Republican campaign presence in Florida to grow as part of expanded swing state plan
No matter who Democrats nominate to run against President Donald Trump this summer, Republicans believe they have a better candidate and a better campaign operation — both of which were on display this week as the Republican National Committee held its annual winter conference in Doral.
The GOP, holed up at the Trump National Doral Miami resort for three days of business, hosted the president for a private dinner Thursday and approved an expansion of the Republican ground game across 18 target states by the beginning of next month. They’ll have a total of 622 staffers, which will double the number of campaign staff working to reelect Trump and other conservative candidates in states like Florida, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
“Our data-driven field operation is the largest in party history, and by February we will be up to 700 staff across our 18 target states and thousands of more trained volunteers,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Friday during a session opened to the press.
The RNC says its field operation is the largest in the organization’s history, and supported by a $300 million data program that allows the party and candidates to campaign and advertise to specific voters based on legally obtained information. McDaniel, in a prepared speech, also noted that the RNC and Trump raised nearly a half-billion dollars last year and had about $200 million in cash around the new year.
The Democratic National Committee — which is relying on Coral Gables attorney Chris Korge to helm its fundraising apparatus — has less money. But Democratic donors continue to give prolifically on the whole.
And in a sign of the escalating efforts to win key swing states, the DNC announced its own expanded battleground strategy this week with a “multi-million-dollar” plan to register voters and get them to the polls in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Florida.
“This strategy will allow the DNC and state parties to dramatically increase the immediate scale of our organizing programs — but this is just an initial investment,” Seema Nanda, DNC chief executive officer, wrote Tuesday in a fundraising email.
Florida is a key target for both parties, and a possible make-or-break state for Trump.
The president, who now has declared himself as a Florida resident, reinforced the importance of the Sunshine State with his appearance in Doral Thursday to speak privately over dinner to dozens of party chairs and committee members from the 50 states. The campaign appearance was his sixth in Florida since early October, and he spent the holidays at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Florida GOP Chairman Joe Gruters, who greeted Trump at Miami International Airport Thursday and rode in the president’s limo over to the Doral resort, said they spoke about Florida on the way to the hotel. And later on, during the dinner, he said, Trump highlighted his administration’s new trade deals with China, Canada and Mexico, the military’s killing of terrorists, and the economy during his 90-minute speech — delivered as Democrats continued their opening remarks at Trump’s impeachment trial in Washington before the U.S. Senate.
It was “a complete love fest,” Gruters said, of Trump’s dinner speech to the RNC. “It just goes to show you how much impeachment has backfired. It really brought everybody together. He’s definitely going to win Florida and our 29 electoral votes.”
Nelson Diaz, chairman of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade County, said Trump’s speech was “typical Trump” — a crowd-pleasing, off-the-cuff riff in which the president said he’d been impeached by Democrats for his successes and also took credit for propping up The New York Times and The Washington Post. Diaz said Trump talked about his support among Cuban and Venezuelan Americans in Miami.
“He did mention how he did very well with Cubans and Venezuelans, and how Cubans gave him the Bay of Pigs award before the [2016] election,” Diaz said.
Diaz said Trump also mentioned Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who timed the launch of his congressional campaign to Trump’s arrival in Miami. Trump, in turn, endorsed Gimenez late Thursday in the Republican primary for Florida’s 26th Congressional District.
“He mentioned the mayor running for the congressional seat” in Florida’s 26th Congressional District, Diaz said. “He said Gimenez was going to take it back.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 1:31 PM.
