DNC gears up for 2020 with voter data overhaul

• National Democrats admit the Republican Party was more effective in targeting voters and having smart conversations with them during the last presidential election. "There's a pretty amazing energy in the progressive tech industry right now," Krikorian said. "We want to make sure we have the best people aligned around the Democratic Party."

The gritty details: The DNC processes voter files from each Board of Elections or Secretary of State and currently uses a single vendor, TargetSmart, to get additional information about each voter, like a change of address or their consumer history.

• Krikorian told Axios that having three vendors — one each for data hygiene, consumer data, and social data — would make the DNC more competitive in 2020.
• "We have two years to perfect this new system," said Krikorian, adding that "we don't want to disrupt" the 2018 election.
• Election security is at the top of the DNC's agenda in November. Kriokrian noted that, if one of its vendors were compromised, it would only be a part of the DNC's system, rather than the entire service handling voter data.

The bottom line: The Democratic Party is often criticized for not having a unified message, but the DNC is working years in advance to figure out the best way to have a conversation with voters — something they didn't perfect in 2016.