RNC to double staff in key battleground states

The Republican National Committee (RNC) will double its staff in battleground states in the coming weeks in an effort to deliver the White House to Donald Trump and protect a slim majority in the Senate.

According to a memo from RNC political director Chris Carr, viewed first by The Hill, the organization will send additional 250 staffers to the 11 states likely to play the biggest role in determining the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

The new hires will more than double the RNC’s presence in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

President Obama won all of those states except for North Carolina in 2012.

In addition to the race for the White House, eight of those state also have competitive Senate races.

The RNC is increasing its battleground state presence from 216 paid staffers to 466. It also says it has nearly 3,600 trained organizers in those states as it gears up to face likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the fall.

In the memo, Carr said the expansion was the culmination of a 1,000-day initiative launched by Chairman Reince Priebus with the aim of surpassing the Democrats’ long-standing advantage in electoral data and ground support.

“For those counting, while Democrats scramble to build up an operation now, we have had an over 2.5 year, 34 month, or 148 week head-start on Clinton and the DNC (and their primary is still technically raging on),” Carr wrote.
 


“Democrats have fallen into the same trap we did four years ago when we were rushing to build a field apparatus six months before Election Day,” he continued. “At this point in 2012, we had just begun placing a handful of staff on the ground in battleground states. Today we have well over 200 paid staff and are set to double that number in the coming weeks.”

The RNC is also on pace for a record fundraising haul this cycle, having already brought in $137 million.

However, the group has only $16 million in the bank, less even than the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

In a Monday interview, RNC chief of staff Katie Walsh told The Hill that rather than sitting on its cash and burning it in a quick burst close to Election Day, the group has instead been putting money into its get-out-the-vote efforts in battleground states from the start.

She pointed to Ohio, where she says the RNC had only one paid staffer on the ground at this point in 2012. Now there are 49, and that number is expected to grow to 58 in the coming weeks.

“All told our footprint at this point in the cycle is greater than it has ever been, it is set to double in the coming weeks, and it’s set to grow exponentially before Election Day,” Carr said. “This is the operation our likely presumptive nominee Donald Trump will inherit.”


“Trump heads into the general election with a head start on the ground because of the operation the RNC has built — and no matter how you slice it, or how much Democrats scramble to put staff in now, they are playing catch up and we have the advantage.”