[Sounds of delighted laughter.] The Republican Party has a presumptive presidential nominee who isn’t running a “traditional” campaign,” which is to say Donald Trump is not dabbling with nonsense like a field organization and the party will have to do a lot of filling in if they’re going to get out the vote and not totally screw down-ballot candidates. About that: Politico reports that the Republican National Committee is not on track to fulfill its promises of field staff in key battleground states.
— In Ohio, where Trump is banking on a win and GOP Sen. Rob Portman finds himself in a treacherous reelection contest, the RNC had promised to fund more than 170 field staffers to arrive by July 1, according to multiple party operatives. At this point, there’s only around 25. “If you’re on the ballot in Ohio this year, it’s a real concern,” said Kevin DeWine, a former Ohio Republican Party chairman. “It needs to get fixed fast, and hurry to give voters and donors a sign that Trump plans to compete and contest in Ohio.” [...]
— In Florida, the state party had been operating on the understanding that at least 100 RNC-paid staffers would be in place by July. Now, they count only around 30, according to a former state party official involved in reviewing the budget and a current national party official.
By contrast:
In Florida, the Democratic National Committee has more than 80 field staff on the ground, and state party executive director Scott Arceneaux projected a team of close to 200 by the middle of June. In Ohio, there are more than 70 full-time field staffers working the state. In New Hampshire, there are 25, with at least 60 expected to be crisscrossing the state by July.
Of course, Republican Senate candidates at least will be supported by more than 1,200 staffers for the Koch brothers political network, so Democrats can’t count on the kind of field advantage you’d see by comparing just the party organizations. But it is not going to help Republicans any to have their presidential candidate and their party both failing at field organization.