Never before has a presidential effort invested in doors in the way the DeSantis machine is doing. By Labor Day, Never Back Down aims to have about 2,600 trained canvassers in the 18 early nominating states, many with hotel rooms and rental cars, iPads and evolving scripts, not to mention a paycheck from working in a position that is now advertised on job boards as between $20 to $22 an hour. The work will continue through March, with staff redeployed as the election season proceeds.
It is designed to allow the PAC to run a paid-field operation bigger than ever before tried in a presidential primary, on the scale of four simultaneous congressional races in Iowa, two in New Hampshire and seven in South Carolina. DeSantis has effectively abandoned the old model of running field operations with volunteers from a cash-strapped campaign, outsourcing the effort to a super PAC in ways that test the boundaries of campaign finance law. …
Students are coached to argue that DeSantis has the “the same fire” as Trump but a better track record of accomplishment. They are encouraged to point out that Trump never finished the border wall, did not reduce the national deficit and “did not drain the swamp or get control of the bureaucracy.” The training also includes a discussion of Trump’s advanced age — 33 years older than DeSantis, who is 44.
“Political rallies are meaningless if conservatives don’t get the job done,” reads one briefing slide. “DeSantis gets the job done. Trump didn’t.”
[Rallies get earned media. Field organizations build voter turnout and — if done correctly — loyalty for the candidate. I wrote extensively about this in Going Red in 2016, and how such a field organization can also be used to help localize the agenda even on a precinct level. Voters might also want to consider how effective this organization would be in a general election and make that part of their primary choice criteria as well. No other candidate will have these resources in the field. — Ed]
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