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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 16 april 2018

GOP devotes $250M to midterm

strategy: Keep House majority

Facing the prospect of win the House," RNC politi- and senior party leaders
a blue wave this fall, the cal director Juston Johnson to raise money to fund the
White House's political arm said. "That is the approach massive operation.
is devoting unprecedent- we took to put the budget And few believe that even
ed resources to building together." the best field operation
an army of paid staff and RNC officials shared details could wholly neutralize
trained volunteers across of their midterm spending the surge of Democratic
more than two dozen plan with The Associated enthusiasm on display in
states. The RNC is taking Press just as several hun- recent special elections,
the fight to Senate Demo- dred volunteers and staff which has some Republi-
In this Dec. 2, 2017, photo, Republican National Committee crats in Republican-leaning held a day of action on can strategists fearing that
chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, speaks at a fundraiser
at Cipriani in New York. states, but much of the na- Saturday in competitive the House majority may be
Associated Press tional GOP's resources are regions across the coun- lost already.
focused on protecting Re- try. The weekend show Democrats need to pick
By STEVE PEOPLES tion strategy that has one publican-held House seats of force, which comes as up at least 24 seats to take
WASHINGTON (AP) — The goal above all else: Pre- in states including Florida, Democrats have shown a control of the House for the
Republican National Com- serve the party's House ma- California and New York. significant enthusiasm ad- last two years of Trump's
mittee has committed $250 jority for the rest of President "Our No. 1 priority is keep- vantage in the age of Pres- first term. They need just
million to a midterm elec- Donald Trump's first term. ing the House. We have to ident Donald Trump, was two seats to claim the Sen-
designed to train 1,600 new ate majority, though the
volunteers in more than 200 map makes a Democratic
events nationwide. Senate takeover much less
There were more than three likely.
dozen events in Florida An optimistic McDaniel said
alone, a state that features strong Republican fundrais-
competitive races for the ing has allowed the aggres-
Senate, the governorship sive strategy. During the first
and a half dozen House year of Trump's presidency,
races. the GOP set a fundraising
Seven months before Elec- record by raising more than
tion Day, there are already $132 million.
300 state-based staff on "Our sweeping infrastruc-
the RNC's payroll. The com- ture, combined with on-
mittee expects to have the-ground enthusiasm for
900 total paid staff around President Trump and Re-
the country — excluding publican policies, puts us
its Washington headquar- in prime position to defend
ters — before November's our majorities in 2018," Mc-
election, Johnson said. The Daniel said.
number of trained volun- The $250 million price tag
teers, he said, has already for what she described as
surpassed 10,000. a "permanent data-driven
The strategy is expensive. field program" is the com-
And it carries risk. mittee's largest ground-
The RNC's focus on a so- game investment in any
phisticated field operation election season. The re-
designed to identify and sources are focused in
turn out key voters, an ap- some unfamiliar territory,
proach favored by former including several House dis-
chairman Reince Priebus tricts in Southern California,
and expanded by Trump's which Johnson described
hand-picked chairwoman, as "a huge focus."
Ronna McDaniel, leaves At a minimum, each tar-
the RNC with no additional geted state features an
resources to run advertising RNC state director, a data
on television or the inter- director and at least a few
net. It also puts tremendous staff devoted to each com-
pressure on the president petitive House district.q