How Big Data From 2016 Election Could Guide 2020’s Political Strategy

Steve Bennett, director of Global Government at the analytics company SAS, explains how data from the last presidential election could guide political strategies for next year’s election.

AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File

Election Day in Georgia, by most accounts, was low-key.  Even so, more than 180 offices and referendums were voted on across the metro Atlanta region on Tuesday.

Fast forward to next year, though, when the ballot will be long and the intensity high, and the day is unlikely to be equally laid back. As campaigns work now to strategize how to best target voters, one “numbers person” said the data from 2016’s elections could make for a good starting point.

WABE’s “All Things Considered” host Jim Burress spoke with Steve Bennett, director of Global Government at the analytics company SAS.  And their conversation began with Bennett explaining what he found after crunching massive voter data from the last presidential election and what that could mean for those running campaigns in 2020.