When it comes to wooing voters these days, presidential hopefuls need to have a good grip on the issues — and on the camera button on their phones.
“Every election, there’s some new piece of technology or way we use technology that alters the course of the election a little bit. It may well be that 2016 is the 'selfie election,'” said Kristen Soltis Anderson, author of "The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up)."
Selfies with candidates are popping up everywhere. There's even an entire Twitter feed devoted to it, @PrezSelfieGirls, run by two sisters in New Hampshire, whose goal is to take as many selfies as possible with White House wannabes.
“Most candidates are pretty game for taking selfies these days. They know that it’s now just a standard part of what’s going to happen on the campaign trail,” Anderson said.
But not everyone wants a selfie stop during their campaign stops. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Republican Ben Carson begged for an end to the popular practice of taking preening photos of oneself.
"Beyond the obvious narcissism of endlessly photographing oneself and blasting it over social networks for others to admire, selfies are dangerous — to animals, sports spectators, artwork and the rest of us," he wrote, citing instances of deaths that had resulted from selfies.
