Donald Trump's ability to know whether his campaign is reaching target voters in battleground states is limited because the software used requires fast Internet service to properly track canvassers, according to many familiar with the situation.
The Trump campaign this cycle is targeting so-called Trump voters, who are mostly rural, as part of a race to attack people who don't normally vote but vote for Trump. A difference in a close election.
But the Trump campaign and Elon Musk-backed America Pak, which is now doing a big part of the Trump ground game, use a management app called Campaign Sidekick that struggles in areas with slow internet and canvassers have to use the offline version.
The Campaign Sidekick app enables canvassers to use less than 40mbps internet – enough to stream 4K video – enough to use “offline workbooks” that don't have a geo-tracking feature, and people said they don't always upload after completing a route.
As a result, the Trump campaign and America Pack have little way of knowing whether canvassers are actually knocking on doors or if they're cheating — for example, throwing campaign materials at doors as they drive through “fast-moving” lanes. Past
America Pack has tried to prevent cheating by sending teams of censors to canvassers, but there's no way to directly censor every offline vocab — which is especially high given the Trump campaign's focus on targeting low-propensity voters.
People reported that even when canvassers legally completed a route offline, the data sometimes failed to upload. As the canvassers are paid door-to-door, they have to repeat their work, wasting time and annoying voters to harass them twice.
“Maybe Elon Musk could give his canvassers a Starlink,” joked a political activist involved in the America Pack campaign, referring to Musk's satellite-based mobile internet router.
The Trump campaign has filed complaints about the sidekick for some time, the people said. Two other super-bags involved in doing ground game work on behalf of the Trump campaign in battleground states have stopped using it for their own operations.
Those broad complaints include technical glitches such as crashes during peak hours when many people are using them at the same time, or the Google Maps preview that allows canvassers to find their way around.
Campaign Sidekick's previously pushed back on criticism, saying it always recommends tracking the limitations of offline wordbooks and factors that might indicate fraud to customers. .
An executive at September Group LLC, a large canvassing retailer contracted by America Pack, said that until last month they were happy with the knock on door in Arizona and Nevada, even though they avoided using the offline walkbooks because of the shortcomings of the sitekick.
Trump campaign co-campaign chairman Chris Lacivita dismissed the complaints, saying in a statement: “Our canvassing apps are working well, and we've invested in new technology this cycle to support our efforts. This is clearly the work of a failed salesman, and we will name and shame once we win this campaign.”
LaCivita didn't say why they were suspicious of a vendor, saying the complaints came primarily from their own ground sports partners. The report also failed to mention that the campaign had been aware of the problems for some time.
There have been complaints about Campaign Sidekick from other groups as well. Turning Point Action, which is run by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, told the Trump campaign that they had “difficulties” getting their own app into Arizona and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan.
Complaints from Turning Point center around having to do everything manually. They complained that if a canvasser could only complete part of the door-knocking route, there was no way the rest of the doors would be automatically transferred to another canvasser – and those voters would never be reached.
The Trump campaign's reason for sticking with the software, other than a desire for continuity, isn't entirely clear.
The Trump campaign took over the RNC in March and suggested using the America Pak app because the Trump team already uses it and it would be easier to analyze the data if it all came through one system. A Trump official said.
But there are also political considerations. The Trump campaign decided not to use other sites, such as i360 Walk, as a result of distrust of its owners, the Koch brothers, who have opposed Trump in the past, one of the people said.
The Trump campaign did not use Advantage Inc's software, deeming it substandard, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used the platform for polling during his 2024 Republican primary bid against Trump.
The Numinar platform currently used by America First Works, another Trump-allied pac ground-game, has failed to gain traction with the RNC — for unclear reasons — as it was previously chosen as a replacement for Campaign Sidekick. Presidential cycle.
