Early primary states and the DNC are asking for a total of nearly $600,000 for presidential candidates looking to buy their voter files.
Twenty-one Democrats are running for president, but only a handful will be able to afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to access critical voter databases in the four states that kick off the primary.
The prices, independently confirmed by two campaign operatives with direct knowledge of the DNC and state party terms, are one piece of lengthy voter file agreements that also allow the DNC and the four early-state parties to keep some of a campaign’s data at the end of the race, according to multiple operatives and a copy of the DNC terms.
Anyone, of course, can run for president — and a record number of candidates who could qualify for the Democratic debates this summer, from tech mogul Andrew Yang and new-age guru Marianne Williamson to seven US senators, have jumped at the chance to run in an anyone’s-guess contest to take on President Donald Trump.
Multiple campaigns have considered buying or have plans to buy data from private firms such as L2 and Political Data, Inc., that provide it for a fraction of the cost. “We’ve had campaigns say, ‘We have to,’” said Paul Westcott, a senior vice president at L2, a leading provider of voter data that charges $30,000 for a database covering the first four states in the primary calendar.
At another company, Political Data, Inc., which is the main provider of voter data and software for Democrats and Republicans in California, vice president Paul Mitchell said multiple 2020 campaigns are in talks with the firm to use its database in the primary. California holds a key Super Tuesday slot on March 3 and will help decide the nominee.
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