The must-see televised debates, high-profile endorsements and slick television ads may be the most visible display of a presidential campaign. But behind every candidate is a group of hardened volunteers and staffers set on winning the ground game.
That’s the byword for the network of supporters who man phone banks, knock on doors, hoist signs, hold debate-watching parties and mobilize voters for their favorite candidate every four years.
Amid an unpredictable election fueled by disgust with Washington, the painstaking behind-the-scenes work of building a campaign pays dividends. Even Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has largely avoided retail politicking, has built up a formidable network in Georgia and other Southern states that vote Tuesday.
Consider the scene at a Marietta library on a recent weekday night, when a bank of dedicated Trump supporters handed out “Trump cards” to anyone who showed even the slightest inkling of supporting their candidate.
“He has the might to get people to the polls,” said John Delves, one of the Trump supporters trained that night on the ins and outs of knocking on doors and representing the candidate at precinct meetings. “People will show up for him. Why else does he get thousands of people to a stadium on a weekday?”
Political scientists say there's no surefire way to market candidates to all voters. But a Harvard team concluded that the personal selling at the heart of the ground game goes a long way with partisan voters who make up the core of the primary vote.
That’s playing out with starkly different strategies in Georgia, Texas and the five other so-called “SEC primary” states that hold primaries on Tuesday. And the stakes may be highest for Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who has called the region his “firewall” and visited it multiple times last year.
Now, after back-to-back third-place finishes in South Carolina and Nevada, he must rely on his ground network more than ever. He's opened at least one office in Georgia and Tennessee, but his biggest investment is his home state of Texas, where a loss could be devastating for his campaign. His campaign headquarters is in Houston, a constant hive of activity by some of his most fervent supporters.
Trump isn’t conceding any ground. He’s hired at least five staffers in Georgia and signed up directors in most of the states voting Tuesday. He also tapped a state campaign director in Texas last year and appointed Katrina Pierson, a Texas tea party champion, as his national spokeswoman.
Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign, which claims that it was the first to organize in all 50 states, has beefed up its network across the region. The campaign opened its first office in Georgia this week with a celebration at a suburban Atlanta office park featuring two of his top surrogates, and it has four full-time staffers in Georgia.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson have more limited operations in the region. Kasich’s campaign drafted a state director in Georgia last week, and a super PAC supporting his bid also tapped Georgia operative Jared Thomas to run his efforts here.
On the Democratic side, front-runner Hillary Clinton is trying to leverage deep roots in the South.
Clinton's campaign boasts of having a staffer in each of the states voting Tuesday, including at least two in Georgia, as well as a regional communications director focused on the South. She has one of her biggest operations — at least six staffers — in Texas, which offers the biggest trove of delegates in next week's vote.
Texas is a battleground for the Sanders campaign, too, which opened seven offices throughout the state. But he's also pouring time and resources into a smaller prize next door: Oklahoma, where the mostly white and liberal Democratic base mirrors his network elsewhere. He has at least six staffers there.
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