Kansas Democrats Turn to Data in Governor's Race

If Kansas Democrats can defeat Sam Brownback (R-KS) in November -- and that’s a big if, given the state’s conservative tilt -- they’ll need help from Republican voters to do it. How to find the persuadable voter cheaply?

Paul Davis (D-KS), the Democratic leader in the state House and Brownback’s opponent, has turned to computer modeling techniques made popular by then-Sen Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. Alongside the Kansas Democratic Party, his campaign wants to identify and reach the voters who might be willing to stray. Democrats see voter targeting as their best option to overturn a political operation that has cemented a conservative majority in the state. A Democratic victory in Kansas would strike a symbolic blow for data-driven campaigns at the state level, even if it was made possible only by Brownback’s earlier political success.