General Discussion

It’s the DNC’s first round of staff hires in battleground states, drawing an early outline of the 2020 electoral map: Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, four of the closest states that Trump won in 2016, as well as Arizona — which has slowly been moving to the left in recent years and voted for Trump by a narrow 3.5 percentage points in 2016 — and Ohio, a traditional swing state that some Democrats argue should be considered a second-tier priority in 2020.

The new communications aides will work for state parties, but will be funded by the DNC, a new approach for the committee to building staff in swing states early during the election cycle.
“This program is the on-the-ground, tip-of the spear effort to define and localize the negative impacts of Trump’s broken promises and reach the voters we need to defeat him in key battleground states,” said David Bergstein, battleground state communications director for the DNC.

The new communications officials will focus on publicizing negative local effects of Trump’s policies to voters in each state, tapping surrogates and other popular Democrats to help. They will also work to counter the positive publicity that Trump garners when he holds rallies and other events.

The DNC is not the only Democratic organization going local to drive anti-Trump news coverage this cycle: American Bridge, traditionally an opposition research firm, has added a $50 million localized ad program to persuade small-town voters in swing states about the danger of Trump’s policies.