With swag and slogans, Trump campaign to open office for black voters in Raleigh
President Donald Trump is preparing to experiment with a novel campaign tactic: brick-and-mortar community centers targeting minority voters that will open in select cities across the country, including Raleigh.
The Trump campaign will open heavily branded field offices in the coming weeks across the nation, hoping to attract black voters with swag, billboards and graphics promoting the president’s policies in support of historically black colleges, opportunity zones, school choice and criminal justice reform.
“You’re never going to get the votes you don’t ask for,” Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump, said.
Campaign officials showed reporters a mock-up of the field office stocked with “Black Voices” stickers and “woke” hats.
“We see the numbers coming up in the polls and the demand on the ground when we do these types of events, so it’s really important that we take this next step and really bring those voters into the party,” Katrina Pierson, senior campaign adviser, said.
“This concept by itself is a woke concept in the fact that for decades you have had a community that has been controlled by the Democratic Party,” she said.
In addition to Raleigh, the campaign’s first community centers will open in 14 other cities across the country, where the campaign says it has identified growing black populations in inner cities open to supporting Trump.
It is a strategy that will cost the campaign millions of dollars and, if successful, could be expanded to target other minority groups, campaign officials said. One senior aide said that the campaign is thinking about opening community centers for Latino voters and veterans, as well.
Traditionally, Republicans have been critical of efforts by Democrats to target minorities based on racial or ethnic groups. But the Trump campaign has adopted a “coalitions” strategy focused on specific demographics such as Evangelicals for Trump, Jewish Voices for Trump, and Women for Trump.
“While the other side is focused on beating up each other, we’re focused on growing the party,” Kushner said.
Trump only won 8 percent of black voters in the 2016 presidential election. Brad Parscale, his 2020 campaign manager, said “at minimum, we’re double from where we were in 2016.”
The Trump campaign storefronts will also open in Charlotte, Greensboro, Miami, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta, Detroit, Columbus, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee.
This story has been updated with additional information.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 3:16 PM.
