Biden campaign crafts digital debate strategy aimed at amplifying clips beyond Thursday

WASHINGTON — The Biden campaign hopes that voters who aren’t yet paying attention to the presidential race will watch at least some of Thursday's debate, but they’re not taking any chances.

Campaign officials have created a digital strategy to try to ensure that voters — whether they tune in that night or not — see the best version of the president.

From the campaign’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, and at the debate site in Atlanta, Biden officials will be working with social media content creators with large followings to help capture significant moments in the debate, a campaign spokesperson said. The hope is that posts get quickly amplified by the Biden campaign’s accounts and — perhaps more critically — the creators’ large followings, the spokesperson said.

It’s a major test for the campaign’s broader effort to push digital content and shape the discussion for tuned-out voters. Campaign officials said they view the debate as one of several big opportunities over the next few months to get those voters to engage in the election.

“It’s a big moment for reactivation,” a senior campaign official.

The Biden campaign headquarters is hosting 18 creators with a combined social media following of 8 million people for their own digital war room, where they’ll have briefings with the campaign’s rapid response team before the debate and be able to use the campaign’s own studio to film content for their channels.

In Atlanta, the campaign is deploying other content creators to the spin room post-debate to both share their own view of the key exchanges and talk to Biden officials. Separately, the campaign is hosting a content creator watch party in Atlanta where the campaign team will also be working to amplify key debate