The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns

UPDATED FOR THE 2016 ELECTION

The book Politico calls “Moneyball for politics” shows how cutting-edge social science and analytics are reshaping the modern political campaign.

Renegade thinkers are crashing the gates of a venerable American institution, shoving aside its so-called wise men and replacing them with a radical new data-driven order. We’ve seen it in sports, and now in The Victory Lab, journalist Sasha Issenberg tells the hidden story of the analytical revolution upending the way political campaigns are run in the 21st century.
     The Victory Lab follows the academics and maverick operatives rocking the war room and re-engineering a high-stakes industry previously run on little more than gut instinct and outdated assumptions. Armed with research from behavioural psychology and randomized experiments that treat voters as unwitting guinea pigs, the smartest campaigns now believe they know who you will vote for even before you do.  Issenberg tracks these fascinating techniques—which include cutting edge persuasion experiments, innovative ways to mobilize voters, heavily researched electioneering methods—and shows how our most important figures, such as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, are putting them to use with surprising skill and alacrity.
     Provocative, clear-eyed and energetically reported, The Victory Lab offers iconoclastic insights into political marketing, human decision-making, and the increasing power of analytics.

• The Political Campaign Desk Reference: A Guide for Campaign Managers, Professionals and Candidates Running for Office
• Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout
• The Campaign Manager: Running and Winning Local Elections
• Campaign Craft: The Strategies, Tactics, and Art of Political Campaign Management
• How to Win a Local Election
• Hacking the Electorate: How Campaigns Perceive Voters
• Run for Something: A Real-Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself
• The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation
• Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything
• Socially Elected: How To Win Elections Using Social Media