GOP Builds Ground Game to Capitalize on Trump Rallies

It’s a familiar refrain from the punditry: Hillary Clinton is beating Donald Trump in the “ground game.”

The ground game means, roughly, a grassroots campaign. It includes registering voters, getting them to vote early, or getting them an absentee ballot. It also includes roping the voters to “get out to vote” (GOTV) on and ahead of Election Day.

“We continue to follow up with those [Trump] supporters right up until Election Day to make sure they make it to the polls.”

Trump just doesn’t have the organization, opine the predominantly liberal media.

Gromer Jeffers Jr. of the Dallas Morning News wrote recently: “Clinton’s well-oiled machine is more productive than Trump’s organization, which relies heavily on the candidate’s remarkable appeal, instead of an effective ground game.”

Except for one problem: Just because Donald Trump has never said he has a well-oiled machine doesn’t mean he does not have use of one. Like so many other things in Trump’s world, the Republican presidential nominee has hired someone.

While Trump’s official campaign apparatus may be light on grassroots manpower, the Republican National Committee and state GOP organizations have deployed a sophisticated and highly effective operation to capitalize on the huge turnout at Trump rallies.

[lz_graphiq id=1MEYd7JyraJ]

The overall machine is run by someone who learned to develop a ground game. That person is Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman. Priebus learned the hard way.

In 2012, Priebus believed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would beat President Obama. But then Romney lost. Not only did Romney lose, he was beaten badly in the ground game and the digital operations.

Romney picked up two states that the GOP lost in 2008 (Indiana and North Carolina), but lost the big, key swing states such as Ohio, Florida, and Virginia.

Priebus set in motion a plan after that loss, according to Lindsay Walters, RNC spokeswoman. Starting in 2013, the RNC kicked off new voter registration drives — despite not knowing who the presidential candidate would be in 2016.

The efforts are partially credited with the GOP’s strong performance in the 2014 midterm elections, in which the GOP took back control of the U.S. Senate, and also won the largest U.S. House majority since 1928. The RNC then kept some people in the field after the 2014 midterms.

The RNC examined the type of presidential-year operations each state had, and also looked at what Democrats did. Florida, for one, had what the RNC may see as a worker shortage today, for Republicans.

[lz_table title=”Mail ballots requested/returned” source=”United States Election Project”]
As of Oct. 3-6

|Florida
2.6 million requested
8773 returned
|Iowa
204672 requested
53747 returned
|North Carolina
109555 requested
19622 returned
|Ohio
957260
247 returned

[/lz_table]

In 2012, the Romney campaign had about 100 volunteers and paid operatives on the ground in Florida before Election Day. In Florida alone, she said, the state has 12 times the number of people working for Trump as it had for Romney in 2012.

Nationwide, the RNC has deployed about 1,000 paid workers.

The Trump campaign has also added a new opportunity for the RNC. Trump has attracted large numbers of people at his rallies, and has done so for months. Many of these voters are new, or haven’t voted in a while. And the concern is that many of these Trump supporters at rallies have a low propensity to vote.

Getting rally attendees and new voters to vote will be key for Trump. But is the Trump’s campaign (or the RNC) capitalizing on these rallies?

Walters said yes. The RNC has been waiting outside for attendees to sign them up to vote, or to get them to early voting. Not all states offer early voting, of course, so the RNC also asks about absentee ballots.

“At each of these rallies, these result in massive numbers of volunteers, who in turn help with get out the vote and voter registration,” said Walters.

Walters said the GOP is keenly aware of the need to grab voters at Trump’s rallies. In early September, in North Carolina, 100 people were registered at a Trump rally in Greenville, and another 100 in Asheville.

[lz_related_box id=”220395″]

On Sept. 13, in Des Moines, Iowa, the RNC issued 244 absentee voter forms at the request of Trump rally attendees.

Not all states have early voting. In Michigan, the GOP state committee has “a very aggressive absentee-chase program,” according to Sarah Anderson, Michigan GOP communications director.

“At rallies, we do have volunteers and staff signing people up for volunteer shifts, as well as helping those who may not be registered to vote to register,” said Anderson. “We help register and point them in the right direction as far as where they vote. We have our own mobile application that our volunteers use at the door to identify voters, and we continue to follow up with those supporters right up until Election Day to make sure that they make it to the polls.”

And even the Trump campaign apparatus itself has become more organized, buffeted by help from the party organizations.

“The Trump campaign has volunteers outside of all of our rallies registering people to vote, which will continue up until voter registration ends and early voting begins,” said Seth Unger, the Ohio communications director for the Ohio Trump operation, in an email to LifeZette. “We also have a sophisticated effort to encourage high-propensity and newly registered absentee voters to request and cast absentee ballots, and to vote early, because that lets us focus our Get Out The Vote resources on others.”