Even Donald Trump couldn’t build a world-class skyscraper in a week’s time.
That’s the best way to understand the challenges the famous real estate mogul faces as he tries to build a data-driven voter turnout operation that can compete with Hillary Clinton.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee only recently began hiring data experts and coordinating with the Republican National Committee’s capable digital team.
With only 131 days until the election, and early and absentee voting starting even sooner, it’s doubtful that Trump has enough time to develop, test and deploy effective voter turnout technology.
Clinton, meanwhile, staffed up early and has had a team of data scientists and political operatives working for months to develop voter turnout technology and strategy.
Compounding the problems caused by Trump’s time-crunch is the relative inexperience of some of the individuals and firms the New York businessman is relying on to get the job done.
Brad Parscale, Trump’s new digital director, runs a San Antonio firm that specializes in website design. He has never worked a political campaign at this level.
“A presidential campaign is not a time to learn digital, it’s a time to expand and move quickly,” said a Republican digital strategist, who requested anonymity to avoid openly criticizing the party’s 2016 effort.
Parscale on Tuesday did not respond to a message requesting comment that was left for him at the offices of his firm, Giles-Parscale, Inc.
In a close race, generally 3.5 points or less, the campaign with the more productive turnout operation could be the difference between winning and losing. That’s how close the race between Clinton and Trump appears in many of the battleground states that could decide the election.
The RNC, soon after the 2012 elections, overhauled its field and data programs in preparation for the eventual 2016 nominee.
Because of that, Trump is able to lean on an RNC data team that has expanded from 45 to more than 60 since May to accommodate the need to essentially function as the nominee’s voter turnout infrastructure.
Republican digital strategists interviewed for this story complimented the RNC’s capabilities.
But they wondered whether a program created to benefit down-ticket candidates across the party, including in this election, and meld with a presidential campaign’s existing get-out-the-vote program, could handle the work load being placed on it given that Trump didn’t bother with data analytics in the primary.
The GOP strategists also questioned whether there could be the kind of seamless coordination between Trump Tower in New York, RNC headquarters in Washington, and Giles-Parscale in San Antonio that allows for effective decision-making.
To bring order to the process, RNC digital director Gerrit Lansing is spending time at Giles-Parscale and trying to recruit staff to San Antonio. As with much of Trump’s recruitment efforts, it’s been tough because many veteran Republican operatives don’t want to work for Trump.
“Chairman Reince Priebus has built the largest, most efficient and effective digital and data operation in the history of our party,” RNC spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said via email, in response to questions. “The RNC digital and data team is in constant contact with the campaign as we gear up for the general election.”
Strong and innovative digital capabilities are essential for fundraising, voter engagement and turnout, and voter persuasion.
Republicans say Trump deserves credit for what he’s done on engagement.
Occasionally maligned for his Twitter activity (even Trump has said it’s retweets that have caused trouble,) GOP digital strategists say that Trump’s regular retweets of his followers and engagement with them on the platform is an important, though often over-looked, driver of support.
Where Trump has lagged, and now faces his biggest challenges, are in fundraising, voter turnout and persuasion. And that’s not necessarily because Trump can’t figure it out, or can’t raise money, but because of the time factor.
Trump blew seven crucial weeks between becoming the presumptive nominee on May 3 and changing the leadership of his campaign on June 21 when he did nothing, as opposed to fundraising and ramping up his digital operation.
Compare that to the Clinton campaign. It started developing technology and voter turnout strategy more than a year ago.
“Time is the real asset; even more than money,” said a second GOP digital strategist. “It’s not like cutting an ad and throwing it on TV. You have to build tools and deploy them and that takes time.”
Also at issue whether the RNC, which is doing the bulk of Trump’s digital work but which has responsibilities to all Republican candidates, can devise a data collection and analytics strategy best suited for Trump.
A Republican operative who worked for a Trump rival during the primary said that producing effective data technology takes a presidential campaign several months.
The work is unique because it’s not about selling a product or a brand. Rather it involves motivating individuals to take a specific action (vote) on one specific day, or over the course of a couple of weeks of early or absentee voting, in the fall.
The complexity of doing so in multiple states and regions with their own peculiarities and voter regulations tends to require a level of experience that Parscale doesn’t appear to have, although the RNC does.
“My concern would be capacity,” the Republican operative said. “There is no way to target voters on the level required by a presidential election without a serious ramp-up.”
