President Trump is teaming up with the Republican National Committee less than one week before the midterm elections to assist in a nationwide get-out-the-vote effort, recording calls that will go out to voters in key states.
The Washington Examiner obtained the audio of the robocalls, which started running Wednesday and will run through the election. The calls will run in Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, Missouri, Nevada and Iowa.
One of these robocalls urges voters to cast early ballots for the Republican candidates.
“Hello, this is President Donald Trump calling from the Republican National Committee. Early voting has already begun and I need to you get out there and vote today. Vote Republican. We need those votes to make America great again,” Trump says in the message.
The RNC is running another robocall to press voters who cast mail-in ballots to not let “Democrats stop all of the progress we’ve made.”
“Hello, this is President Donald Trump calling from the Republican National Committee. You were there for me in 2016 when we won our historic victory. Now I need your help again. I need you to return your vote by mail ballot today. Don’t let the Democrats stop all of the progress we’ve made,” Trump says. “They’re okay with crime. They’re okay with open borders. They’re okay with a military that’s not properly funded or not taking care of our vets. We need Republican votes. Vote Republican and return your vote by mail ballot today so we can keep making America great. Thank you.”
These calls come at a time when there is talk of a “blue wave,” a reference to the belief that Democrats will regain power in Congress. Polling largely shows Democrats taking control of the House in November, but the Senate is widely expected to stay under Republican control. Republicans look poised to pick up a few seats in the upper chamber on Election Day.
Republican strategists and Capitol Hill staffers said they believe that many of the House races are within the margin of error, which means the race could swing for either candidate. The last-minute addition to the RNC’s get-out-the-vote campaign is seen as a sign of how much the committee believes some of these races are winnable.
The RNC said it believes that Trump’s calls are the “icing on the cake” in their efforts to get voters to ballot box this cycle. Since the campaign season started, the RNC has contacted more voters than it did in the 2016 presidential election cycle. The committee is expected to make contact with more than 70 million voters this cycle, which would be 20 million more voter contacts than the 2016 presidential election.
The committee has invested well over a quarter of a billion dollars in the 2018 midterms, spending $275 million for the cycle.
While the RNC is in full swing to ensure Republicans maintain control of Congress, the president has been out on the campaign trail stumping for Republican candidates in every state that the RNC is targeting with the automated calls. And for those Republicans he won’t be campaigning for in-person, Trump has been issuing praise and endorsements on social media.
