The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced Wednesday a multi-million dollar investment in six key battleground states, including Michigan and Wisconsin.
In a press release, the DNC announced the launch of “Battleground Build-Up 2020,” which it describes as a “new, multi-million dollar investment” that will “continue laying the groundwork for our eventual nominee and Democratic candidates at every level of the ballot to win in the general election.”
The DNC said the new initiative will “roughly double the number of on-the-ground field organizers” in each of the six states and will include the opening of additional field offices in each state.
The investment will also help fund on-the-ground data staff and operations staff in all six states. In addition to Michigan and Wisconsin, the DNC is targeting Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania—all states President Donald Trump won in 2016.
“The DNC is making historic, early investments to lay the groundwork for our eventual nominee to win in 2020. We are taking nothing for granted as we work to make Trump a one-term president and win up and down the ballot in 2020,” DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a statement. “These organizers, offices, and staff will help our eventual nominee grow their general election operation as quickly as possible and ensure Democrats are reaching out to every voter possible, starting right now. Donald Trump’s broken his promises, he’s hurt working families at every turn — and this program will help build the infrastructure we need to beat him.”
The DNC said additional states and funding could be added as the cycle continues, but did not disclose the exact figure behind the “multi-million dollar” investment. The national party said it has increased its monthly investment in every state party by 33 percent since this time in 2016.
Other goals of the new initiative are to build a team of communications staff who will “define Trump’s record” and increase staff focused on “voter protection” in the battleground states.
The DNC noted that there was “no comparable investment made by the DNC at this point during the 2016 presidential campaign cycle,” which Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, testified to in an interview with CNN.
“The DNC’s job is to get the party organized and equipped so the nominee has a well-oiled machine as soon as a nominee is chosen,” Mook said. “This represents a big step forward from 2016 and its even more vital today, given the time and money Trump has had to prepare his ground game.”
Clinton herself partially blamed the DNC for her loss to President Trump in 2016.
“I’m now the nominee of the Democratic Party. I inherit nothing from the Democratic Party,” Clinton said during a 2017 event. “It was bankrupt, it was on the verge of insolvency, its data was mediocre to poor, non-existent, wrong. I had to inject money into it—the DNC—to keep it going.”
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tom Perez” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
