How pro-Cruz PAC targeted evangelical, likely GOP voters

Starting in late November, Keep the Promise political action committee workers knocked on about 110,000 doors in South Carolina, targeting evangelical GOP voters likely to vote in Saturday’s primary and trying to get them to vote for Ted Cruz, according to the group’s state director.

Targeting those voters is like “going duck hunting where the ducks are,” said Claude O’Donovan, the Aiken County organizer for Keep the Promise.

The goal was to “get out our vote,” O’Donovan said. In other words, identify those likely voters committed to Cruz, the U.S. senator from Texas, and make sure they voted for him on Saturday.

Saturday night, Cruz was needing every one of those votes as he fought U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for second place in the state’s GOP primary.

The pro-Cruz PAC’s S.C. ground game mimicked its successful get-out-the-vote effort in Iowa, credited with helping Cruz win that state. However, the challenge was greater in South Carolina because the Palmetto State’s primary had more GOP voters, said Dan Tripp, state director of the PAC.

Political action committees are playing an increasing role in the presidential campaigns, buying ads and managing get-out-the-vote efforts. In part, that is because they can raise unlimited amounts of money from ultra-rich donors while donations directly to official campaigns are restricted.

In South Carolina, data analytics helped identify likely Republican voters with an evangelical leaning, said Tripp.

Targeting those households almost doubled the number of voters reached because evangelical households are likely family-oriented homes, having a husband and wife who both can vote, Tripp said. For example, 150,000 evangelical households could represent up to 300,000 votes, he said.

Keep the Promise canvassers knocked on doors in 10 counties that made up about two-thirds of the GOP primary’s voters, Tripp said.

In the Upstate, they focused on Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg and York counties. In the Midlands, they canvassed in Aiken, Lexington and Richland counties. Along the coast, they reached out to voters in Beaufort, Charleston and Horry counties.

Tripp said canvassers talked to residents at roughly one in every three doors that they knocked on. If no one was home, door-knockers left literature supporting Cruz and followed up with a phone call, he said.

Keep the Promise had 15 full-time S.C. staffers and, at any given time during the campaign, about 100 canvassers, most paid but including some volunteers, Tripp said.

As she knocked on doors in Aiken County, Katharina Baker of Barnwell had an electronic tablet with her, logging information about voters’ responses.

The first question canvassers asked was who the resident’s favorite candidate was, Baker said. If the resident answered a candidate other than Cruz, Baker would record that answer on the tablet. Then, the canvasser would ask the resident’s second choice and record that answer.

Canvassers also would record if the resident was undecided, trying to persuade those voters to support Cruz, said O’Donovan of Aiken County.

If the resident supported Cruz, the canvasser would ask if they would put up a yard sign, Baker said.

Using the tablets allowed canvassers to capture additional data, Tripp said.

“We’re able to actually take that data and refine our targeting models, so the more you do of the door knocking, the more refined your models become,” Tripp said.

Elizabeth Kilmartin of Irmo, who worked as the Richland County organizer for Keep the Promise, said targeting likely Republican primary voters specifically was important. Knocking on the doors of Democrats or residents who did not plan to vote in the GOP primary would have been inefficient.

“The least likely people to vote for Cruz – we don’t want to bother them, and it’s a waste of our time and resources,” Kilmartin said.

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 5:04 PM with the headline "How pro-Cruz PAC targeted evangelical, likely GOP voters."