Lee Dunn was recently named the head of White House strategy and outreach at Google. Before that, she was the head of Google’s Republican Elections team, which works to help Republican candidates devise and implement their online strategies. She previously worked for almost a decade as a top aide for Senator John McCain, including during his 2008 presidential campaign as well as his 2010 reelection to the Senate. Previously, she served as a clerk for a federal judge and has worked for a telecommunications law firm.
Will Google’s lobbying and outreach strategy have to change with the new administration?
We first opened the DC office when Bush was in office and then we had eight years with the Obama administration, so I think we’ve seen two different types of administrations. We really grew as a company in our outreach during the Obama years. But I think that we won’t really change much. We have some core issues that we’ve always stood for, such as freedom of expression, fair use and copyright and others. The issues don’t change and your policy positions don’t change, but sometimes the relationships and the personnel you need do have to change. And you also might change which issues you advocate most for. Priorities held for a Democratic administration might change for a Republican administration. You look to find which policies we agree on and help the administration with those policies.
Have you ever found it challenging to be a Republican working in a company that is often thought to be quite liberal?
It can present a challenge, but you just have to rise to that challenge. And really, I think Google actually is more libertarian than polarizing on either side. The founders and most of the employees just want to succeed in making really good products without an overreaching regulatory environment. So we just look to see what we can do to find agreement with any administration to grow our products and our user base and to be more innovative.
What role do you think digital advertising played in the 2016 election?
Digital advertising played more of a role in the 2016 election than ever before, which is really exciting. But as an industry the elections business is still behind where corporate America is. In 2016, corporate America spent half their money on digital advertising, and the other half on television advertising. In the elections world, however, TV has a very emotional pull for many candidates. They want to see themselves on TV. A lot of candidates also tend to be older TV watchers themselves, so it’s a medium that they are comfortable with and they’ve used for their last election. Most candidates cannot imagine the changes that have happened since the last election cycle in the advertising business. It’s also challenging because most advertising agencies don’t have to re-educate their client every four or six years, but that’s exactly what elections agencies have to do. I think the elections industry will catch up to where corporate America is in terms of online spending eventually, but we did already see a big move towards that this year.
What things did Republican candidates do particularly well with regards to digital advertising this election cycle?
Republican candidates – especially on the Senate side – spent more online than ever before and also tended to spend online earlier. I think that really helped them this cycle to find voters and tell their story. We learned a lot from the Trump campaign – they didn’t make assumptions about their voters. They didn’t look too narrowly. They looked to find people online that could be persuaded to think about Trump as their choice and worked to make sure that they were the ones to turn out to vote.
Can you think of any particularly successful moments for Republican candidates from a digital standpoint?
One of the things that I think stood out were campaigns that defined their campaign opponent early on using Google search ads. For example, the Todd Young for Senate race and the Rob Portman for Senate race both went up on search very early defining their opponents as the lesser choice. I think that made a huge difference. I think also the fact that Trump was the most searched candidate on Google almost every day of the election showed that there was this online interest in the candidate, and they used that to their advantage. I thought the level of search interest in Trump would level off… and it just never dissipated. And I think part of the reason that happened is because the candidate continued to say or do things that were intriguing to people, so that level of interest just never waned.
What should candidates running in 2018 and beyond take away from the 2016 election cycle?
We’ve been talking to candidates for 2018 about the big lessons we’ve learned. First, go early. Sixty percent of the total search queries involving the election occurred before the end of July. Starting early, and it doesn’t need to be with a lot of money, can really benefit a candidate. Second, going with bigger digital budgets is really important. Americans spend twice as much time online than watching television, and your advertising budget should reflect that. And third, we learned that frequency of ads is key to ensure that you stay top of mind to a voter. It’s crucial to reach that right level of frequency so your ads aren’t lost in all the clutter in a voter’s life and online.