Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., was dismayed by the Republican field program in Georgia during her failed bid for re-election in 2020.
So she founded a new platform — one she believes can be the “gig economy app” for canvassing.
“At the end of [my campaign], I said, ‘There’s got to be a better way to do this,’” she told NBC News in an interview. “And so in the aftermath of it taking stock, I saw that there were huge gaps in the market for serving campaigns. There were a lot of people that wanted to make money. The incentives weren’t aligned necessarily with winning.”
The platform is called “FieldRight” and is part of a new array of campaign tech tools she launched under the “RallyRight” banner. The company said its platforms were used by campaigns during the 2023 elections, but that it’s now ready for a national rollout.
Loeffler said her company has worked to build a network of canvassers across the country who have gone through training and background checks and can be hired through the FieldRight app, which will feature approved door-knockers local to the area a campaign is searching in.
“The main point is, if we’re going to win in campaigns across the country, at the state, local and federal level, we’ve got to develop that local talent,” she said.
Loeffler lost her 2020 campaign to now-Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. Loeffler said the canvassing effort put together on her behalf came together at the last minute and had to feature many people flown in from out of state to boost staffing.
As detailed in an NBC News investigation last year, Republicans have become more and more dependent on paid canvassing facilitated by outside consultants in recent cycles. Those consultants often rely on canvassers who are flown in from out of state and sometimes minimally vetted in order to deploy quickly, as multiple sources said at the time.
With door-to-door canvassing taking center stage in the presidential campaign, its effectiveness as a campaign tool has come under scrutiny. NBC News found as part of its investigation that large-scale conservative canvassing efforts have been plagued with issues including fraudulent and untrustworthy data entries — though Republicans insist on its effectiveness when properly executed.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r67Cp5ywq16YvK57z6ijoqyZmMBwfo9ra2adnJqwtbXOp2aloaaaeqO4zqBmnqSVmMGqu82sZGtoYml6rbXVnmSuqJSWwaa%2FjKuap5lhaH92hZM%3D