Donald Trump Campaign Organizing Army of Volunteers for 2020
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign continues to grow behind the scenes, fueled by Democrats trying to impeach the president and the unprecedented level of fundraising.
The Republican National Committee continues building the Trump Victory 2020 arm of the campaign, organizing volunteers and supporters of the president.
“This is the largest campaign in presidential history,” a senior Trump campaign official said in a call with reporters, looking ahead to their organizational priorities for the 2020 campaign
The RNC plans to swell the deployed staff to one and a half times larger than 2016 and to have 2.5 times more volunteers.
“Our goal is to have 2 million volunteers plus between now and 2020,” the official said.
The Trump army of volunteers is growing, they said, particularly after Democrats began their impeachment inquiry of the president.
“These rallies seem to have gotten bigger,” he said, citing an uptick of new volunteers and people signing up for training in the last couple of weeks. “With this second witch hunt, this ridiculous talk of impeachment — I think it’s getting people off the sidelines … this is making our job easier,” the official said.
The campaign said that they were already organizing and training campaign fellows and super volunteers, helping the campaign engage local neighborhoods and volunteers with people who actually live there.
“Our goal is to have 90,000 Trump team leaders in 2020,” the official said.
Campaign infrastructure in major swing states never left after Trump won his first election, the official noted, as the campaign worked to swell the number of registered more voters and organizing volunteers in the states.
“Voter registration is very difficult to do … it’s extremely hard but our volunteers understand the importance of it,” the official said.
The campaign recently triggered two separate tests of organizing capability, one in the special election in a North Carolina special congressional election and one in the Louisiana governors race, which both turned out favorable for Republicans.
The unique blend of Trump’s massive headline rallies the night before the elections, plus campaign infrastructure allowed Republicans to experience successful results in thse states.
Party leaders expect to remain engaged in states the president barely won in 2016, such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. One official explained they never ended the field operations in those states, but rather focused on building it bigger.
“Because those states were so close, that’s even more reason why we’re there earlier than ever before,” the official said.
The campaign is also looking to other states where they could be competitive in 2020 such as New Mexico, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.
In 2016, the campaign had only one paid staffer in Minnesota, who eventually was sent to Colorado, but the campaign was surprised that they almost won the state.
The president’s record crowd rally in Minneapolis, the official said, was a sign of their organizing commitment to Minnesota for 2020.
Overall, the campaign appeared immensely please with the level of engagement from Trump’s supporters thus far in the process.
“A lot of what we’re seeing in the field, some of it is our volunteers that we’ve already trained, but a lot of what we’re seeing in the states is organic,” the official said. “I think that it just goes to show you just how upset voters are.”