Like conservatives post-Goldwater, the Democrats used their data effectively after a loss in a presidential election. In this case, failed 2004 Democratic candidate Howard Dean — whose campaign was known for its innovative use of the internet — became chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2005. He prioritized the creation of a national voter database with one company in charge (NGP VAN). This investment made it easier for future candidates to incorporate data analytics into their strategy, giving them incentive to hire employees who could innovate and build on each other’s work — even after elections ended. Since 2004, Democrats have founded 67 firms and organizations dedicated to digital campaigning and data analytics, while former Republican staffers founded 13.3 These firms apply their expertise down the ballot by providing services to Democratic gubernatorial, Senate and House candidates, all of whom work from the same dataset.

Democrats now hold a substantial expertise advantage in digital data-driven campaigning, and the GOP admitted as much in their 2012 election post-mortem. John McCain hired only 15 data staffers in 2008, compared with Obama’s 131. To his credit, Mitt Romney increased the number of data hires to 87 in 2012. (Obama had 342). In 2016, Republicans were positioned to build on this effort and narrow the analysis gap between the parties, pivoting off of two consecutive losses into an innovative data strategy — just like in 1964 and 2004.

But Republicans seem set to squander the opportunity. Trump currently employs as few as two staffers dedicated to data, according to reports. (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request to confirm the number of staffers it has devoted to data.) The Republican Party has not consolidated data as Democrats did, instead relying on “a jumble of firms not always working in concert.” Independent firms such as i360, funded by the Koch brothers, have not integrated with the party database.