Archive for the ‘Ronna McDaniel’ Category

Saying that President Trump is an embattled president is somewhat accurate, though definitely inaccurate, too. Let me explain with the help of this article. In the article, A.B. Stoddard highlights the fact that the RNC has outraised the DNC by an enormous amount. She also highlights the other advantages that Republicans have. This isn’t a ‘Republicans are doing well here but Democrats are doing well elsewhere’ situation. It’s a situation of the RNC pretty much dominating the entire landscape:

For months Democrats have worried about a potentially lethal combination of Trump’s incumbency advantage coupled with the unparalleled strength of the GOP organization — and that was before their newfound fear that they may not end up with a suitable nominee to take on even a deeply embattled Trump. While he rants on Twitter and holds campaign rallies, Democrats in a primary race get little notice or coverage. Meanwhile the Trump campaign is carpet-bombing Facebook with ads and the RNC is spreading a volunteer army across key swing states, all while breaking fundraising records allowing them to deploy critical resources nearly a year before a Democrat is nominated.

Dynamic fundraising eliminates a ton of sins. This isn’t just about fundraising, though. It’s about how that money is getting used. In this instance, it’s getting used wisely and for maximum impact:

In August, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez acknowledged the threat after the RNC tripled the amount the DNC raised in July. In an email he sent supporters sounding the alarm, he wrote that “our eventual nominee won’t stand a chance against Trump and the GOP’s fundraising machine unless we start making strategic, early investments right now.”

It was clear in September, when the RNC quadrupled the DNC total, that those investments have yet to materialize. September was the best non-election-year month for the RNC in history for either party, raising $27.3 million to the DNC’s $6.9 million. The RNC is carrying no debt; the DNC is carrying $7.2 million. The RNC has $59.2 million cash on hand while the DNC has $8.6 million. The RNC’s 2019 total is $168.7 million while the DNC has raised only $66.5 million this year.

That’s only part of the story. Here’s the important part of the story:

Impeachment has been a boon to GOP fundraising and grassroots organizing. Since the official start of impeachment, $10.3 million has been spent between the RNC and the Trump campaign in ads on air and online and the RNC has held 60 events in swing or Trump districts held by Democrats, and in Senate and gubernatorial races, just since Sept. 30.

For the 2020 campaign, RNC has staff deployed in 19 states including New Hampshire and New Mexico, with five regional communications directors and nine regional political directors. By Election Day there will be 2 million volunteers coordinated by 60,000 “fellows,” who are trained grassroots volunteers. In 2016 the RNC had 5,000 fellows, then in 2018 that grew to 25,000, and more than 30,000 additional fellows are being trained up now. Volunteers download an app, then go door to door in assigned teams that break down by state, then “turf,” then neighborhood. “We don’t care about offices,” said RNC spokesman Rick Gorka.

Watching Trump’s rallies, coupled with reading this article, it’s interesting to see how both things fit together. Most of the rallies have substantial numbers of people who haven’t been to a Trump rally before. Couple that with the data gathered and you’ve got a powerful 1-2 punch getting built.

In Arizona, now a swing state after decades trending red, the RNC will be tracking 207,284 so-called “disengagers” statewide, that is, people who voted in 2016 but not 2018. They already know, for example, their specific goal in “turf 24” outside of Maricopa County: to reach 14,537 swing voters they need to win over.

This money is being spent to build a strong GOTV operation. It’s also doing things that few other presidential campaigns have done. For instance, they’re doing voter registration drives to strengthen congressional and Senate candidates and incumbents. President Trump and the RNC want this to be a wave election up and down the ticket.

Though I haven’t seen anything communicating this goal, I’m betting that the RNC’s and the Trump campaign’s goal is to re-elect him, strengthen the Republicans’ majority in the Senate and retake the majority in the House. At this point, I think accomplishing all 3 things is possible. This isn’t a pipe dream. It’s a legitimate goal.

Anyone that watched President Trump’s 2016 campaign know that it was a shoestring operation. That year’s campaign doesn’t resemble this year’s campaign whatsoever. This article highlights in detail what the Trump-RNC alliance is doing:

Trump Victory, a joint operation comprised of the Trump campaign, the RNC and state Republican parties, kicked off a “National Week of Training” on Friday in a bid to train more than 6,000 volunteers and register voters in 14 states that Republicans have set their sights on for 2020.

Almost a month ago, Brad Parscale, President Trump’s campaign manager, told Martha MacCallum that they were attempting to build a 2,000,000 person army for door-knocking and manning the phone banks. If they accomplish that goal, they’ll be able to expand their targeted states by leaps and bounds.

Expanding Trump’s map puts Democrats on the defensive. It’s one thing if Democrats are just trying to flip Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan back into the blue column. It’s another thing if they have to flip those states while putting precious resources into states like Minnesota, Colorado, Virginia and New Hampshire.

I don’t doubt that Democrats will have a well-funded candidate. I’m skeptical, however, that they’ll have a top-tier candidate to support. Each of these candidates is, more or less, a check-the-boxes candidate. Enthusiasm that’s solely driven by hatred of the other party’s candidate isn’t unifying enough. That’s enough to solidify the Democrats’ base. It isn’t nearly enough to attract independents.

It’s difficult to picture any Democrat building the ground game that Trump’s campaign has already built. In 2016, they were just learning. This time, Trump’s campaign team has worked feverishly to build a muscular operation. Team Trump is already light years ahead of 2016. Watching this interview will give you a better understanding of the Trump campaign:

Ronna McDaniel told FNC’s Sandra Smith something that must’ve startled Democrats and excited Republicans. During the interview, McDaniel told Smith that “Listen, women right now can’t vote, but they can vote with their pocketbook. Over 50 percent of the smaller donations coming to the Trump campaign are from women. That’s more than any other Democrat.”

What makes that so significant is that the Trump campaign is getting tons of small-dollar contributions. Also, the Trump campaign is on target to raise the most money in the history of presidential campaigns. McDaniel made a bold prediction that’s worth noting when she predicted that “When the president goes to them in November of 2020 and he says, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ women are going to look at their lives and they’re going to say yes I am and they’re going to vote for him.'”

The Democrat nominee will be well-funded but they’ll be at a disadvantage, thanks in large part to the volunteer army that the campaign is recruiting, but also because they’ve already staffed their offices in DC and New York but also in each state across the nation. The Trump/RNC data operation is top notch, too.

On Tuesday Lara Trump told the crowd, “You don’t have to agree with everything that Donald Trump tweets. You don’t have to agree with the way that he delivers every single message. But you sure as heck are going to like the fact that you have a bit of a better life now thanks to this president.”

That’s one hell of a closing argument in 2020.