From the War Room to AI: How Campaign Research Evolved and What Comes Next

My first real campaign experience was working in the war room of former President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection effort. What drew me in was the sheer pace and intensity of it all – monitoring the news in real time so the campaign could respond quickly and aggressively to shape the day. 

Back then, monitoring and research were still largely analog. We depended on LexisNexis, press clips and VHS monitoring. Search engines were rudimentary. YouTube and social media didn’t exist. That war room was advanced for 2004, but we all knew it would soon be dated and our operations would need to evolve with every campaign cycle. 

Each cycle since has brought a new wave of innovation for both research and communications. By 2008, online search had transformed what could be done from a desk. In 2010, social media started to become a part of the public record. In 2012, the explosion of available video — from online databases to smartphone recordings – changed the game again.

By 2016, research was deeply integrated, not just with communications, but also with digital, as we worked to catalog what candidates were saying online in real time. Information wasn’t just the domain of candidates, campaigns and the media. It was being searched for, debated and weaponized by anyone with internet access.

Today, the big challenge is how to filter through all this information and use it effectively. Campaigns now recognize that high-quality research is essential from Day One. Teams know that with so much data out there, real expertise is required to navigate it. Meanwhile, communications have become even more fast-paced. Multiple platforms require constant feeding, and research is critical to making that content fact-based, timely and credible. The best research and communications operations are now fully integrated, built for speed and practice disciplined execution.