Republicans say they’re far ahead of Hillary Clinton and Democrats in getting out the vote, and they’ve got the numbers, morale and history to prove it.
In a call with reporters Friday afternoon, Republican National Committee staffers announced they’d be setting Saturday aside as a “Day of Action,” where scores of field workers would take to the streets, knocking door-to-door to get people to the polls to vote for GOP candidate Donald Trump.
RNC Political Director Chris Carr boasted about the party’s ground game, saying the GOP has prepared for years for this event.
“We are the only entity that’s been talking on the ground [game] since 2012,” Carr explained. “So we had a tremendous head start.”
Team Trump has a lofty goal of reaching 350,000 doors on Saturday.
So far, Carr says the RNC has 5,500 volunteers at the ready to take on the mission of spreading Trump’s message and getting people to the polls. Over 1,500 of those volunteers are paid field organizers, and over 4,500 are fellows who have gone through six weeks of training to hit the ground running.
Thousands more, he explained, signed on in the last 24 hours simply from tweets posted by both Donald Trump and his son, Eric.
The approach isn’t new. The motivation is to actually see voters face-to-face rather than try and reach them via TV ads they might miss, mailers they might throw away, and social media posts they might not see.
In order to secure a victory in November, the RNC is moving the spotlight onto battleground states like Florida, Nevada and New Hampshire.
Florida was the first state Carr mentioned when giving examples of how the party is attempting to push success in the final 60 days to the election.
Field staffers will register voters, work on voter persuasion and push early voting statewide -- and Florida is a must win state.
Carr said GOP voter registration in Florida had topped 31,000 for the month of August, but those numbers were not yet available from the Florida Division of Elections.
The presser comes just days after Trump announced he would be opening a South Florida field office after getting off to a slow start with other locations.
Some have criticized Trump for not having a well-organized ground campaign, while Clinton’s offices continue to pop up (she has over 50 in Florida) around the state.
It’s now become a battle for the ground work as the clock ticks to Nov. 8.
In August, his campaign said the state would be filled with at least two dozen field offices by the middle of the month, but that number has yet to pan out.
Carr told reporters the GOP plans to open 27 field offices in Florida alone. That number does not include an extra 37 offices the Republican Party of Florida plans to open to promote Republican candidates statewide.
Getting the word out via grassroots organization has been one of the RPOF’s biggest priorities since Chairman Blaise Ingoglia took the reins of the party in 2014. Ingoglia spearheaded new committees and honed in on Hispanic engagement specifically, but has also worked to engage other voting blocs as well.
“As a battleground state, Florida will be pivotal in this election; therefore, our great state has been laying the groundwork and infrastructure for this election cycle for the better part of almost two years,” Ingoglia said in a statement released Friday.
The Florida Democratic Party has also been hard at work campaigning for Clinton.
“Already we’ve hired hundreds of field organizers, helped open 34 field offices across the state, and recruited thousands of volunteers to deliver Florida to Hillary Clinton and elect Democrats up and down the ballot in November,” said FDP Chair Allison Tant. “We look forward to building our momentum and keeping Florida blue for the third presidential election in a row.”
On Friday evening, Trump was campaigning in Pensacola. Thousands typically tend to flock to his rallies, a power which Republicans say shouldn’t be underestimated.
“Mr. Trump’s message has been resonating with Floridians as seen in the sheer numbers attending events,” Ingoglia continued. “He is not only committed to earning the vote of every American; Mr. Trump understands the votes of the Sunshine State cannot be won without the Northwest Panhandle.”
Republicans still seemed hopeful they were far better off than their Democratic rivals.
“Ultimately we are in great shape,” Carr explained. “[We are] far ahead of the Clinton campaign.”
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
