The onerous work and imaginative and prescient of a high coverage and advocacy group within the America First motion helped make the distinction within the 2024 presidential election, as a number of of its chairmen put together to hitch the brand new Trump administration, a high official stated.
America First Works govt director Ashley Hayek advised Fox Information in a Monday interview that her group has succeeded in specializing in widespread insurance policies from the primary Trump administration and bringing these to state governments.
Because the 2024 race heated up, Hayek stated, America First Works turned to voter turnout as its plan to proceed the prevalence of the political motion’s message.
“How can we educate individuals on these insurance policies much more and mobilize voters?” she recalled asking.
“So we did a serious examine and evaluation of the over 3,100 counties throughout the nation, and we recognized 21 key counties that we knew can be actually essential to achieve success. And needless to say these are states that some have been blue, some have been pink, some have been purple, however among the states have been known as in favor of Joe Biden in 2020 by solely a ten,000 vote benefit,” she stated.
MCCORMICK-CASEY RECOUNT TOPS $1 MILLION
President-elect Trump (Oleg Nikishin/Getty Photographs)
The initiative, nicknamed “Mission 19” after the unique 19 counties it focused, sought to deliver out to the polls low- and no-propensity voters. The latter is essentially distinctive within the campaigning realm: in search of out voters technically thought-about “energetic” on state rolls however who haven’t voted up to now 4 cycles.
It not solely focused counties in swing states or reliably conservative states, but in addition in blue states like New York and New Jersey. Within the latter, Trump got here inside 4 factors of flipping it pink for the primary time this century, whereas a majority of New York’s counties voted for the Republican however have been outweighed by the 5 boroughs, Erie County (Buffalo) and a pair others.
“I feel it is form of no secret whenever you take a look at any of the key media markets and the counties that these contact – take a look at Phoenix – that is Maricopa County, Las Vegas, it is Clark County, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, these are main city areas, however all of them have collar counties as nicely that develop into battlegrounds for each events.”
“And once we have been on the bottom, we might see, occasionally, Kamala Harris door-knockers, not as usually as we thought we might,” Hayek stated.
The group’s election integrity work led them to focus on voters in locations like Bucks County, Pennsylvania – the place the RNC had launched a lawsuit after early voters have been turned away from the Doylestown elections workplace.
“We have been capable of message on to voters saying, ‘Hey, keep in line, do not get out of line,'” she stated.
“We might name forward to learn how lengthy the road was for a few of our aged of us who could not wait in line that lengthy.”
“These are the sorts of ways simply making it extra accessible to vote. That is what conservatives wish to do. We wish to make it simpler to vote, more durable to cheat. That is been our mantra your complete time.”
FIVE KEY PA COUNTIES THIS ELECTION
President-elect Trump tapped AFPI’s Brooke Rollins as agriculture secretary. (Fox Information)
By way of its voter outreach operations, Hayek stated her group’s canvassers seen a shift in pro-Harris exercise from the Solar Belt to the Rust Belt – noting the latter had been President Biden’s technique.
Hayek urged Harris shifted to shoring up areas that had been in Biden’s pocket as a result of her lack of “strategic messaging” was not resonating in these locations as his as soon as did.
A California native, Hayek stated her group can be very concerned within the Golden State regardless of its blue bent.
“I do assume you are seeing extra of a cultural shift. I do assume that we’ll must do issues at a extra native degree within the state of California, and we’ll have to start out working collectively in rather a lot higher methods,” she stated.
With crime and taxation persevering with to plague the elector-rich state, Hayek stated she hopes to see America First Works’ work there proceed to make inroads, much like how former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., bought comparatively near unseating Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York by specializing in points and eschewing hyper-partisanship.
President-elect Trump shakes fingers with former Congressman Lee Zeldin. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs)
America First Works’ associate group, America First Coverage Institute, has since seen at the very least 4 of its leaders tapped for roles within the new administration, together with Zeldin.
Co-founders Brooke Rollins and Linda McMahon are agriculture and training secretary-designates, respectively, whereas Zeldin and fellow co-chairman ex-Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., are additionally primed for White Home roles in 2025.
“I feel this can be a actually thrilling time not only for America First Works, however for all People,” Hayek stated.
“And one of many issues that was actually essential to us was having conversations with voters… so we made certain to gather details about what insurance policies individuals cared about probably the most: is it the financial system, is it the border, is it training? So to have the ability to proceed these conversations all through 2025, 2026 and past goes to be actually essential for this motion.”
Fox Information Digital’s Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.
