Washoe County Republican Party: Taking Charge, Winning Elections

Limited resources, volunteer-based, and highly competitive

Heading into the 2018 election cycle, the Washoe County Republican Party was facing a common problem for many county parties: With limited resources, a volunteer-based operation, and a highly competitive electoral atmosphere, how do they run a winning field program?

During the 2016 cycle, the party used a data and technology platform which was bug-riddled, inefficient, and perpetually inaccurate. Door knockers were directed to houses that didn’t exist or were not remotely close to where they were displayed in their door knocking application. Ultimately, however, the critical issue was the insufficient influence the Washoe Republican Party had over their own efforts. They lacked control over their grassroots scripts, targeting, and even the IDs they collected for campaigns. When party officials needed support from their vendor, it would take days to find a solution, if they found one at all.

With Republican candidates up and down the ballot facing competitive elections in 2018, the Washoe Republican Party knew they needed data and tools that were fully in their control to administer and execute their programs. Just as important was the need to use tools that amplified their efforts instead of hampering them.

Affordable products they control

With time and budget constraints in mind, the Washoe County Republican Party contacted i360. While they had heard good things about i360, the party was concerned their suite of products might be too expensive and the learning curve too steep for a county party staffed by volunteers and interns.

After talking with an i360 client strategist and seeing a demo of the i360 product suite, party officials were pleasantly surprised to learn that i360 was affordable, easy-to-use, and best of all, would be fully under their control. Washoe party leaders knew their investment would pay off.

Within weeks, the party had their team fully trained and up and running with call and door surveys. The party assigned an intern to each race they were supporting and tasked them with managing each campaign’s field efforts. With i360’s intuitive, easy-to-use platform, hands on training and support, and i360’s help center with FAQs and videos, the Washoe team quickly mastered the platform. Using i360’s “smart routing” capability, each campaign was able to plan door knocking efforts for thousands of voters—all in a matter of minutes.