WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is mustering governmental muscle as it tries to turn out Republican voters next month in early voting Iowa.
With most of the attention focused on the battle for the Democratic nomination, Trump’s campaign is announcing what it is calling an “unprecedented” surrogate operation, with more than 80 supporters fanning out across the state the day of its kickoff caucuses on Feb. 3.
The showing will include a slew of government officials—acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and much of Trump’s Cabinet. That includes Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Education Secretary Betsy Devos, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Jovita Carranza, who leads the Small Business Administration.
Also on board will be a long list of elected officials, including Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy. And there will be other notables, including Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, and the inventor of “My Pillow,” Mike Lindell.
The effort will be led by members of Trump’s family, along with his campaign manager Brad Parscale, who hyped the showing as just a “preview of what is to come.”
“This will be the strongest, best funded, and most organized presidential campaign in history,” he said in a statement. “We are putting the Democrats on notice—good luck trying to keep up with this formidable re-election machine.”
