Rand Paul’s Digital Chief Vincent Harris Says Plea for Ideas Is Crowdsourcing

AdAge
May 07, 2015
By Kate Kaye

The Man Once Called Inventor of the Republican Internet Wants Help

Political campaigns are notoriously opaque. They’re also typically pretty top-down affairs despite staffers’ insistence that “It’s all about the grassroots.”

So it was a bit surprising to see Vincent Harris, the young entrepreneur heading digital for GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, asking supporters on Twitter for ideas.

Specifically, he asked followers of his @VincentHarris account on Wednesday what the candidate might do better in digital media. In a related post he wrote, “I am around always to listen. Have had folks as young as 14 send in great tips to vincent (at) http://randpaul2016.com Please keep ’em coming.”

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Vincent Harris, founder and CEO of Harris Media LLC, in the Austin, TX office

This request might seem odd to some. Isn’t Mr. Harris, the expert the Paul camp wrested from the claws of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, supposed to know what to do already? Mr. Harris’s Austin-based consultancy, Harris Media, is depicted in a recent Politico article as a group of seriously no-nonsense dudes (and gals). In one scenario, Mr. Harris blows off a couple Facebook reps in favor of a guy from Meerkat. A photo of the Harris Media staff accompanying the article looks like a promo shot for the next CW drama, but with all the tough guys front and center.

An October Bloomberg article titled “The Man Who Invented the Republican Internet” called him an “idiot savant.” The story leads off with a present-tense telling of Mr. Harris driving up to a hotel in his black 2014 BMW.

The request for ideas isn’t about needing help, necessarily, said Mr. Harris in an email exchange with Ad Age. “Rand is running a crowd-sourced digital effort and as part of that we’re looking to the web for ideas. We’ve seen in the past that groupthink can occur often in politics, and it’s something Senator Paul wants to avoid. He has the most active and creative supporters of any Presidential campaign on both sides of the aisle and wants to get them involved,” he wrote. He said supporters have suggested ad platforms, YouTube editing tips and other ideas.

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