Alex Vargas AirDrops his contact details to Olivia Pope. AirDrop is specific to Apple's Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. Olivia Pope does not use an iPhone and is regularly seen using an Android device.
Presidential primary debates typically start in the summer the year prior to election year, yet in this episode set in the fall or early winter the Republican candidates are discussing scheduling the first debate.
Cyrus seems surprised to discover Francisco Vargas has a brother who previously ran his campaigns, and Olivia's team also uncovered information about the dirty tactics Alex used to win elections. Yet this is exactly the sort of information Cyrus' aide would have turned up when vetting him in an earlier episode to see how good of a candidate he would be. Cyrus specifically wanted any negative or compromising dirt.