Trump eyes infrequent voters in half-dozen battleground states

As Trump campaign volunteers Rachel and Chris Gottberg prepared to knock on doors in York, Pennsylvania last month, their goal was to win over the infrequent voters that the campaign sees as key to victory in the battleground state.

Wearing red T-shirts emblazoned with “Trump Force Captain,” they were among a handful of door knockers who had gathered in the Republican Party headquarters in this working-class city of about 45,000. They planned to take along their eight-month-old baby in a stroller.

The couple said they were focused on newly registered voters and what political campaigns call “low propensity” voters — people who don’t show up every voting cycle and may even skip the presidential ballot every four years.

The Trump campaign and its allies are putting an unprecedented focus on targeting these infrequent voters in the seven battleground states that could decide the November 5 election against Democrat Kamala Harris, according to interviews with three dozen Trump campaign staffers, grassroots groups allied to the campaign, Republican county party chairs, donors and a previously unreported donor call.

This focus, which has not been previously reported in detail, is a high-risk, labour-intensive strategy that could bring in a wave of new voters but could also fall short if their targets ultimately stay home, one Republican official and one academic expert warned.

Candidates typically target both infrequent voters and swing voters in an effort to expand beyond their base. But Trump, more than in previous cycles, sees infrequent voters as critical.

In contrast, the Harris campaign, flush with cash, appears to be mounting a broader-based effort for votes. The approach appears to include courting women and other groups not committed to Trump with rallies and registration drives.