With the political conventions behind them, Donald Trump and the
Republican National Committee are scrambling to close their ground game
gap with Hillary Clinton – boosting fundraising and concentrating on
vital battlegrounds, even as some sources suggest they have a long way
to go.
The campaign notoriously has lagged Clinton's in
organizational strength, but faces the unavoidable reality that a ticket
to the White House requires victory in key swing states like Florida,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
In a sign they're taking the task seriously, the
campaign on Wednesday announced $80 million in donations for the
campaign and the GOP in July, money that can be used to target their
message at these voters. The haul marks a big fundraising surge for the
GOP nominee, and comes close to the combined $90 million raked in by
Clinton and the Democrats last month.
"The campaign is in good shape. We are organized. We
are moving forward," campaign manager Paul Manafort told Fox News'
"Happening Now" on Wednesday, saying they've now hired 50 state
directors.
The fundraising comes despite a rocky post-convention
period for Trump that has included dealing with backlash over the
candidate’s feud with Muslim parents whose son was killed in Iraq.
Sources say behind-the-scenes, though, concerns
continue to surface that Trump’s ground game isn’t yet strong enough to
compete with the Clinton machine.
“It hasn’t been the smoothest ride,” one source with knowledge of Trump’s field operations in the South told FoxNews.com.
Another described the operation as “all over the place.”
But Karen Giorno, a senior Trump adviser and Florida
chief strategist, maintains the campaign has a plan in play that
includes a coordinated multi-state Trump-RNC push that will challenge
Democrats in key states.
She vowed a visible acceleration in the battlegrounds but added it’s “not a one-size-fits-all” plan.
“This is a non-traditional campaign in a
non-traditional year,” she told FoxNews.com. “As you look at Florida,
Pennsylvania, Ohio – each effort is different.”
Florida, which has 29 electoral votes up for grabs,
has emerged in the past two decades as one of the most important
battleground states in the country. Giorno said Team Trump has “amassed a
large army of volunteers and supporters” in Florida, boasting it’s “a
well-oiled machine” that is growing.
Soon, she’ll put another 10 people on the payroll – mostly in leadership positions.
Both the Trump and Clinton campaigns are working with
their respective national committees -- where Democrats likewise have a
staffing edge in some places.
In Florida alone, Democrats maintain a paid team more
than twice the size of the Republicans'. The goal of the Clinton camp
is to have 100 operational field offices in the Sunshine State.
Last month, it set up shop in Miami.
“Miami — and South Florida in general — are going to
be a large part of our strategy for success,” Simone Ward, Clinton’s
Florida director, told
The Miami Herald. “It is a major [get out the vote] universe for any presidential campaign, and in particular ours.”
In Pennsylvania, Democrats have a field staff of more
than 100 while Republicans have 54. In Ohio, Democrats have 70 on staff
as of June 11; Republicans have 53.
“Ninety-plus days before a totally winnable election
and I’m stunned,” Gary Nordlinger, president of a political consulting
firm and adjunct professor at George Washington University’s school of
political management, told FoxNews.com, regarding the on-the-ground
organizing. “I’m just shocked that Republicans did not learn from their
mistakes in 2012.”
Despite campaign promises going into the Republican
National Convention in Cleveland to step up their operations this month,
staffing on the ground may still be spotty. FoxNews.com called Trump
headquarters in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina -- but
only in Florida's office in Sarasota did a person answer the phone.
Calls on Aug. 1 -- and again 24 hours later -- to the
other three offices either were not answered or not returned when
voicemail messages could be left.
An 11:06 a.m. ET call on Aug. 1 to the Pennsylvania
branch led to this message: “The person you’ve called has a voicemail
box that has not been set up yet.”
To Giorno, the comparisons of staffing numbers are not the best way to size up the rival teams.
“[Clinton’s] playbook is so last century,” she said.
“We’re lean and mean and we get to adjust … they have this clunky, old
school apparatus.”
Despite the data, Nordlinger says the New York businessman isn’t to blame.
“I’m not laying this at Trump’s feet,” he said. “[The RNC] has had four years to prepare for this.”
But the RNC, too, pushes back on any suggestion their ground game is lacking.
“The RNC has built the most efficient and effective
ground game in the party’s history,” RNC spokeswoman Lindsay Walters
told FoxNews.com. “We are focused on the entire ticket, working to get
all Republicans on the ballot elected to office.”
Walters said the RNC has had staff on the ground in
key states since 2011. Currently, there are 489 paid staffers, 4,100
trained organizers and thousands of volunteers in the field.
“In total, we have over 775 total staff dedicated to
beating Hillary Clinton,” Walters said. “No other campaign, committee,
or organization has been doing this for as long as we have. We are the
infrastructure for the entire GOP ticket. And the Trump campaign has
embraced that.”
