, Columnist
Can Kamala Harris Zoom Her Way to the White House?
Online rallies give the vice president a platform her opponent can’t match.
The candidate supporters love to Zoom about.
Illustration: Ale Lampietti
Advancements in technology can play a defining role in how an election cycle plays out. Think of John F. Kennedy in 1960: Tanned and wearing makeup, he used the first-ever TV presidential debate to overcome a 6-point polling deficit against the pale and tired-looking Richard Nixon.
If you want a more modern example, consider Barack Obama’s harnessing of social media as a grassroots engine room to solicit millions of dollars in small donations. (Eight years later, Donald Trump would manipulate that same technology to sow division, hijacking the news cycle with every 140-character Twitter outburst.)