How a prominent GOP-linked political firm engineered the AfD’s strategy / Emily Schultheis

Germany’s Right-Wing Populists Are Importing U.S.-Style Campaign Tactics – The Atlantic – In many ways, the AfD, which on Sunday became the first far-right party to enter Germany’s parliament in over half a century, was an obvious adopter of these types of tactics. Like its populist counterparts across Europe, the party has a strong social-media presence with engaged followers. As of this week, the party’s Facebook page had more than 385,000 fans, more than any other German political party.

The AfD has an American partner to thank for the design and execution of its online strategy: the U.S.-based Harris Media, a firm headed by 29-year-old Texan Vincent Harris, a long-time fixture in Republican politics. He has worked for American clients ranging from Donald Trump, to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Outside the United States, Harris’s team helped plan digital strategy for the pro-Brexit United Kingdom Independence Party and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, among others.

Tasked with helping the AfD amplify its campaign messages across the internet, Harris Media did a few notable things for the right-wing party. First, it drew on the AfD’s existing themes and slogans to fashion a U.S.-style online attack campaign. This meant running harsh anti-Merkel and anti-refugee ads across the internet, something that major German political parties just don’t do. But just as important, the firm used targeted online advertising and social-media campaigns and tools to help reassure AfD voters that they weren’t alone—a major obstacle for a country that, because of its history, reacts so viscerally to the far right.