Adding to the Guardian’s Monday report about some of the Republican National Committee’s old, pre-Trump takeover guard calling the new GOTV operation regime a mess that could doom the Orange God Emperor to defeat, Semafor on Tuesday follows up with more urinary incontinence, writing that “top members of the party are already whispering concerns, pointing fingers, and offering pushback as it relates to” the “unconventional approach” of outsourcing canvassing to PACs like Charlie Kirk and Elon Musk’s scam outfits and the paid door-knockers from Turnout America.
Swing state Republican senators are particularly nervous that the Trump operation is too focused on fighting the last war, specifically that they had the run of the field when Democrats were holding back due to self-imposed COVID restrictions, with North Carolina’s Thomas Tillis telling Semafor that the state GOP’s ground operation is not where it was in 2020 anyway and the convicted felon former president has “got to be able to match up… What we’re seeing in North Carolina that we haven’t seen for a time, though, is a really well organized ground game by the Democrats.”
One anonymously quoted GOP strategist based in an unspecified swing state said they’re “as plugged in as they get – and yet I don’t even know who my friends and family back home can contact for a yard sign or to knock doors in their precinct.” Another questioned whether the several PACs working for Trump are even sharing data or otherwise coordinating. A third swing state GOP operative said he’s seen “no ground activity at all” and complained that the usual nuts and bolts canvassing work had been crowded out by “election integrity” bullshit. “They’re really only focused on recruiting folks to volunteer to be poll watchers,” the person said. “I mean, they do a lot of that shit. But what’s the point of watching the vote if you haven’t turned out the vote?”
Even the RNC’s feckless former figurehead herself, Ronna Not-Romney McDaniel, is in on the panicking, per Semafor, who unfortunately don’t have a direct or indirect quote from that moron. It’ll be hilarious if Trump loses but they find some way to blame her for having sabotaged them.