The command center for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign in one of the most hotly contested counties in Pennsylvania’s most important election battleground is housed in a small room in a strip-mall office rented by the Republican Party of Erie County. .
The otherwise sleepy office comes alive twice a week when a two-person staffer hosts a volunteer network the campaign calls Trump Force 47.
A few miles away, in a bustling office in downtown Erie, paid staffers and volunteers from Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign make phone calls, push new campaign buttons and organize watch parties and phone banking. A chalkboard keeps score of the door-knocking: 12,000 homes so far toward a goal of 20,000, or about one in five in the county.
Just four weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election, the battle for Erie County — a county in a historically winnable state — reflects the urgency of identifying and contacting individual voters in a campaign that continues to grow, according to the campaign. It is very close. Staff and volunteers for both campaigns.
While the Harris campaign is using its big cash advantage and newfound enthusiasm to build a massive ground-game operation aimed at mobilizing supporters and identifying new voters, the Trump campaign is focused on rare voters and a voter registration drive. The stakes are rising who have cut into traditional democratic gains.
Harris and the Democratic Party raised $361 million in August, compared with $130 million for Trump and Republicans, and she spent nearly three times as much as her opponent that month, federal financial disclosures show.
Reuters interviewed about 40 supporters, campaign staffers, volunteers and voters who said the advantage of Harris’s ground game could test whether brick-and-mortar campaigns still prove useful in campaigns that rely on viral moments, influencers People and social media are defined by advertising wars.
“Trump and his team seem to be relying on the strength of his personal charisma,” said Chris Borick, a pollster and political science professor at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.
“Harris and the Democrats are deeply invested in a more traditional ground game here and so this election will be a test of dramatically different strategies.”
Volunteers and voters also described rising tensions as campaigns poured millions of dollars into divisive digital and television ads, robocalls, text messages and door-knocking.
“I’ve been inundated with mail, phone calls and messages,” said Erin Miller, 38, a bartender and mother of six. Main goals for campaigns.
With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania has the biggest prize among the battleground states that will decide the election.
Erie County, a blue-collar area with 177,000 registered voters, has voted with the winning presidential candidate in the past four elections.
Biden won Erie County by less than 1,500 votes, or 1.03 percentage points, in 2020, a closer margin than his overall victory in Pennsylvania by 1.2 percentage points. In 2016, Trump won Erie County over Hillary Clinton by less than 2,000 votes.
The Harris campaign and the Democratic Party have three offices in Erie County and eight paid staffers along with more than 300 volunteers.
“That’s the important part of it. It’s just the fact that this particular town, in this particular state, can ultimately decide who is president and they know it,” said Mary Troyer, a 60-year-old retired teacher who was involved in the campaign. Got a job to answer. Manage phones and volunteers.
shoes on the ground
Despite grassroots gains, the Harris campaign has had to work hard to mobilize black voters, who make up about 16% of the city’s population, especially black men, according to Reuters interviews.
Howard Pratchett, a 48-year-old barber, said he plans to vote for Trump because he is more “factual” than Harris. Pratchett said, “We don’t care about LBGT rights. You know, we don’t care about abortion rights. We’re not concerned about that. They don’t give anything to straight black male voters.”
Monty Davis, 51, who runs a local youth program, said he appreciates President Joe Biden’s efforts to reduce costs and plans to vote for Harris. But he cautioned that the energy among the Black community is not as high as it was with Presidents Barack Obama or Biden.
“It’s not that intense,” Davis said.
The Trump campaign’s two paid staffers in Erie also oversee two other counties, according to Erie County Republican Chairman Tom Eddy.
The Trump campaign and local Republicans declined to say how many volunteers they had in the county, but local officials acknowledged they had fewer than Democrats.
Like other battleground states, the Trump camp is relying on deep-pocketed outside groups like billionaire Elon Musk’s America PAC and a very loose network of supporters and volunteers to mobilize voters.
Since 2015, when Trump emerged as a leader in Republican politics, Republicans and outside groups have significantly reduced the Democratic advantage in voting registration in Erie and Pennsylvania overall.
In 2015, Democrats had a voter registration advantage of about 33,000 in Erie County, but that has dropped to 10,000, according to current county election records.
Statewide, Democrats have about a 338,400 voter registration advantage over Republicans, down from the 892,624 advantage Democrats enjoyed in 2016, state voter data shows.
Sam Talerico, the county’s Democratic chairman, acknowledged the Republican surge in registrations was unwelcome news.
He said, “We certainly don’t like to see those registration numbers come together, but that’s the bad news. The good news is, you know, I still think we benefit from independents moving our way.” And it’s making a difference.” ,
Republicans are also counting on Trump’s frequent visits — five rallies in Erie across three campaigns, including two this election. Rallies represent mobilization opportunities as organizers register voters and collect cell phone numbers and email information.
Harris will make her first visit to Erie on Oct. 14. His running mate Tim Walz visited in September.
And then there’s Trump Force 47, the volunteer network that knocks on the doors of underrepresented voters to determine whether they plan to vote, and for whom. Volunteers win prizes such as hats and sweaters for knocking on more doors.
“We’re not trying to persuade anyone. It’s just that the campaign is trying to make sure that people who are already inclined to vote for Trump get out and vote,” the 39-year-old said. said volunteer Justin Berkheimer, who works at a group home. People with mental disability.
a heated campaign
In both campaigns, the intensity of the fight for Erie has turned into threats, protests and uncomfortable conversations, volunteers said.
Half a dozen die-hard Trump fans told Reuters they are uncomfortable being seen as public supporters of the former president.
This is a far cry from 2016 when Erie was filled with Trump signs, according to local officials and volunteers.
Patrick Fuller, a 50-year-old credit union employee who said he has knocked on more than 2,000 doors for Trump this election, said he leaves his red MAGA hat at home to avoid confrontation.
“A lot of people are afraid to get involved because they’re afraid someone will abuse or threaten them,” Fuller said.
Other volunteers said their cars were spat upon for displaying Trump bumper stickers.
County Democrats said they came under strain as they branched out into rural areas and opened satellite offices in a part of the county where Trump won with 72% of the vote in 2020.
Volunteer Kelly Chelton, 62, said a man pounced on a volunteer because he was angry at the words written on a large wooden sign: “Christians Against Trump.”
“He came looking for a fight,” Chelton said. “They asked how do you know Trump is not a Christian.” She added, “He was just screaming and yelling.”
The county party later installed video security cameras, Chelton said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
