ICYMI: GOP Activists Are Already Rallying Volunteers To Stave Off Democrats This Fall

GOP Activists Are Already Rallying Volunteers To Stave Off Democrats This Fall
The Washington Post
Michelle Ye Hee Lee
5/8/18

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Another group, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), which is backed by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), has raised more than $40 million this cycle, a leap from the $12.6 million it raised during the entire 2014 midterms, Federal Election Commission records show. The group has booked $48 million in TV and digital ad reservations, signaling an early and aggressive midterm push.

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The CLF, which launched voter outreach campaigns in targeted districts in February 2017, now has field offices in 31 House districts in 19 states and plans to expand to nearly 40 districts this year.

Super PACs usually focus on ad campaigns, but the CLF is adding a voter outreach component to its work for this election, a new strategy under Corry Bliss, who was named executive director in December 2016.

The CLF’s data team and thousands of volunteers work to identify the local issues that are most important to about 50,000 swing Republican voters in closely contested House districts.

Then they target those voters through calls, house visits and advertisements focused on what their Republican congressmen are doing on the issues they care most about — even if it is something obscure, like water issues affecting farmers.

“CLF highlights different issues in every one of the 31 districts where we have field offices, and we use that data to hyper-target voters,” Bliss said.

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