Inside Trump's effort to recruit a volunteer army

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Trump Force 47 is the campaign's effort to recruit grassroots volunteers in battleground states.

Every weekend, Dean Cottle knocks on the doors of his fellow Georgians to persuade them to vote for Donald Trump in the US elections.

What do you have to lose? he told them, echoing a favored argument of his chosen candidate. Our economy has suffered under this administration's policies. Immigration really poses problems.

The longtime supporter of the former president is captain of the Trump Force 47 program, the Republican Party's effort to turn thousands of battleground state supporters into an army of ground troops for Trump.

But some Republicans in Georgia, a key swing state, have questioned the Trump campaign's increased reliance on third-party groups. These groups are new to what is generally called the field game, the very personal, door-by-door, call-by-call, flyer-by-flyer effort to win over every last potential voter in an election.

This strategy is a notable departure from previous elections, and even from Trump's campaign playbook early in the primary calendar.

The new coalition also focused on so-called low-propensity voters — those who are less politically engaged rather than Trump's loyal base.

It's a move that some Republicans view as risky for Trump. Again, normal campaign rules never applied to the former president.

President Trump is a unicorn, said Jimmy Centers, a Republican strategist based in Iowa. It has the ability to announce a rally 24 hours a day and gather tens of thousands of people. It brings out people who would otherwise be very hard to reach. I caution anyone looking at how he approaches his organization compared to past candidates.

Dean Cottle knocks on the Trump campaign's doors every weekend, trying to convince the least motivated Republicans to vote

Trump Force comes out in force

The Trump Force 47 website provides a list of volunteer opportunities such as phone banks, virtual training and surveys in each of the key battleground states.

Mr. Cottle signed up for the program through a Facebook ad, then completed an hour's training to become a captain at the local campaign office. An app tells him where to go in Fayette County, his home, and then he travels from house to house, getting commitments from people.

Nearly three million people had voted early in Georgia as of October 28. Polls show essentially a deadlock between Trump and Harris in the state.

But it's unclear whether the campaign itself is recruiting large numbers of volunteers in Georgia quickly enough and motivating them to put in the long but necessary hours to win an election by such slim margins.

The Trump campaign did not respond to the BBC's request for comment on its ground game in Georgia.

Gerald Cambor trained as a Trump campaign volunteer at the Cobb County Republican office

Judith Hannon, who attended a Trump rally in Duluth, had no difficulty finding opportunities to volunteer for Trump in 2016 or 2020 through the Georgia Republican apparatus. But this year, she said, we didn't really know how to get involved.

Gerald Cambor, 49, heard about Trump Force 47 when he attended an event for the former president in Cobb County on October 15. Mr. Cambor never got involved in politics until he became a Trump supporter because of his economic policies. Now he's excited about sending it back to the White House.

But by the time he finished his captain training and downloaded the campaign app, there were only 11 days until Election Day.

It would have been better to find him sooner, Mr. Cambor said.

A heavy coalition

Trump's campaign has delegated much of its on-the-ground play to two major new groups: Turning Point Action, a political arm of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, and Elon Musk's America PAC.

But these groups don't have the years of experience that traditional, more established campaign groups have in getting votes. And they have a different approach.

The US Department of Justice recently warned Musk that it may be illegal to pledge to give $1 million (770,000) per day to a registered voter in Pennsylvania who signs a petition with his PAC. Musk is also being prosecuted by Philadelphia prosecutors. He denies any wrongdoing.

Turning Point Action and America PAC appear to have merged some operations in the battleground state of Wisconsin, Politico reported.

But Georgia Republicans are skeptical that this heavy-handed coalition was a strong enough field game.

There is no central mission to their ground game in Georgia, said a Republican operative who works with state politicians and requested anonymity to speak candidly about Trump's voluntary operation. It just seems like they have places where people can go to feel like they're part of (something)… But there's no real, organized effort to get out the vote.

Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is leading a powerful grassroots effort known as Georgians First, which has spent more than $3 million building the Republican base for candidates up and down the ballot.

But they are not explicitly working on Trump's behalf, the governor said.

I couldn't really speculate on what exactly they are doing, Kemp told the BBC.

President Trump's campaign simply has a different model.

North American correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his biweekly newsletter US Election Unspun. UK readers can subscribe here. Those outside the UK can register here.

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