by: Justin Schecker
Posted:
/ Updated:
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A three-page memo from a senior Trump campaign advisor obtained by 8 On Your Side outlines how she believes President Trump’s victory in Florida by 3.4 percentage points should serve as a model for future campaigns in battleground states.
“Preliminary results from Tuesday suggests Donald Trump won Florida with the most diverse electorate to support a Republican President in our state’s history,” writes Susie Wiles, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign based in Jacksonville.
The memo states during the 2020 presidential election the Trump campaign targeted non-traditional Republican voter groups including conservative Jewish voters, charter school parents, Hispanics (including non-Cuban Hispanics and black voters in specific Florida counties.
Wiles writes that the Trump campaign integrated “data into every mode of communication – digital, mail, texting, canvassing and phones” to target nontraditional Republican supporters with “messaging that was uniquely tailored to them.”
“Experienced at winning very close elections, Trump Victory Florida intuitively understood the necessity of building margin,” Wiles writes. “These strategies are not typically widely reported and are hyper-targeted using sophisticated data modeling we commissioned. Simply put, we built margin through hyper-targeted voter registration, messaging, persuasion, and Get-Out-The-Vote efforts.
The memo highlights the gains President Trump had in South Florida and urban counties, including a 198,000 vote increase from Miami-Dade county.
President Trump’s net growth statewide from 2016 was 260,000 votes and the memo said 86 percent of that net gain came from votes in Broward, Miami-Dad and Osceola counties.
Wiles writes that re-engaging the Trump voter from 2016 was a critical part of the campaigns get out the vote efforts. She said these voters often “are not drawn to GOP ideology, but rather to President Trump as a brand.”
In the section on voter outreach, Wiles writes, “The campaign’s voter contact program was of historic proportions and was triply effective.”
The Trump campaigns’ grassroots efforts came at a time when the Biden campaign and Florida Democrats opted to skip most in-person voter contacts because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Florida ran a clinic on how a field program should be run,” writes Wiles. “Taking nothing for granted, canvassers spread a large net and kept up a persistent drum beat of door knocks, ultimately hitting an unprecedented 5 million doors in the state.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis will be up for reelection in 2022 along with Sen. Marco Rubio.
“The lesson is simple: In order to form a consistent, winning coalition, Republicans, in the words of President Ronald Reagan, must provide a big tent and give reasons for all demographic groups to join,” Susie Wiles, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign based in Jacksonville, writes in her conclusion.
