The staffer works straight till noon, when the research room closes for an hour for lunch.

Today is already a good day.

He found something while perusing through the first lady’s press office records: an old interview in which she appears to talk about the importance of keeping undocumented immigrants out of the country. 

“It’s a complete change from what she’s trying to do now where she wants everybody to come in—it’s just something we could possibly hit on,” he says.

Raj Shah, research director for the RNC, said the staffer’s work is a critical part of the vast oppo structure the group has spent months building.

“We’ve found a lot of useful stuff,” he said. “We know what we are looking for and who we are looking at. It’s a piece of a larger engine.”