Organizing the data-driven campaign: Party officers, external providers and party grassroots in Spain

Electoral campaigns have witnessed the rise of third-party actors who seek to participate and influence their outcome, posing questions on the resilience of party organization. The aim of this paper is to analyze the organizational adaptation of campaign teams, examining the roles of party officers and their interaction with external providers and volunteers. The study is based on a comparison between 15 Spanish parties through the lens of 28 staff members, whom we interviewed. We contribute to the analysis of parties’ organizational adaptation to data-driven campaigning, accounting for the functions conducted by the staff, the agencies they work with and the grassroots. With this aim, we incorporate new evidence both from an underexplored country and non-mainstream parties. Rather than assuming an increasing dominance of external consultants, our findings suggest a more nuanced pattern in which parties prioritize in-house expertise supported by digital ecosystems and party activists.