Adriel Hampton

Adriel O. Hampton (born 1978) is a digital media, fundraising, and organizing entrepreneur and strategist for political campaigns. He runs a digital agency in San Francisco, The Adriel Hampton Group, and the progressive PAC The Really Online Lefty League. Adriel co-founded the analytics startup Pinpoint Predictive, the podcast Gov 2.0 Radio, and the progressive Facebook community Really American, and was an early member of the organizing software company NationBuilder[1]. In 2009, Adriel became the first person to launch a Congressional candidacy via Twitter.[2]

Adriel Hampton
Adriel Hampton in 2019
Born
Modesto, California
Alma materU. C. Berkeley
OccupationAdriel runs The Adriel Hampton Group and The Really Online Lefty League
Political partyNo Party Preference

Early life

Hampton was born in Modesto, California and was homeschooled. He worked as editor-in-chief of The Impact newspaper at San Joaquin Delta College, and graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Rhetoric. Hampton worked as an editor at the Lodi News-Sentinel, Alameda News Group, and San Francisco Examiner, and as an investigator for the San Francisco City Attorney's Office.[3]

Web 2.0 and Government

Hampton launched Government 2.0 Radio in March 2009 featuring an interview with Web 2.0 pioneer Tim O'Reilly. Hampton described the interview-based show as highlighting efforts to improve transparency and responsiveness in government at all levels.[3] Hampton gained publicity for use of Twitter and Facebook in a 2009 campaign for the CA-10 seat to replace Rep. Ellen Tauscher in the House of Representatives.[3][4] [5] Hampton's campaign used collaborative editing, a form of crowdsourcing, to draft an anti-Drug War policy statement. Regarding this effort, he stated, “As Congressman, I’m going to practice what I preach. The job of a representative is to listen to and lead huge groups of people, and that means using new technologies to harness the ideas of many.”[6]

Campaign for Congress CA-10

On March 18, 2009, Hampton's local Congresswoman Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D CA-10) was nominated by President Barack Obama’s to serve as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Pending Rep. Tauscher’s approval by the U.S. Senate, a special election to fill her seat took place. Hampton was a candidate—the first in U.S. history to win press coverage by announcing a Congressional campaign on Twitter.[7] Adriel placed 12th of 15 candidates.[8]

TROLL and campaign for California Governor

The Really Online Lefty League (TROLL) is a political action committee (PAC) formed as a collaboration between Hampton and the Institute for Progressive Memetics. The rollout of the PAC included a fake advertisement for the Green New Deal[9]. The ad referenced Senator Lindsey Graham as being in favor of Green New Deal legislation, when he actually is in opposition. The PAC was inspired by a Congressional hearing where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as to whether Facebook would be taking down ads from politicians that spread false information [10]. Zuckerberg replied that they probably would not. TROLL formed and created their first ad, and Hampton filed to run for office in order to be allowed to run false advertisements.

On October 29, 2019, Hampton declared he was running for governor of California in order to run fake Facebook ads.[11] He also declared that his campaign is a full fledged operation running to win [12].

More recently, Hampton and TROLL, put out a YouTube ad against Congressman Ken Calvert[13] in the California District 42 Congressional Election.

Post-Campaign Work

After his Congressional campaign, Hampton began working as Chief Organizer and Vice President of Business Development at NationBuilder, a Los Angeles tech startup that does work on, among other things, websites for politicians such as California Governor Jerry Brown and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. In 2015, Hampton left NationBuilder and founded a consulting firm, The Adriel Hampton Group. Also in 2015, he co-founded and served as President of Pinpoint Predictive, a San Francisco startup pioneering predictive personality advertising. Adriel's consulting firm specializes in digital advertising and community building.[14] Hampton's clients have included phone and email append provider Accurate Append, mobile canvassing app Ecanvasser, and the activist toolset Do Gooder. He is an adviser to VoterCircle.

References
  1. "Adriel Hampton is Joining NationBuilder". TechPresident. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
  2. "Announcing a Campaign on Twitter". Politico. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  3. Farrow, Ross (2009-06-01). "Former Lodi journalist Adriel Hampton running for Congress". Lodi News-Sentinel. Archived from the original on 9 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-13.
  4. Drapeau, Mark (2009-04-15). "The Social Media Political Campaign". True/Slant. Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2009-06-13.
  5. Vorderbrueggen, Lisa (2009-03-27). "CD10: The potential candidate rundown". Contra Costa Times. Archived from the original on 2009-05-30. Retrieved 2009-06-13.
  6. Richman, Josh (2009-05-18). "Pressing the flesh and working the Web in CD10". Contra Costa Times. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-13.
  7. Kraushaar, Josh (2009-03-23). "Announcing a campaign on Twitter". Politico. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  8. "Official Canvass: United States Representative 10th Congressional District Special Primary Election, September 1, 2009" (PDF). Secretary of State of California. 2009-09-09. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  9. "Facebook kept removing his fake ad so now he's running for office". Mashable. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  10. "Ocasio-Cortez Questioned Zuckerberg About Fake Facebook Ads". PBS.org. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  11. "Man running for office so he can run false Facebook ads". CNN. October 29, 2019.
  12. "A gubernatorial candidates strategy? Lie on Facebook". LA Times. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  13. TROLL. "Ken Calvert CA-42 Liam O'Mara Regina Marston". YouTube. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  14. Sean, Miller (2015-06-09). "New Firm Focus: Adriel Hampton Group". Campaigns & Elections Magazine. Retrieved 2015-12-01.


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