With a bitter taste in the mouths of Republicans after 2012, many consultants are pushing the party to rely more heavily on digital tactics as the GOP looks toward 2014’s midterm elections. One of those consultants is Wesley Donehue, who has renamed his firm to emphasize the digital side of the business.
Donehue Direct is now Push Digital—a change Donehue says better reflects the online focus of his firm and its recent growth.
“The more we grow, the more talent we bring into the firm, the more I want to emphasize the team instead of just me,” Donehue tells C&E.
The Columbia, S.C.-based firm now extends to the West Coast with an office in San Francisco—the city Donehue says is “changing the face of the world.”
“Republicans are still surrounding themselves with the same D.C. crowd” he says. “Silicon Valley can develop new technology and change the way campaigns are won.”
Push Digital will attempt to compete with a Democratic Party that easily out-maneuvered Republicans when it came to the use of data in 2012. Donehue thinks the lackadaisical approach to data on the right likely cost Republicans a bunch of races this past cycle, and he says it needs to change in 2014 and beyond.
“Too many people think data is boring and it isn’t sexy,” he says. “But we all saw firsthand the results of a data-driven campaign this year in the presidential race. Our goal, quite simply, is to be second to none when it comes to data.”