Trump’s 'general election infrastructure' lacking in key swing states as promises appear 'mostly talk'

27 March 2024

Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the United States' last eight presidential elections; President George W. Bush's victory over Democrat John Kerry in 2004 was the only post-1980s U.S. presidential election in which a Republican won both the electoral vote and the popular vote. But depending on what happens in key swing states, it is entirely possible that Donald Trump could lose the popular vote in 2024 but win the electoral vote and return to the White House in January 2025.

President Joe Biden's reelection campaign and Democratic strategists are well aware of that possibility, which is why Biden has been campaigning so aggressively in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Ultimately, the outcome of the 2024 race will come down to how well Trump and Biden perform in those and other key battleground states.

In an article published on March 27, Associated Press (AP) reporter Steve Peoples examines the state of Trump and Biden's campaigns in swing states — including Michigan, where Biden, according to Peoples, has been "confronting vulnerabilities."

"Trump's campaign promises an aggressive play for Michigan as part of a robust swing-state strategy," Peoples reports. "But, at least for now, those promises appear to be mostly talk. The Trump campaign and its partners at the Republican National Committee haven't yet made significant general election investments in the state, according to Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra."

Peoples notes that although GOP officials in "top swing states are not panicking" about the Trump campaign's "general election infrastructure," the "disparity with the Biden campaign is stark."

"This month alone," the AP reporter explains, "Biden opened 100 new offices and added more than 350 new staffers in swing states from Arizona to Georgia to Pennsylvania, according to campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa. That's in addition to the Democratic president's existing battleground-state staff of 100 that was already in place."

According to Peoples, Hoekstra "was among a handful of Michigan Republican leaders who trekked to Florida last week to meet privately with Trump and members of his senior campaign team about plans for the general election."

In a March 27 tweet, Peoples highlights Hoekstra telling AP, "We've got the skeleton right now. We're going to have to put more meat on it." And in a separate tweet, Peoples noted, "Just six months before the first early votes are cast in the general election, Trump's Republican Party has little general election infrastructure to speak of."

Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee's new co-chair, has made it clear that putting her father-in-law back in the White House is the RNC's top priority this year.

The RNC has experienced mass firings under the new leadership of Lara Trump and Chairman Michael Whatley, who are determined to purge the organization of non-MAGA conservatives. In a March 27 tweet, the Washington Post's Marianne LeVine (formerly of Politico) described the screening process for new RNC employees.

LeVine posted, "NEWS: Was the 2020 election stolen? Job interviews at the RNC take an unusual turn. Prospective hires say agreeing with Trump's false election claim appears to be a new litmus test for being hired by the party."

Read the Associated Press' full report at this link.

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