WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — How donald trump adjusts to the reality of his new race against Kamala Harrishis campaign is counting on younger male voters to give him an edge in November in a presidential race they insist he could lose.
Trump and his Republican campaign now face a dramatically different race than just three weeks ago, before President Joe Biden abandoned his bid. While they acknowledge that polling has become more restrictive with Harris as the Democratic nominee, they maintain that the fundamentals of the race have not changed, with voters deeply bitter about the direction of the country, and particularly the economy.
“What has happened is we are witnessing a kind of out-of-body experience where we suspend reality for a few weeks,” said the Trump campaign researcher. Tony Fabrício told reporters during a briefing in West Palm Beach on Thursday about the current state of the race.
It was a message repeated by Trump during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club.
“The honeymoon period will be over,” he insisted as he downplayed the size of the crowds Harris had been drawing and attacked his new opponent. “Let me tell you: we have enthusiasm.”
Campaign officials acknowledge that Harris has energized the Democratic base and that her team has taken the lead in fundraising. But they insist they have more than enough to do what they need to do to win. The Trump campaign and its affiliates reported raising $138.7 million in July — far less than the staggering $310 million reported by Harris. His campaign started in August with more money available.
With less than three months to go, top campaign officials are focused on a group of persuadable voters who they believe hold the key to victory. The targets, said to comprise about 11% of the electorate in key swing states, are younger and disproportionately male and moderate. Although more than half are white, they include more nonwhites, especially Asians and Hispanics, than the broader electorate.
They are especially frustrated with the economy, including their personal finances, and are pessimistic that things will improve.
“It’s a very restricted group of people that we’re trying to displace,” Fabrizio said of the efforts. Because these voters don’t engage with traditional media outlets and have ditched cable TV for streaming services, the campaign has been working to reach them in innovative ways.
“There’s a reason we’re doing podcasts. There’s a reason we’re doing Adin Ross,” said Fabrizio, referring to the controversial internet personality who ended his interview with the former president earlier this week by giving him a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in images of Trump raising his fist after his assassination attempt.
“There’s a reason we’re doing all these things. Do you know what these people pay attention to? MMA, Adin Ross,” he said. “MMA” refers to mixed martial arts.
Trump campaign officials recognize that the Democratic base is now motivated in a way it wasn’t when Biden was the nominee. Harris, they say, will likely do better than Biden would with black voters, especially women and older men.
But they argue that Harris is doing little to appeal to undecided voters. And they intend to spend the next 80 days painting her as a radical liberal and the incumbent rather than a change, tying her to the Biden administration’s most unpopular policies.
“There’s a lot more information about her that they don’t know they’re going to hear. And we will guarantee that they will achieve it”, said Fabrizio.
At the end of the race, they believe, neither candidate will be liked, but voters will choose the candidate they believe will most improve their economic conditions.
They pointed to a phrase that Harris has used to refer to the Trump presidency — “We are not going back” — as particularly ill-conceived, given that some voters say things were better when Trump was in office than they are now.
Trump campaign aides said they now have officials in 18 states, from critical battleground states to states like Virginia where Democrats were favored, who they hope they can put into action.
The campaign says it now has hundreds of paid staffers and more than 300 Trump and GOP offices open in swing states.
But much of its effort depends on volunteers and outside groups.
They are trying to replicate a model they used successfully during the Iowa GOP primaries this winter, where volunteer “caucus captains” were given a list of 10 neighbors who pledged to go to the polls. The campaign credited this model with increasing participation on a brutally cold and icy political convention night.
The “Trump Force 47” program focuses on reaching low and medium propensity voters. Volunteers will campaign, write postcards, do phone banking and organize their neighbors.
So far, 12,000 captains have been trained and given voter lists, officials said. Another 30,000 volunteers have volunteered, and more than 2,000 are expected to be trained each week until Election Day.
A large part of the campaign’s reach will also depend on outside groups, which will run paid campaigns and get-out-the-vote efforts, thanks to new Federal Election Commission guidelines that allow campaigns to coordinate with outside groups in ways that were previously not permitted.
The campaign said more than 1,000 paid canvassers are on the ground in swing states and are also working to register about 1.6 million targeted voters in those competitive locations.
