Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney’s former presidential campaign managers have teamed up on an initiative they hope can serve as a first response system to foreign governments who try to interfere in U.S. elections.
Clinton’s 2016 campaign head Robby Mook and Romney’s 2012 chief Matt Rhoades are launching “Defending Digital Democracy” at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs on Tuesday.
“Over the last two years nearly every election on both sides of the Atlantic has been affected by foreign cyber attacks, including Hillary Clinton’s in 2016,” Mook said in a statement to the Washington Post. “This project will find practical solutions to help both parties and civic institutions that are critical to our elections better secure themselves.”
Romney’s campaign was targeted by Chinese hackers in 2012.
Cyberhacks “affect people of all political stripes,” Rhoades said in a statement. “That means we all need to work together to address these vulnerabilities.”
The initiative creators say the nongovernmental group’s objective is for state and local election offices to share information about threats with campaigns.
During the 2016 presidential election, Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. process by embedding fake news stories in social media. Former President Barack Obama found out about the meddling last summer, but did not share the information with the public until shortly before the November election. He has been criticized for not doing more on a federal level to respond to Russia’s actions.
