Army Of Colorado Republicans Train To Register & Recruit Voters
DENVER (CBS4) - The Republican National Committee is working hard to train volunteers. They want to be ready to hit the ground running and get people registered to vote.
After two consecutive losses in the presidential election the RNC knew it had to vastly improve its "get out the vote" effort. It began building its 2016 field operation when the 2012 election ended, including training an army of volunteers in battleground states like Colorado.
"Things weren't going right," said Douglas Morrison, one of more than 500 Colorado Republicans who showed up on a Saturday morning six months before the election to learn how to register and recruit voters.
The goal is to build the largest, most diverse, field operation ever. Volunteers range from an African-American veteran to a female business owner.
"I think it's really important to come to a training session just to understand what is the best way to communicate your message," volunteer Brenda Harms said.
The RNC says it's on track to have an unparalleled ground game with 750 staffers -- more than ever before at this point in an election. It also has a $100 million digital operation, including ads aimed at recruiting a record number of foot soldiers.
"I think there's going to be a lot of noise on the TV and in their mailboxes, but if we can connect to voters in person it's really going to change it, so that's why we want to train all of our volunteers. We've really been calling it professionalizing our volunteers," said Christian Hemphill, Colorado GOP Data Director.
But ultimately it's not just about boots on the ground, it's about the nominee on the ballot, and it's unclear if Donald Trump will help or hurt the GOP in 2016.
The RNC says it mobilized more volunteers in Colorado this past weekend than it did in all of June 2012. And it's made contact with nearly 200,000 voters nationwide -- more than twice what it did at this time four years ago.
