I’ve been writing about it for many years — the need for innovation, aggressiveness, and the application of the basics in campaign politics. Evidently some of the people running Donald Trump’s campaign are on the same page. This is from a recent post on the topic (with a bit of emphasis added through bolded text):
Donald Trump is quietly transforming his made-for-TV rallies across the US into a disruptive coalition of actual voters that could sustain his outsider run for the White House, an intimate review of his campaign infrastructure can reveal.
With off-the-cuff stump speeches broadcast as free advertising on cable news from high-school gymnasiums in primary states to major arenas in Alabama and Texas, the former reality-show star’s unlikely turn as Republican frontrunner for the presidency may seem like it is run out of a television green room.
But interviews with Trump campaign officials and volunteers, as well as political operatives and voters on the ground in early nominating states, piece together a kind of master plan in the works over the four months since Trump’s bombastic debut on the campaign trail – and show that he may have staying power over the next four months before primary voters head to the polls.
Trump’s growing team has identified more than 10,000 voters – many at his hot-ticket rallies giving away their personal data for a glimpse at a celebrity – who have committed to voting for him in February’s first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, the Guardian has learned. His sprawling campaign apparatus already has more paid organizers on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire than any of his 14 Republican rivals.
“It’s massive,” Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said of the tranche of information harvested from voters. “It helps build our database, share information, solicit help – to grow the electorate.”
Long-time Republican strategists and politicians in Iowa and Washington, however, said Trump was rewriting the political grassroots rulebook, matching his ground game with celebrity appeal in “a campaign that has the mechanics down and is striking a nerve” – perhaps enough to challenge Hillary Clinton this time next year.
Even a top strategist behind Barack Obama’s groundbreaking campaign effort in 2008 – when an outsider candidate attracted new voters away from Clinton – noted the potential of Trump’s efforts to sign up fans and turn them into pledged voters. New entrants to the political process “come for the campaign and stay for the organization”, the strategist said, adding that the real test for Trump’s bluster is sustained discipline into 2016.
Read more: GOPUSA
Image credit: www.thepulse.com.
