<p><span>The need for social distancing has upended most of the ways that candidates have traditionally put themselves before voters: gathering crowds, shaking hands, kissing babies. </span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/eric-lach"><span>Eric Lach</span></a><span><span> </span>has been<span> </span></span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/campaign-chronicles/campaigning-during-the-coronavirus-the-race-for-new-yorks-seventeenth-congressional-district"><span>following</span></a><span><span> </span>the race in New York’s Seventeenth Congressional District to learn how Facebook Live, e-mail newsletters, and Zoombombs are shaping the race. “There’s no question that people are in pain, and they’re worried and they’re distracted,” Allison Fine, a candidate with a background in digital organizing, said. “So we’re not going to be able to break through all that noise . . . . But all the metrics of engagement are going up.”</span></p>
The need for social distancing has upended most of the ways that candidates have traditionally put themselves before voters: gathering crowds, shaking hands, kissing babies. Eric Lach has been following the race in New York’s Seventeenth Congressional District to learn how Facebook Live, e-mail newsletters, and Zoombombs are shaping the race. “There’s no question that people are in pain, and they’re worried and they’re distracted,” Allison Fine, a candidate with a background in digital organizing, said. “So we’re not going to be able to break through all that noise . . . . But all the metrics of engagement are going up.”