."

Still, for Ocasio-Cortez, Smith, Clark, and other candidates, the way various state parties have reacted to their campaigns only reinforces their desire to confront what they perceive to be protectionist policies designed to keep longstanding officials in office. That, they fear, may not serve Democrats well, as they work to ride an anti-establishment wave on both the left and the right. The DNC, for its part, agrees that state parties should welcome newcomers.

"State parties work with their local candidates and govern the use their state voter data," says Xochitl Hinojosa, communications director for the DNC. "The DNC is always looking for ways to expand access to data so that we can help all candidates up and down the ballot. That's the only way we'll win."

Unless things change, the same inter-party politics that weakened the Democratic party in 2016 could rise to the surface again in 2018. In some states, it's already started to.

This story has been updated to reflect that Washington requires candidates to receive the endorsement of 50 percent plus one of legislative district clubs, not state legislators.

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