{"id":1031575,"date":"2024-05-10T19:01:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T19:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1031575"},"modified":"2024-05-23T19:54:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T19:54:51","slug":"less-than-six-months-from-election-day-republicans-still-struggling-with-ground-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/less-than-six-months-from-election-day-republicans-still-struggling-with-ground-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Less Than Six Months From Election Day, Republicans STILL Struggling With Ground Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In response to <\/em>new reporting<\/em><\/a> on Donald Trump and the RNC continuing to have a nearly non-existent ground game, <\/em>DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeone should tell Donald Trump and the RNC that there\u2019s an election in less than six months. Trump is already running on an extreme and unpopular agenda, and his MAGA takeover of the Republican Party has left the GOP unable to build a ground game or infrastructure to reach voters before November, after purging staff and instituting an election denier litmus test for prospective hires. While Trump and his MAGA minions scramble to run a campaign, Democrats are firing on all cylinders to make Trump a two-time loser on November 5.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW: Republicans\u2019 field operation is STILL nearly non-existent \u2013 all because of Donald Trump. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Post<\/a>: \u201cTrump\u2019s 2024 campaign has traded Star Wars metaphors for talk of a \u2018leaner\u2019 and \u2018more efficient\u2019 operation, with less real estate, fewer employees and greater dependence on outside groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe situation has alarmed GOP officials in key states like Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, who have yet to receive promised funding, staff or even briefings on the new plans since the Trump team took control of the Republican National Committee in March. An earlier party blueprint for a general election build-out has been discarded, party officials say. Plans to open new offices have been scuttled. Hiring has been slowed.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018In order to win close elections in Georgia, you have to have a ground game that emphasizes turning out early votes and absentee votes,\u2019 said Cody Hall, a senior adviser to Gov. Brian Kemp (R). \u2018I have seen no evidence of them having any of that. The Trump campaign has a consultant in Georgia, but there is nothing else that I can see. \u2026 Everyone is generally concerned.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe RNC\u2019s plan at the start of this year was also focused on early voting, the plans show, though the Bank Your Vote website \u2014 once the centerpiece of the effort \u2014 has been offline for weeks as the party retools the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArizona GOP chairwoman Gina Swoboda called RNC Chairman Michael Whatley on Monday to raise concerns that Arizona was not getting enough resources. \u2026 Others in the state remain concerned.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018There is no sign of life,\u2019 said Kim Owens, a Republican operative and public relations professional in Arizona. \u2018Especially in a state that Trump lost so closely last time, you\u2019d expect to have more of a presence. I would think, \u2018Let\u2019s step it up.\u2019 I think it\u2019s a terrible mistake.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Michigan, some of the state\u2019s operatives and Republican lawmakers have grown concerned about a lack of an operation there.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Trump] has told people in charge of the RNC to focus on election security more than field programs<\/strong>\u2026 In private conversations with both Whatley and McDaniel, Trump told them to not worry about getting out the vote since he could do it himself. He told them to \u2018focus on the cheating.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the meantime, the complaints have continued. One person who works on battleground issues for the Trump campaign said there has been a lack of strategy articulated to workers in the field.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnother key Republican familiar with the national GOP\u2019s operation in Arizona bemoaned the lack of money, staffing and direction from Trump\u2019s team in the sprawling battleground state. \u2018They haven\u2019t even sent a data person,\u2019 the Republican said. \u2018I said to someone yesterday, \u2018No one\u2019s coming \u2014 it\u2019s just us.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris campaign and DNC are bolstering efforts to reach voters by scaling up its battleground infrastructure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News<\/a>: \u201cCellphone data, mobile apps and paid media: DNC touts voter-targeting plans\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Democratic National Committee is making new tech investments to bolster its efforts to reach young voters and voters of color in an increasingly fragmented environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBolstered by the over $192 million they have amassed in the first quarter of this year, Democrats have doled out millions to acquire data and new technology to specifically target voters in battleground states and create a \u2018data infrastructure\u2019 that can equally be used by national and state parties. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DNC says that so far, it has made 1.2 million calls and sent 5.4 million texts to engage voters and promote events, recruit for organizing activities and support voter registration efforts in battleground states.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Post<\/a>: \u201cThe Biden operation says it has already opened more than 150 offices across nine state and hired over 400 people, many of whom gathered last week in Wilmington, Del., for a strategy session.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill<\/a>: \u201cThe campaign plans to have more than 500 staff and 200 offices in the states open by the end of May. It also plans to ramp up surrogate travel and outreach to small businesses during the month.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axios<\/a>: \u201cBiden presses cash, staffing advantage against Trump\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s campaign and the RNC remain in financial and organizational disarray.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dispatch<\/a>: \u201cRNC-Trump Campaign Field Program Runs Aground\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeither the [RNC] nor the Trump campaign has much infrastructure or personnel in the swing states that will decide the November 5 election<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat means few if any regional and local campaign headquarters; little to no deployed field staff; and little to no traditional voter turnout activities, such as door-knocking, phone banking, or volunteer organizing.<\/strong> Even after the Trump-led RNC\u2019s reimagined field program eventually emerges, their strategy is to concentrate almost exclusively on the half-dozen states that will determine Trump\u2019s fate. Republicans elsewhere? They\u2019re on their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe field program is lagging, especially compared to the voter turnout operation stood up by President Joe Biden.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe checked in with Republican operatives in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. They see little evidence, if any, that typical get-out-the-vote activities\u2014including voter registration and volunteer recruitment and training\u2014are happening. Nor have they seen any signs that there is staff on the ground to conduct such activities. They say they do not expect the RNC to address the problem anytime soon.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News<\/a>: \u201cBiden is building a behemoth of a campaign. Trump at this point seems to be playing catch-up.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s advisers would not disclose staffing levels, but his ground game still seems to be at a nascent stage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daily Beast<\/a>: \u201cWhile the new RNC leadership has centered its messaging on a combination of Trump-centric fundraising and budgetary cuts, the latest filings don\u2019t yet reflect significant changes on either end. On the spending side, the latest filings show that the RNC\u2019s operating budget actually increased by nearly $1.2 million over the previous month. \u2026 A closer look at the RNC\u2019s own filings reveals some persistent hidden weaknesses.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial Times<\/a>: \u201cDonald Trump falls $75mn behind Joe Biden in money race as donor base shrinks\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associated Press<\/a>: \u201cTrump\u2019s political operation is struggling to catch up to Biden on fundraising and organization.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fox News<\/a>: \u201cDemocrats hold vast fundraising advantage as Republicans face cash problems, disarray in crucial swing states\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccording to year-end reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) this week, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) holds nearly three times the cash on hand <\/strong>reported by the Republican National Committee (RNC), and brought in nearly three times as much fundraising<\/strong> in the final month of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe RNC reported its worst fundraising year since 2013<\/strong> raising just $87.2 million in 2023, and starting 2024 with just over $8 million in cash on hand. If adjusted for inflation, the RNC’s fundraising was last this low in 1993<\/strong> \u2014 before the 2002 McCain Feingold Act restricted political committee fundraising from corporations and capped donations from individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to new reporting on Donald Trump and the RNC continuing to have a nearly non-existent ground game, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:  \u201cSomeone should tell Donald Trump and the RNC that there\u2019s an election in less than six months. Trump is already running on an extreme and unpopular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1031575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLess Than Six Months From Election Day, Republicans STILL Struggling With Ground Game - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/less-than-six-months-from-election-day-republicans-still-struggling-with-ground-game\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-10T19:01:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-23T19:54:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?w=1024\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/less-than-six-months-from-election-day-republicans-still-struggling-with-ground-game\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/less-than-six-months-from-election-day-republicans-still-struggling-with-ground-game\/\",\"name\":\"Less Than Six Months From Election Day, Republicans STILL Struggling With Ground Game - 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