Every president appropriates his party’s election apparatus for his own ends, but the Trump team is absorbing the infrastructure entirely. In December, the campaign made public that it was formally merging key operations with the Republican National Committee to create a single entity, called Trump Victory. A primary goal, Politico reported at the time, was to limit staff overlap “and the kind of infighting that marked the 2016 relationship between the Trump campaign and the party.”
Advisers have also been working overtime to make sure there is no whiff of dissent at next summer’s nominating convention, as there was in 2016.
This streamlining comes with risks — at least for those not named Trump. This week, an investigation by ProPublica revealed that the R.N.C. has been withholding data from down-ballot candidates about how voters in particular states and districts view the president. Why? Party insiders suggested it was to prevent candidates in places where Mr. Trump isn’t especially popular from attempting to distance themselves from him or from leaking data that could embarrass him. This could complicate the strategies of Republicans running in tough swing districts.
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