The frameworks of the two major Party presidential candidates’ campaigns reflect their respective national infrastructure plans: Joe Biden has improved and expanded on the existing operation to widen his outreach, while Donald Trump’s network has failed to materialize in key states.
Led by Biden, Democrats are opening “coordinated campaign offices” around the country, but with specific attention in battleground states, where the offices will allow the Biden campaign to blend efforts with those of Senate, House and state and local candidates. In Pennsylvania, Democrats will have 14 such offices opened by the end of March; thirty campaign offices opened in Michigan. In North Carolina, which Biden lost by 1.5 percentage points in 2020, the Biden-Harris campaign opened ten offices. This all goes toward the campaign’s goal of opening 100 field offices and increasing staff by 350 people in battleground states by the end of the month.
Trump, on the other hand, has spent most of his money on his legal defense. In Arizona, where Trump had around 60 people on staff four years ago, the campaign has fewer than ten. With the Trump campaign facing a massive fundraising shortfall, the national staff was gutted earlier this month as pop “singer” Lara Trump took the reins and vowed donations would go to only Trump’s interests; she later softened that statement. The Trump campaign appears to have made no announcements about opening offices in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, or Michigan.
Some of Trump’s problems undoubtedly come from having installed new inexperienced leadership at the RNC while simultaneously dismissing experienced staff. With Ronna Romney McDaniel gone, it’s unclear if the RNC will continue with a plan to open 40 “community centers” around the country in the run-up to the election.
But Trump’s problems are also exacerbated by seismic unrest in state Party leadership in states like Michigan and Wisconsin: factions battle for leadership of the Michigan GOP, while in Wisconsin, disaffected Trump loyalists are trying to oust Robin Vos, the Republican leader of the state house. And in Georgia, Michigan and Arizona, state Party coffers are nearly dry, handcuffing efforts to start election year operations.