The digital guru who masterminded the IT strategy for Donald Trump’s 2016 surprise presidential victory, Brad Parscale, then went on to the position of Trump’s campaign manager in the 2020 election.
It was a job he didn’t keep long. His personal life exploded whilst he was in the public eye, leading him to text a friend, after the riot at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6 of 2021, that he felt “guilty” for not being available to help Trump win that election.
Since that time, he’s made a name for himself in Republican circles evangelizing for the potential of artificial intelligence to transform the way that political campaigns are run. His personal firm is now contracting with Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to ensure that the former President can defeat Joe Biden in the November election.
Parscale’s company, Campaign Nucleus, claims to use AI to help mine and parse vast collections of data to find persuadable voters and gauge their sentiment, as well as generate custom email and communications for outreach. It can also target and amplify “anti-woke” voices on social media, according to an Associated Press review of public statements made by Parscale, as well as his company’s slide decks, public documents, marketing materials, and other not-previously-public records.
According to Parscale, his company will soon deploy an app that leverages AI to assist Republican campaigns in absentee ballot collections in a way similar to how GrubHub and DoorDash manage restaurant pickup and delivery to customers.
Parscale began his political career as a small-time web developer in San Antonio who was hired to build out the web presence for Trump’s business interests. That association later landed him the job on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He was one of the early hires, and was the mastermind behind the campaign’s unorthodox digital strategy, serving as the contact man for Cambridge Analytica before the scandals around that firm broke through into public consciousness.