Hillary Clinton hires new tech chief away from Google for raising money and attracting voters

Hillary Clinton is deadly serious about attracting young and tech-savvy voters in 2016, hiring a new digital guru who hails from the world's most powerful online brand.

Stephanie Hannon, who was the tech giant's director of productmanagement for civic innovation and social impact, will serve as her presidential campaign's chief technology officer. 

In that role she will supervise a sprawling effort to develop websites, mobile apps and other vehicles for pushing the former secretary of state's brand through the 2016 elections.

Hannon previously worked on Gmail and Google Maps. She also spent some time at Facebook, and also worked for the event-organizing website Eventbrite, according to her LinkedIn profile.

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That profile describes her Google projects as including 'changing how the world prepares and responds to natural disasters, using big data and experiments to enable cities to make evidenced based decisions and sharing transparent election ballot, candidate and results globally.'

Stephanie Hannon, director of product management, civic innovation and social impact at Google, has come aboard the Hillary Express as Mrs. Clinton's technology guru

Seasoned digital talent is in high demand as nearly 20 potential White House hopefuls plan for a 2016 campaign season that will rely heavily on clicks, likes, shares and other indications of a broad reach.

Every major party candidate will have to navigate the brave new world of online fundraising, too, which President Barack Obama's team mastered in 2008 en route to his victory – including a stunning Democratic primary upset of Clinton. 

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who announced his candidacy on Tuesday in Louisville, poached his tech leader from rival candidate Ted Cruz late last year.

Vincent Harris, who also helped manicure Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's online image during a bruising re-election fight in 2014, runs his own Texas consulting firm with a staff of 20.

His team was responsible for McConnell's breakthrough video 'What rhymes with Alison Lundergan Grimes,' a brief online ad that launched a year-long slap-fest directed at McConnell's unsuccessful challenger.

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