A plan by Donald Trump's presidential campaign to outsource get-out-the-vote efforts in what is expected to be a tight race for the presidency with President Joe Biden is getting a thumbs-down from a former Republican National Committee official.
According to a report from CNN, the Trump campaign, which is trailing Biden's campaign in fundraising and is being hurt by having to funnel millions to the now-convicted felon Trump's lawyers as his legal bills keep piling up, is making a "risky" bet on using outside groups to get conservative voters to the polls.
As the report notes, Trump's campaign brain trust is skipping opening local campaign offices and employing their own people and entrusting the rallying of voters to organizations like Turning Point USA.
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According to CNN's Kristen Holmes and Alayna Treene, "TPA – an affiliate of Turning Point USA, the youth organization started by Trump ally Charlie Kirk – is aiming to ultimately spend $108 million dollars on a get-out-the-vote effort in key battleground states, according to two sources familiar with the plans. The “Chase the Vote” program has built out infrastructures in Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan, all states that Trump won in 2016 but lost to President Joe Biden in 2020. While Trump speaks to the crowd this weekend, the group is planning to sign up more local volunteers as well as pass out job applications to beef up their program, particularly in the Wolverine State. "
One Democratic strategist mocked the move, telling CNN, "You need boots on the ground to win an election. [The Biden campaign] is far outpacing Trump’s operation on this front.”
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A former RNC official who wished to remain anonymous agreed, and called the Trump campaign strategy "risky."
“There’s not a presence being built up, they don’t have a footprint. They have a handful of staffers in the states," they said.
“This isn’t a messaging war,” they continued. “This is going to be a turnout fight … when you don’t have people out there building relationships and you don’t have the intense infrastructure, you don’t have as many offices, you don’t have as many bodies. … it seems that they are miscalculating how this election is going to be won.”
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