U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell dug into her tech background during the GeekWire Summit on Friday to offer presidential candidate Hilary Clinton some free campaign advice: “I think you have to respond more rapidly.”
Cantwell, who is a former RealNetworks executive and has since been a champion of tech issues in Washington, D.C. representing Washington state, said we’ve entered a new age where we’re not just always connected, but we’re always communicating.
She harkened back to 1960, when then presidential candidate Richard Nixon suffered in a televised debate because of his physical appearance — which many historians have pointed to as the moment television forever changed the face of American politics.
Technology may be changing the political landscape once again, Cantwell said.
“Well, I think in this age information age, if you’re not going to respond rapidly to things it’s going to be a challenge for a U.S. presidential candidate,” she said. “I think more than anything what they need to be doing is trying to building out that network of intimate communication — because that’s the era we live in.”
Clinton’s campaign is just getting started, but it’s already been forced to manage a few contentious situations, namely the discovery that she used a private email server during her time as Secretary of State. Clinton apologized recently, but only after the controversy hung over the campaign all summer long.
According to a recent report from The Hill, the delay frustrated some Democratic strategists.
Certainly, that won’t be the last controversy Clinton will have to deal with as she makes her presidential bid, so she should have plenty of chances to take Cantwell’s advice in the future.
Update: Here’s the full video of Cantwell’s talk at the GeekWire Summit.
