Donald Trump is taking a page from Barack Obama's brilliant 2008 campaign playbook


If you are inclined to believe that Donald Trump's campaign for president is some meta-reality television show, think again: The Donald is rolling out an impressive ground game in Iowa, whose caucuses in February will be the first presidential primary contest in the nation, reports The Washington Post. As a member of Rick Perry's Iowa team tells the Post, "I see [Trump's campaign] as a major threat to all the other campaigns because of the aggressiveness of their ground game."
The Post notes that Trump is building a large field organization and that his Iowa campaign director, Chuck Laudner, helped lead Rick Santorum to victory there in 2012. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Trump's strategy comes straight from Barack Obama's successful insurgent campaign in 2008, which involved expanding the pool of voters to include those who hadn't caucused before:
Turnout in Iowa caucuses is historically low. In 2012, only 121,000 of the state's roughly 600,000 registered Republican voters participated. In 2016, strategists expect turnout to increase to 140,000 or higher..."We're reaching people that the Republican apparatus doesn't even know exist," Laudner said. “The other day, one woman came up to say, 'Hello, a lifelong Iowan.' Her first question to us was, 'What's a caucus?' After we told her, she wanted to help." [The Washington Post]
Trump is dominating the field in Iowa, according to the latest CNN/ORC poll. He will visit the state this weekend.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.
-
Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years – a 'beautiful and raw' exhibition
The Week Recommends This superb career retrospective in Edinburgh brings together more than 200 works from the misunderstood artist
-
Merryn Somerset Webb chooses five books on how the world works
The Week Recommends The financial columnist picks works by Peter Turchin, Adam Smith and Christopher Clark
-
Big Brother is watching: Wi-Fi signals can track you in your home
Under the radar It could open the door to mass surveillance
-
ICE scraps age limits amid hiring push
Speed Read Anyone 18 or older can now apply to be an ICE agent
-
Trump's global tariffs take effect, with new additions
Speed Read Tariffs on more than 90 US trading partners went into effect, escalating the global trade war
-
House committee subpoenas Epstein files
Speed Read The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for its Jeffrey Epstein files with an Aug. 19 deadline
-
India rejects Trump threat over Russian oil
Speed Read The president said he would raise tariffs on India for buying and selling Russian oil
-
NY's Hochul vows response to Texas gerrymander
Speed Read Gov. Kathy Hochul has promised to play ball with redistricting that favors the Democrats
-
Texas Democrats exit state to block redistricting vote
Speed Read More than 51 legislators fled the state in protest of the GOP's plan to redraw congressional districts
-
Trump criticized for firing BLS chief after jobs report
Speed Read Bureau of Labor Statistics chief Erika McEntarfer oversaw a July jobs report that the president claims was rigged
-
Trump revives K-12 Presidential Fitness Test
Speed Read The Obama administration phased the test out in 2012, replacing it with a program focused on overall health rather than standardized benchmarks