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The Trump and Harris campaigns are spending millions of dollars on dueling get-out-the-vote efforts in seven swing states that are most likely to determine the November election.
The Harris team recently bragged it has built a huge ground-game advantage in the toss-up states, but the Trump campaign denies it.
“That is absolutely false,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
Harris campaign aides, most of whom come from the now-defunct reelection campaign for President Biden, said they’ve established far more offices and hired many more staffers than Mr. Trump’s team in the critical battleground states including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
The Democratic ticket, with the addition of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Ms. Harris’ running mate, is embarking on a campaign swing through those battleground states this week, stopping in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday.
Ms. Harris, who became the Democratic nominee Friday in an online delegate vote, has already enlisted 360,000 new volunteers to canvas for voters and make phone calls, according to Harris campaign officials.
Harris campaign officials said they have opened 260 offices and hired 1,300 campaign workers across the seven battleground states, which also include North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The Harris team said they are far exceeding the get-out-the-vote efforts of the Trump campaign, which they claim has opened very few offices in swing states.
“This battleground advantage will almost certainly be decisive in a race likely to be decided by just tens of thousands of votes,” a Harris campaign staffer told reporters.
Trump campaign officials scoffed at the Harris team’s claim that they are doing little to get out the vote in the toss-up states and said they’ve had offices open and campaign staff working “for months.”
In the battleground state of Michigan, where 15 electoral votes are at stake, the Trump campaign has opened more than 20 offices and recruited thousands of “Trump Force 47” volunteers to knock on doors and participate in other get-out-the-vote activities, a Trump campaign official said.
In a sign of the state’s enthusiasm for Mr. Trump, more than 100 volunteers showed up last month when the campaign opened a new office in Kalamazoo, considered the bluest county in southwest Michigan.
More offices are opening every week in the state and the Trump campaign is coordinating with the Republican House and Senate campaign staff on the ground in Michigan, where they are working to flip a Senate seat and several House seats.
Mr. Trump won Michigan by less than half a percent in 2016. He lost it by less than 3% of the vote in 2020.
Trump campaign aides said the Harris team is bragging about their battleground state staffing because they are losing against the former president when it comes to the most important issues facing voters.
“Our message isn’t ‘look at how many people have signed up to knock doors for us,’” Victoria LaCivita, Trump’s Michigan campaign spokeswoman, said. “Our message is that we have a plan to fight inflation. We know your grocery bills are too high and this is what we’re going to do about it. We know the southern border is a problem and this is what we’re going to do about it. They don’t want to talk about any of that because they created a mess.”
There are 40 Republican field offices in Wisconsin and 20 in Pennsylvania, according to the Trump campaign.
The Harris team has zeroed in on Georgia, a state that weeks ago appeared to be increasingly out of reach for the Democrats when Mr. Biden led the ticket.
Strategists believe Ms. Harris, the first Black female presidential nominee, has a much greater chance than Mr. Biden at winning Georgia, where Black voter turnout in Atlanta and its suburbs is critical for Democrats.
Mr. Trump led Mr. Biden by several points in mid-July. The latest polling, matching up Mr. Trump with Ms. Harris, shows the presidential race in Georgia is now tied.
The Harris campaign, vying for the state’s 16 electoral votes, is operating 24 campaign offices in the Peach State ahead of what is likely to be a very close election.
Mr. Trump won Georgia in 2016 but lost to Mr. Biden in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes.
“We expect it to be as close and competitive this year,” a Harris campaign staffer told reporters. “And that’s why we have the team and the operation in place to make sure that we can turn out every single Harris voter in the state of Georgia.”
The Trump campaign has enlisted get-out-the-vote help in battleground states from Turning Point Action, which is hosting rallies and registering voters “in crucial districts.”
The group is also working to bolster GOP participation in mail-in voting, which expanded dramatically in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group’s “Chase the Vote” initiative is recruiting more than 1,000 field organizers to focus on getting voters to mail in their ballots in the battleground states.
In 2020, 60% of Democrats reported they voted by mail, compared to 32% of Republicans, according to the Survey of the Performance of American Elections.
In Michigan, registered voters can vote by mail with an absentee ballot beginning Sept. 26. Georgia voters can request an absentee ballot, which can be returned by mail, beginning August 19.
“Ballot chasing is our newest approach to contacting voters who have already received mail-in ballots to encourage them to mark their ballots and make a plan to vote,” Turning Point Action officials said on their website. “Our initiative will have huge numbers of door knockers to win the ballot game at the mailboxes.”
Andrew Kolvet, spokesman for Turning Point Action, said the Chase the Vote initiative is using a data-rich app to target pro-Trump voters who are less likely to participate in the upcoming election “to help them get a plan to vote” by mail or in person.
Additional money will be pumped into the battleground states by a new super PAC, Turnout for America, which formed on July 17. According to a memo obtained by the New York Times, Turnout for America has trained at least 945 Trump canvassers in all seven battleground states. It aims to raise $45 million for get-out-the-vote efforts.
The head of the PAC, Christopher Buskirk, a close friend of Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, did not respond to a media inquiry.
Team Harris is also getting help from super PACs.
Future Forward, a California-based super PAC aligned with Democrats, announced a $50 million ad buy for Ms. Harris across six battleground states. The ad will air over the next three weeks and declares “Kamala is ready,” touting her accomplishments as California’s attorney general, as a senator and as vice president.
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