OSINT Resources for Political Campaigns

The 2022 political campaign season is off and running. In this article, we’ll explore OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) resources for political campaigns. Whether you’re doing opposition research, looking for problematic stuff for your own campaign in order to build a strategy to address any potential surprises, or to see how your constituents are responding to messaging from all parties, these resources will help your camp with these efforts.

News media

From your local newspaper to national news outlets, you can learn about causes, organizations, and groups your opponent supports or aligns with. You’ll see people in their orbit who are their most staunch supporters. By having this information on hand your campaign has the ability to start relationship mapping, which may reveal interesting opportunities to explore.

Some tools to help

Google Alerts [Link]: Set up keywords you want Google to monitor and send it to your email address or RSS feed.

Image source: Google Alerts https://www.google.com/alerts

Maltego [Link]: This link analysis tool has been around for over a decade and continues to evolve. They have both paid versions or, for those campaigns with a limited budget, a community edition which is free, but with limitations. You can also go the low tech way and map things out on a whiteboard or cork board.

Image source: Maltego CE

Campaign contributions

Seeing who is contributing to your opponent gives your campaign even more opportunities for finding who is in your opponent’s orbit. On the other side of the coin, who is in your candidate’s orbit. This allows you to address any potential issues on your side and perhaps tailor your messaging to attract your opposition’s followers.

Some tools to help

followthemoney.org [Link]: This site has a wealth of data to explore. A couple points of interest when looking at a candidate are the “Top Donors” and “Top Industries” sections.

Image source: FollowTheMoney.org https://www.followthemoney.org/

OpenSecrets [Link]: Similar to followthemoney.org, but with more of a focus on national public office holders, dark money, lobbying, and news.

Image source: Open Secrets https://www.opensecrets.org/races

Blockchain.com [Link]: A resource like blockchain.com’s explorer allows you to view Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash transactions. In the 2020 election cycle candidates jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon and began accepting donations. If you know the candidate’s crypto address, you can use sites like blockchain.com, or similar, to see transactions from their wallet. Maltego, which we mentioned above, also has transforms (think of them as plugins) for cryptocurrency analysis.

Image source: Blockchain.com https://www.blockchain.com/explorer

Social media

With social media, we’re venturing into SOCMINT (Social Media Intelligence) territory. From social networks, to online forums, to blogs, there’s a vast amount places to explore. What your constituents publish to social media platforms will inform you of how they feel about various issues, how they feel about your candidate, and your opposition. If your candidate and opponent are active on social media, what they share is also of value.

Some tools to help

Regardless of platform, use their search functions to manually look for stuff. Whether it’s about the candidate you’re working with, the opposition, or see what constituents are talking about. Plan out keywords to search and also include hashtags.  Also, check out our article on Reddit for some inspiration, which you can read here.

Google Social Search [Link]: This custom search engine allows you to search Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. This gives you a surface level look of these social media platforms based on the search results.

Image source: Social Searcher https://www.social-searcher.com/google-social-search/

What we’ve presented in this article is far from an exhaustive list of resources and tools to aid you in your campaign’s research.

If you’re a candidate, campaign manager, or political consulting firm, contact us for a free consult by filling out the contact form below to learn about the services we provide. If you’re looking for marketing (digital/print), digital ads, and site design, we recommend Connecticut Business link.

Contact Us | Bsquared Intel

Please fill out the form below, or call 203.828.0012, to learn how bsquared intel can assist you.

Name(Required)