Jai Hamid
The America PAC, heavily funded by Elon Musk to back Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, is struggling to meet voter outreach goals.
The PAC is tasked with securing critical votes in swing states, and now faces allegations that canvassers have been lying about voter contacts, according to insiders.
Key battleground states like Wisconsin and Nevada, where every vote matters, are seeing serious issues. Four people connected to the PAC’s outreach told Reuters that canvassers are falling short of expectations.
Despite a large budget, paid for by Musk, the effort to secure Trump’s re-election is floundering.
Door-knocking targets missed
In Wisconsin, canvassers were expected to contact 450,000 voters by Election Day. Alysia McMillan, a canvasser for the PAC, revealed that organizers told the team they weren’t reaching daily targets.
In an October 8 meeting, McMillan recorded a manager admitting that they were far from hitting the 450,000 mark. “We’re not going to hit 450,000, not with what we’ve got now,” the manager said.
McMillan, who worked with two contractors hired by America PAC to knock on doors, spoke out about the issue. She is concerned that this shortfall could cost Trump the election, especially in a place as important as Wisconsin.
“If this isn’t looked into in a timely manner, this can result in a waste of time and money and risk President Trump winning the election,” she said. Despite being fired by one contractor after a pay dispute, she was rehired by another almost immediately.
In Arizona, canvassing managers have issued warnings to their teams about missing voter-contact targets. Chris Young, a Musk aide, recently traveled to Nevada to audit the door-knocking numbers there.
Sources close to the outreach efforts claimed that Young’s visit was triggered by reports that some canvassers had inflated their numbers. Another insider said that the PAC was having a hard time finding people to audit door-knocking efforts in other battleground states.
Canvassers get fired
America PAC’s efforts hinge on reaching “low propensity voters” – people who might support Trump but could stay home instead of voting.
Musk has poured at least $75 million into the PAC, making him one of Trump’s biggest backers. But the on-the-ground operations are disorganized.
The PAC relies on contractors to carry out the grunt work. These contractors hire hourly workers to knock on doors and speak to voters.
But some workers say the job isn’t worth the pay. One said, “The pay starts at $20 per hour, but you have to drive long distances, and they don’t even cover your gas.”
In Nevada, things took an ugly turn when auditors discovered that some canvassers had lied about the number of doors they knocked on.
Lone Mountain Strategies, a contractor working for the PAC in Nevada, had to fire several workers after discovering they had been using apps to fake their locations.
A text message reportedly revealed that the company was catching people cheating on their door-knocking tallies.
“Our auditors keep catching people cheating,” the message read. “We’ve fired two people today and auditors are going around checking doors for flyers.”
America PAC’s financial troubles
Even with Musk’s billions behind it, America PAC’s outreach has been plagued by disarray. The group has had to post advertisements for more canvassers on its website, offering pay starting at $30 an hour, with bonuses for good performance.
But the increase in pay may be too little, too late. Sources within the PAC say that workers complained about the long hours and lack of gas money, saying that the pay wasn’t worth the effort.
Meanwhile, amid a tight race between him and Democratic Kamala Harris, Trump is facing increasing scrutiny over his health.
Apparently, despite incessant questions from the press, he has refused to release his medical records. During a stop in Detroit, Trump was asked if he planned to share his health information.
Yeah, my health records – I’ve done five exams over the last four years. You’ve got them all,” he told reporters. The former president went on to say that he had “aced” two cognitive tests.
Trump then took aim at Harris, saying, “I want to see her do a cognitive test because she wasn’t born smart.”
