Ground Game: Some Republican skeptical of Turning Point and politics takes a backseat to Hurricane Helene
Turning Point's representatives have made two things clear in meetings with state and local Republican leaders — Donald Trump has blessed their conservative organization to help lead his get-out-the-vote effort, and local party officials ought to use the group's new voter mobilization app. Both prospects terrify some fellow Republicans.
Welcome to this week's edition of AP Ground Game.
Soaring to prominence after Trump's unexpected 2016 win, Turning Point earned a reputation for hosting glitzy events, cultivating hard-right influencers and raising prodigious sums while enriching the group's leaders. They've had far less success helping Republicans win, especially in their adopted home state of Arizona.
Now the organization has leveraged its Trump ties to expand its influence in a way that could be potentially lucrative. Turning Point has sought to lead an effort to remake the GOP's get-out-the-vote effort based on the theory that there are thousands of Trump supporters who rarely vote but could be persuaded to this year. And they are pitching their new mobile app as vital to this effort's success.
The Associated Press obtained an unvarnished look at how Turning Point is promoting its strategy by obtaining several recordings of presentations made to state and local Republican officials. The group is homing in on churchgoers and hunters and citing statistics that purport to show how few of each group cast ballots in 2020. Read more .
For U.S. adversaries, the work to meddle with American democracy may be entering its most critical phase.
Despite all the attention on efforts to spread disinformation in the months before the Nov. 5 election, the hours and days immediately after voting ends could offer foreign adversaries like Russia, Iran and China or other domestic extremist groups the best chance to mess with America's decision.
That's when Americans will go online to see the latest results or share their opinions as votes are tabulated. And that's when a fuzzy photo or AI-generated video of supposed vote tampering could do its most damage, potentially transforming online outrage into real-world action before authorities have time to investigate the facts. Read more .
Of note:
It's a threat taken seriously by intelligence analysts, elected officials and tech executives, who say that while there's been a steady buildup of disinformation and influence operations, the worst may be yet to come. Analysts are blunter, warning that a particularly effective piece of disinformation could be devastating to public confidence in the election if spread in the hours after the polls close.
In the election's final weeks, people in North Carolina and Georgia, influential swing states, are dealing with more immediate concerns: widespread damage from Hurricane Helene.
Uprooted trees litter roadsides, sometimes blocking driveways. Some homes in Vilas, North Carolina, are inaccessible after bridges collapsed and roads crumbled.
With residents wondering the fate of missing friends and relatives – or if there is enough food and water to last until the next supplies arrive – the focus is on survival, not politics, and may remain that way for weeks. Read more.
Of note:
Trump and Harris have visited North Carolina and Georgia five times since the storm hit. Trump, who has his own mixed record on natural disaster response, attacked President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for what he said was a slow response to Helene's destruction, accusing the Democrats of "going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas." Biden pushed back hard, saying he has not ordered aid to be distributed based on party lines.
Trump returned Saturday to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds where he was nearly assassinated in July, urging a large crowd to deliver an Election Day victory that he tied to his survival of the shooting. Read more.
Harris opened a media blitz by the Democratic ticket on Sunday by appearing on the popular "Call Her Daddy" podcast about abortion, sexual abuse and other issues that resonate with women, working in some digs at her GOP opponent along the way. Read more.
