Groundbreakers : how Obama's 2.2 million volunteers transformed campaigning in America / Elizabeth McKenna, Hahrie Han ; foreword by Jeremy Bird.

"Much has been written about the historic nature of the Obama campaign. The multi-year, multi-billion dollar operation elected the nation's first black president, raised and spent more money than any other election effort in history, and built the most sophisticated voter targeting technology ever before used on a national campaign. But what is missing from these accounts is an understanding of how Obama for America organized its formidable army of 2.2 million volunteers -- over eight times the number of people who volunteered for democratic candidates in 2004. Unlike previous field campaigns that drew their power from staff, consultants, and paid canvassers, the Obama campaign's capacity came from unpaid local citizens who took responsibility for organizing their own neighborhoods months--and even years--in advance of election day. In so doing, Groundbreakers argues, the campaign enlisted citizens in the often unglamorous but necessary work of practicing democracy. Hahrie Han and Elizabeth McKenna argue that the legacy of Obama for America is a transformation of the traditional models of field campaigning. Groundbreakers makes the case that the Obama ground game was revolutionary in two regards not captured in previous accounts. First, the campaign piloted and scaled an alternative model of field campaigning that built the power of a community at the same time that it organized it. Second, the Obama campaign changed the individuals who were a part of it, turning them into leaders. Groundbreakers proves that presidential campaigns are still about more than clicks, big data and money, and that one of the most important ways that a campaign develops its capacity is by investing in its human resources"-- Provided by publisher

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: -- Chapter One: Introduction -- Part I: The Historical Roots of the Obama Field Program -- Chapter Two: The Way Things Were -- Chapter Three: Discovery and Diffusion -- Part II: The Nuts and Bolts of the Ground Game -- Chapter Four: Building Depth By Investing in Relationships -- Chapter Five: Creating a Structure to Share Responsibility: Neighborhood Teams -- Chapter Six: Using Metrics to Get to Scale -- Part III: OFA's Legacy -- Chapter Seven: Reflection -- Works Cited -- Index.

Print version record.

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