RNC adding staff in Nevada, other key states

The Republican National Committee is adding 250 more staff in key battleground states, including Nevada.

Nevada will have 40 paid staff with the increase, which brings the total to 466 paid staffers in 11 battleground states, RNC Political Director Chris Carr said in a memo sent to reporters last week. It will double the size of the party’s paid staff in those states.

Accounting for other non-paid people in their permanent field team, including “neighborhood team leaders” and “core team members,” party officials say their actual footprint in Nevada is 193 people.

“All told our footprint at this point in the cycle is greater than it has ever been, it is set to double in the coming weeks, and it’s set to grow exponentially before Election Day,” Carr wrote. “This is the operation our likely presumptive nominee Donald Trump will inherit.”

Trump is likely to face Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who is in a two-way primary race for the nomination with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.

The field operation is for the entire GOP ticket, not just one candidate, Carr added.

The other battleground states listed are Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. Party officials say the full size of their team’s footprint in battleground states with the increase is 3,583 people.

Well before Trump became the presumptive nominee, or even announced his run for the presidency, Republicans were mapping out a strategy after the loss of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to President Barack Obama in 2012.

That started in 2013, when the party decided to spend years, not months, planning and building its get-out-the-vote apparatus for the presidential election. That included putting staff in battleground states, including Nevada, and a leadership program for new organizers.

Contact Ben Botkin at bbotkin@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2904. Find him on Twitter: @BenBotkin1