What platform is powering your favorite political candidate’s website? WordPress, probably.
Thirty-five percent of U.S. congressional races, 40% of U.S. Senate races, 44% of U.S. gubernatorial races and 41% of state political parties rely on the WordPress platform for their website, according to WordPress’s parent company Automattic.
Why is WordPress so popular for politicians? It’s simplicity and ease of use, according to Peter Slutsky, director of platform services at Automattic.
“[WordPress] allows politicians and candidates a beautiful, fully integrated website that has all of the backbone you need for politics — social features, mailing list signups, voter contact tools,” said Slutsky. “Politicians are coming to WordPress because it’s incredibly easy to use, it’s very flexible, it’s free, it’s open-source and it’s a language that a lot of people speak. As more technologists are coming into politics, they’re using the most intuitive tools — and that’s WordPress.”
Slutsky is Automattic’s one-man team tasked with evangelizing WordPress to politicians, government organizations and non-profits and getting them to switch from other platforms or custom-built sites.
“A lot of what I do right now is getting the word out about WordPress,” he said. “It’s a lot of evangelizing, speaking, best practices. I’m trying to get the word out about how powerful the platform is.”
For more, check out WordPress VIP’s infographic below. Would you use WordPress if you were running for office?
