Donald Trump is rushing to install operatives in several states that traditionally favour Democrats, pointing to a general election plan consistent with the campaign he has run thus far: Defying conventional wisdom and political trends.
The staffing expansion includes Maine, Minnesota and other places where Trump opens as the underdog, with the New York billionaire seeking to expand the electoral battlefield by drawing on his appeal among working class white voters and probable Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton's perceived weakness with them.
Still, it is an unlikely path to the White House, through states that no Republican presidential candidate has carried since the 1980s.
"I will win states that no Republican would even run in," Trump told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
The Trump campaign has identified roughly 15 states where it plans to install state directors by the end of the month.
They include traditional battlegrounds like Ohio, Florida and Virginia and more challenging terrain such as Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Maine places Republican have lost for the last six presidential elections or longer.
Target states also will likely include Republican-leaning Georgia, where demographic shifts benefit Democrats.
Trump's deployment of political operatives was outlined by campaign strategists who weren't authorized to speak publicly about internal strategy and demanded anonymity.
The plan will be subsidized, at least in part, by the Republican Party's new "building fund," a lightly regulated pool of money that can include donations of more than USD 100,000 from individual donors, they said, though rules for doing so might pose an obstacle.
But Trump is still playing catch-up at this point. While Clinton is already weeks into her own swing-state effort, Trump's team is scrambling to build a national organisation essentially from scratch.
"Up until three weeks ago, there were 102 or 103 employees, which is fewer than Ben Carson had in January," Trump aide Barry Bennett said. "Today, that number is much bigger, and it's growing every day."
The former reality television star's success in the GOP primary season was fueled almost exclusively by personality and a flood of free media coverage.
His expansion into new states signals recognition that Trump must grow his bare-bones operation to be competitive this fall, even if he doesn't fully embrace other modern-day political tactics.
