Republicans upping investment in Florida and other key battlegrounds

The Republican National Committee’s campaign to reelect President Donald Trump will increase its commitment to Florida and other key states by millions of dollars, adding another 300 staff members to 18 states.

The announcement comes out of the RNC’s winter meeting in Doral, where Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and RNC members approved a seven-figure expenditure to increase the Trump Victory campaign’s staff presence in targeted states by Feb. 1.

It also comes two days after the RNC’s counterpart, the Democratic National Committee, announced its own build-up of staff and investment in Florida and other swing states.

The RNC move will  increase Trump Victory  staffing to 622 employees in Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Neither national party detailed how much of the money would go to Florida.

“Fueled by the unprecedented grassroots support for President Trump, we have built the largest data-driven field program in our party’s history. It’s an operation that benefits Republicans up and down the ballot, and one the Democrats simply cannot match,” McDaniel wrote in a news release.

The DNC announced Wednesday it is launching a new, multimillion dollar investment it calls “Battleground Build-Up 2020” for groundwork and professional staffers to challenge  Trump in Florida and a handful of other swing states in the November election.

The RNC said it plans additional waves of staffing as the year progresses. Republicans also expects to continue to out-raise Democrats in party money, noting that at the end of November the RNC had $63.2 million cash on hand, while the DNC had $8.4 million.

The RNC said its Trump Victory campaign knocked on its one millionth door last weekend and boasted having activated thousands of volunteers. It also touted developing a state-of-the-art data program, thanks to a $300 million investment, which is made available to every Republican candidate.