Trump Campaign: Nearly 40% of SC Trump Rally Attendees Were Dems or Independents
President Donald Trump has done more at his wildly popular rallies than just campaign:
He has used the events as an opportunity to create a collection of voter data that could be key to winning re-election in November.
Since his inauguration, Trump has held more than 100 rallies throughout the country. And in those rallies, his campaign has collected data about the demographics of those who attend.
In an interview about the campaign’s re-election strategy with Paul Bedard from The Washington Examiner, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh explained some numbers that should have Democrats dreading November.
According to The Washington Examiner, Democrats, blacks, Latinos and those who have previously not voted are all attending Trump’s rallies in huge numbers, and they are quickly helping him expand his base of support.
Murtaugh told The Washington Examiner that 16 percent of those who attended Trump’s Feb. 28 rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, were black, nearly 29 percent didn’t vote in 2016 and nearly 40 percent (38.6 percent to be exact) identified as either Democrats or independents.
Similarly, at Trump’s Las Vegas, Nevada, rally a week earlier, 27 percent of those attending identified as non-white, while 18 percent said they were Democrats.
Other rallies held from late January to late February showed that the number of those attending who identified as Democrats hovered around 25 percent.
“We know from data gathered from rallies that a significant percentage of rally registrants and attendees have voted infrequently in federal elections, but they are motivated to come out to see President Trump,” Murtaugh told Bedard.
“We also know that the president’s record of accomplishment on behalf of all Americans appeals to a wide swath of voters, including men and women, in all demographics, in all regions. He also speaks to the ‘forgotten Americans’ who politicians have left behind for decades,” he added.
Bedard notes that Trump believes that if he can increase his support among black voters alone up from the 8 percent he received in 2016 to between 12-14 percent, he will be re-elected.
But the Trump campaign is also reaching out to other forgotten Americans.
Politico, which also reported on Trump’s data-driven approach, wrote that after the South Carolina rally, “The Trump campaign kept every one of their names and plans to spend the next eight months urging them to help the president’s reelection efforts.”
According to Politico, the Trump campaign also intends to use all of this data in an aggressive ground game, targeting parts of the electorate that are traditionally overlooked.
Politico reported:
“About 126,000 of the 1.4 million names collected at rallies come from people who have not voted in the last four elections, according to the Trump campaign. Another 168,000 did not vote in three of the last four elections, the campaign estimated.”
In a popular post on Medium, Karlyn Borysenko, a black Democrat-turned independent, describes attending Trump’s campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Feb. 10.
Borysenko writes that she was initially afraid to attend the rally, but did so out of curiosity after deciding to leave the Democratic Party.
“It was more like attending a rock concert than a political rally. People were genuinely enjoying themselves,” Borysenko wrote of the atmosphere.
The self-described “accidental political commentator” concludes that while she intends to remain politically independent, she doesn’t think Democrats stand a chance in regards to defeating Trump.
“Democrats have an a— kicking coming to them in November, and I think most of them will be utterly shocked when it happens,” she wrote.
The Washington Examiner reported that more than 25 percent of those who attended the New Hampshire rally said they were Democrats.
Trump’s approval rating currently sits at 92 percent among Republicans and 42 percent among independents, according to Gallup.
With data showing his rallies are also attracting large swaths of Democrats, it appears as though the Democratic Party could be serious in trouble come November.
No matter how “divisive” the establishment media calls Trump, his policies are obviously resonating with many Americans beyond his base of supporters — and he is actually eating into portions of the Democrats’ base.
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