Plans are underway for a new Trump-Pence branded blimp that will gather voter data while flying over sporting events and other large gatherings.
Between May and July, the blimp will prompt interested onlookers to text a Trump campaign phone number, joining a list of supporters, two campaign aides told Politico. Having identified themselves as potential voters, President Trump’s reelection team can reach out for donations, invite them to events and remind them to hit the polls. A contest to win a flight on the blimp is also under consideration.
The blimp is one facet of the campaign’s massive digital advertising push, part of a mad dash to secure a Trump victory come November. The campaign is rolling in cash, reporting over $200 million on hand through the end of January, and is using it to secure votes won in 2016 and to find new untapped Trump voters.
Trump won battlegrounds Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan by slim margins in 2016, states Trump needs to win in the general election. The campaign shared plans for field offices in these states as part of a strategy to get to know black voters.
The team is also eyeing states Hillary Clinton won in 2016, with campaign manager Brad Parscale telling GOP senators last week that Minnesota and New Mexico were now in play.
On Monday, the campaign launched the “Army for Trump,” a recruitment platform for volunteers with calls to action to register voters, canvass, and promote the president’s message on the internet.
“In 2016, we had about 16,000 trained volunteers,” campaign manager Parscale said last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. “We will have 2 million trained volunteers for 2020. We are already past 500,000, and we don’t have anyone to run against yet.”
[Read more: GOP ‘juggernaut’ raises more than $86M in February]
