Silke Jasso
In 2014, Bloomberg called him “the man who invented the Republican internet.”
Videos by Rare
Before he was Senator Rand Paul’s digital guru, Vincent Harris made internet magic happen for Senator Ted Cruz and former Texas Governor Rick Perry, as well as helping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with social media in his last election campaign.
As the founder and president of Harris Media based in Austin, Texas, his list of clients has included senators like Jim Inhofe, Rob Portman, Tim Scott and Bill Cassidy, former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, former congressman Allen West, and Republican congressmen like Justin Amash, Tim Huelskamp, Mac Thornberry and Blake Farenthold.
To name a few.
That’s quite a resume for a 27-year-old.
What Harris brings to the Republican table is a media savvy the Grand Old Party has been severely lacking when it comes to modern elections.
“People now spend an average of 3.9 hours a day watching television and 3.8 hours online outside work,” Harris said in 2014. “By 2016, that’ll flip, people will spend more time online.”
“On mobile devices, people spend an average of 45 seconds on someone’s website. How do you get someone to stay for longer than 45 seconds?” Harris said. “That’s what’s transforming politics. Everything has to be pithy, everything has to be short, everything has to be succinct.”
“That’s what I’m here to do,” he said.
“In his hands, the candidates’ views are tweaked and condensed to fit into those modern equivalents of sound bites—tweets and gifs,” Bloomberg said of Harris’ technique in 2014.
Vincent Harris is reaching out to people online by going where they are—not where politicians in traditional elections have always considered them to be.
Even if he didn’t invent the Internet for Republicans, he’s showing them how to use it in new and effective ways.
Times are changing. Vincent Harris is showing Republicans that if they want to win elections, they must change, too.
Watch the full YouTube videos credited above: Vincent Harris talks Digital & Rand Paul with Jeff Zeleny for ABC News via Harris Media, Campaign Diaries: A Day on the Trail in Des Moines With Rand Paul via The Blaze
