Trump's swing-state plan targets "sometimes" voters
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Donald Trump's campaign, lacking the on-the-ground muscle to match Kamala Harris' team, has been rolling out a strategy to target swing-state voters who've shown interest in Trump but often don't vote.
Why it matters: Trump campaign training materials obtained by Axios offer an inside look into the strategy the ex-president's team is betting on to turn out voters in Pennsylvania and at least six other key states.
The big picture: The materials describe the 2020 Trump campaign's reach-out efforts as "inefficient," and emphasize the campaign's priorities of reaching more "quality" contacts in its race to the Nov. 5 election.
- Trump's team is outgunned in sheer resources: The campaign says it has about 27,000 top volunteers on the ground nationwide, and "hundreds of thousands" more in various roles in battleground states. Harris' campaign claims to have 60,000 volunteers in Pennsylvania alone, along with hundreds of thousands more in other key states.
- As Axios has reported, Trump's campaign has focused more on developing an "election integrity" team of 175,000 poll workers and poll watchers nationwide, a program rooted in the ex-president's false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election was fraudulent.
- Trump's campaign, like Harris', is supported by a constellation of outside groups that help provide additional canvassing and voter registration. Trump's team includes thousands of volunteers outside the campaign who make calls, mail materials and engage voters on platforms such as TikTok.
What we're watching: The Trump campaign's internal materials prioritize getting to "hard-to-reach, low-propensity voters" — those who've shown interest in Trump by attending a rally, for example, but aren't necessarily likely to show up at the polls.
- The campaign's volunteers have been given a list of 25 "unreachable" and "sometimes" voters, with a goal of visiting at least 10 in person.
- As they contact and engage more unlikely voters, volunteers earn rewards.
- Those include T-shirts and MAGA caps and "expedited" entry into Trump rallies, and a top prize for the most active volunteers: an invitation to a party at Mar-a-Lago or Trump's inauguration, along with being dubbed a "Trump Force Precinct Caption."
Between the lines: Talking points provided to volunteers during training sessions urge them to focus on what the campaign sees as major contrasts between Trump and Harris: "strength vs. weakness," "success vs. failure," and "straight talk vs. dishonesty."
The intrigue: The volunteers are explicitly told to encourage those they contact to vote before Election Day, either by signing them up to vote by mail or securing their commitment to vote early in person.
- Trump's campaign is using this tactic — which is common among Democrats — even as Trump continues to rail against mail-in voting as "corrupt."
- The campaign also is working with conservative activist Scott Presler's Early Vote Action group, which focuses on registering voters at Trump rallies, farmers' markets, gun shows and gas stations.
- Other groups helping to fill gaps in the campaign's efforts include Turning Point Action, which is most active in Arizona and Wisconsin, along with Elon Musk's America PAC and activist Christopher Buskirk's Turnout for America PAC.
What they're saying: "Team Trump is doubling down on our efforts to reach voters where they are at and share President Trump's plans to make America prosperous again," RNC Battleground States Communications Director Rachel Reisner told Axios.
- "Team Trump continues to build out the most sophisticated and modern approach, ever."
