DNC Candidate Ben Tribbett on Using Social Media to Enhance the VAN

As you may know, Ben Tribbett is running to become one of Virginia's members on the Democratic National Committee (the election's on June 2). As Ben explains, "I am running because I believe the DNC is important and that grassroots members of the Democratic Party and particularly those from swing states like Virginia need the party to work better." You can say that again! Anyway, I had a chance to interview Ben about his candidacy a few days ago. We were at the Silver Diner in Arlington, and it was a bit noisy, but the audio quality is good. Also good, in my view, are Ben's thoughts on a number of subjects, including this excerpt on how to enhance the Voter Activation Network (VAN) - the crucially important "database containing information on voters for the purpose of assisting a political party or an individual politician, in their Get out the vote (GOTV) efforts and other areas of the campaign" - using social media. What Ben talks about in this part of the interview is, I'd argue, a big reason to consider supporting him for DNC. Namely, that he would add important expertise to the DNC that largely isn't there now. That matters a great deal, because of course the Republicans aren't standing still, and if the Democratic Party doesn't stay on the cutting edge of modern-day communications technologies and methods, we will fall behind the "red team" in our ability to communicate with voters. That's obviously not an outcome we want, and that's where Ben Tribbett's presence on the DNC would be very useful, in helping the "blue team" come out on top in the area of social media. P.S. I'll post several more portions of the interview in coming days.