WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump is moving quickly to install political operatives in more than a dozen states, targeting Maine and Minnesota among others that traditionally favor Democrats, as the Republican White House contender lays the groundwork for an expanded electoral battlefield.
The staffing expansion, outlined by campaign strategists not authorized to speak publicly about internal strategy, represents Trump’s first tangible step toward implementing a general election plan that would defy conventional wisdom and political trends. Drawing on the New York billionaire’s appeal among working class white voters in particular, the campaign is charting an early path to the White House that runs through states that haven’t supported a Republican in a presidential election in decades.
“I will win states that no Republican would even run in,” Trump told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
The Trump campaign has identified roughly 15 states where it plans to install state directors by the end of the month. They include traditional battlegrounds like Ohio, Florida and Virginia and more challenging terrain such as Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Maine – all states that haven’t favored a Republican presidential contender in at least two decades. The target states are also expected to include Georgia, a Republican-leaning state where demographic shifts benefit Democrats.
The plan will be subsidized, at least in part, by the Republican Party’s new “building fund,” a lightly regulated pool of money that can draw donation of more than $100,000 from individual donors.