The Trump and Harris campaigns are spending millions of dollars on dueling get-out-the-vote efforts in seven swing states that are most likely to determine the November presidential election.
The Harris team has boasted that it has built a huge ground-game advantage in the toss-up states, but the Trump campaign denies this.
“That is absolutely false,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
Harris aides, most of whom came from the defunct reelection campaign for President Biden, said they had established far more offices and hired many more staffers than Mr. Trump’s team in critical battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
The Democratic ticket, with the addition of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Ms. Harris’ running mate, is embarking on a campaign swing through those battleground states this week. The candidates stopped in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday.
Ms. Harris, who became the Democratic nominee Friday in an online delegate vote, has enlisted 360,000 more volunteers to canvass for voters and make phone calls, campaign officials said.
Harris campaign officials said they had opened 260 offices and hired 1,300 campaign workers across the seven battleground states, which also comprise North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Dan Kanninen, battleground states director for the Harris-Walz campaign, said in a memo on Wednesday that Democrats have built a “massive ground game advantage” in the blue wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“In Wisconsin, we have the most formidable door-knocking operation the state has ever seen, with 48 coordinated offices across 43 counties, including 32 in counties that Trump won in 2020,” Mr. Kanninen said. “We have more than 160 full-time coordinated staffers on the ground knocking doors, making phone calls, and engaging their friends and neighbors to support Kamala Harris and Democrats up and down the ticket — including making nearly 200,000 door knocks, calls and texts in the first week of the Harris campaign alone. We have invested in campaign infrastructure across Wisconsin and are competing everywhere because we know we need to narrow the margins in rural areas to win.”
In Michigan, he said, more than 9,000 volunteers have signed up since Ms. Harris rose to the top of the ticket.
The Harris team said it is far exceeding the Trump campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort, which it claims has opened few offices in swing states.
“This battleground advantage will almost certainly be decisive in a race likely to be decided by just tens of thousands of votes,” a Harris campaign staffer told reporters.
Trump campaign officials scoffed at the Harris team’s claim that they are doing little to get out the vote in the toss-up states and said they have had offices open and campaign staff working “for months.”
In Michigan, where 15 electoral votes are at stake, the Trump campaign has opened more than 20 offices and recruited thousands of “Trump Force 47” volunteers to knock on doors and participate in other get-out-the-vote activities, a Trump campaign official said.
In a sign of enthusiasm for Mr. Trump, more than 100 volunteers showed up last month when the campaign opened an office in Kalamazoo, considered the bluest county in southwest Michigan.
More offices are opening every week in the state, and the Trump campaign is coordinating with the Republican House and Senate campaign staff in Michigan, where they are working to flip a Senate seat and several House seats.
Mr. Trump won Michigan by less than half a percentage point in 2016 and lost the state by less than 3 points in 2020.
Trump campaign aides said the Harris team is bragging about its battleground state staffing because it is losing to the former president on the most critical issues to voters.
“Our message isn’t ‘look at how many people have signed up to knock doors for us,’” said Victoria LaCivita, Mr. Trump’s Michigan campaign spokeswoman. “Our message is that we have a plan to fight inflation. We know your grocery bills are too high, and this is what we’re going to do about it. We know the southern border is a problem, and this is what we’re going to do about it. They don’t want to talk about any of that because they created a mess.”
The Trump campaign said Republicans have 40 field offices in Wisconsin and 20 in Pennsylvania.
The Harris team has zeroed in on Georgia, a state that weeks ago appeared to be increasingly out of reach for the Democrats when Mr. Biden led the ticket.
Strategists say Ms. Harris, the first Black female presidential nominee, has a much greater chance than Mr. Biden of winning Georgia. Black voter turnout in Atlanta and its suburbs is critical for Democrats.
In mid-July, Mr. Trump led Mr. Biden by several percentage points. The latest polling, matching Mr. Trump with Ms. Harris, shows the presidential race in Georgia is tied.
The Harris campaign, vying for Georgia’s 16 electoral votes, is operating 24 campaign offices in the state.
Mr. Trump won Georgia in 2016 but lost to Mr. Biden in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes.
“We expect it to be as close and competitive this year,” a Harris campaign staffer told reporters. “And that’s why we have the team and the operation in place to make sure that we can turn out every single Harris voter in the state of Georgia.”
The Trump campaign has enlisted Turning Point Action’s help in getting out the vote in battleground states. The group is hosting rallies and registering voters “in crucial districts.”
The group is also working to bolster Republican participation in mail-in voting, which expanded dramatically in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group’s “Chase the Vote” initiative is recruiting more than 1,000 field organizers to persuade voters to mail in their ballots in the battleground states.
In 2020, 60% of Democrats and 32% of Republicans reported that they had voted by mail, according to the Survey of the Performance of American Elections.
In Michigan, registered voters can vote by mail with an absentee ballot beginning Sept. 26. Georgia voters can request an absentee ballot, which can be returned by mail, beginning Aug. 19.
“Ballot chasing is our newest approach to contacting voters who have already received mail-in ballots to encourage them to mark their ballots and make a plan to vote,” Turning Point Action officials said on their website. “Our initiative will have huge numbers of door knockers to win the ballot game at the mailboxes.”
Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for Turning Point Action, said the “Chase the Vote” initiative is using a data-rich app to target pro-Trump voters who are less likely to participate in the election “to help them get a plan to vote” by mail or in person.
Turnout for America, a super PAC formed on July 17, will pump additional money into the battleground states. According to a memo obtained by The New York Times, Turnout for America has trained at least 945 Trump canvassers in all seven battleground states. It aims to raise $45 million for get-out-the-vote efforts.
The head of the PAC, Christopher Buskirk, a close friend of Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, did not respond to a media inquiry.
Team Harris is also getting help from super PACs.
Future Forward, a California-based super PAC aligned with Democrats, announced a $50 million ad buy for Ms. Harris across six battleground states. The ad will air over the next three weeks to proclaim “Kamala is ready” and tout her accomplishments as California’s attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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