Trump: Voter data overrated

To win on personality, he says; Clinton plans spouse’s post

In this May 10, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower in New York.
In this May 10, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office at Trump Tower in New York.

ATLANTA -- Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he plans to win the White House largely on the strength of his personality, not by leaning heavily on complex voter-data operations that have become a behind-the-scenes staple in modern presidential campaigns.

In the Democratic race, voters in Kentucky and Oregon today will pick their favored candidate for president. Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont, spent Monday in Puerto Rico ahead of its June 5 primary. Front-runner Hillary Clinton spent Monday campaigning in Kentucky, where she announced that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will take on a leadership role on economic matters should she win the White House.

Republicans will vote in the Oregon primary today.

Shortly after Trump explained his campaign approach in an Associated Press interview -- referring to data as "overrated" -- one of his top advisers tried to clarify the remarks. Rick Wiley said the Trump campaign will indeed tap the Republican Party's cache of voter information.

The national Republican Party has spent large sums of money to develop the database since President Barack Obama's election set a new standard for using data in national campaigns, such as in deciding where to send a candidate and how to spend advertising dollars and in making sure supporters cast a ballot.

To be sure, Trump has not abandoned data. His campaign spending disclosures show payments to multiple data firms, and the campaign maintains contact information collected when voters register for tickets to his rallies.

Wiley, a recent addition to the Trump team who previously worked for the national party, said he is "working with the [Republican National Committee], putting together a state-of-the-art program." He predicted it would be able to match what "Obama was able to do in 2008."

Some Republicans have said they worry that Trump risks ceding potential advantages to Clinton if he's not willing to invest the money required to keep updating the data, and then use the information effectively.

"It's a big risk," said Chris Wilson, who ran an expansive data operation for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Trump's rival in the Republican primaries, before Cruz dropped out of the race.

Jeremy Bird, who worked for Obama's data-rich campaign, said, "Flying blind is nuts."

The use of data has evolved over the past several presidential campaigns into a shorthand for using information -- starting with simple lists of potential voters, then mated with extensive details about their habits and beliefs -- to guide a campaign toward its goal: the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

In his AP interview, Trump discounted the value of data.

The "candidate is by far the most important thing," he said. He said he plans a "limited" use of data in his general election campaign and suggested that Obama's victories -- viewed by political professionals as groundbreaking in the way data steered the campaign to voters -- are misunderstood.

"Obama got the votes much more so than his data-processing machine, and I think the same is true with me," Trump said, explaining that he will continue to focus on his rallies, free television exposure and his personal social media accounts to win over the voters.

Buzz Jacobs, who was on the losing end of Obama's success in 2008 as an aide to GOP nominee John McCain, said Trump oversimplifies the president's victories.

"We lost in large part because Obama's ability to use data was so much better than ours," Jacobs said.

Sanders in Puerto Rico

On the Democratic side, Sanders spent Monday in Puerto Rico, warning of a humanitarian crisis and calling on the U.S. government to support a debt restructuring in the territory.

Addressing a crowd in San Juan, Sanders called on the U.S. Federal Reserve to authorize emergency loans and use its authority to allow for a restructuring. Sanders also said hedge funds that hold a significant portion of the island's $70 billion public debt should take a "massive haircut" as the island continues to default on multimillion-dollar bond payments.

Hundreds of students gathered Monday night at the University of Puerto Rico to hear Sanders speak at the last of his three events.

"In the midst of this terrible human and economic crisis, it is morally repugnant that we are seeing vulture funds on Wall Street ... demanding that Puerto Rico fire teachers, close schools, cut pensions and abolish the minimum wage," he said.

The island is mired in a decade-long economic crisis and a public debt load that the governor has said is unpayable and needs restructuring.

Sanders said earlier in the day that he would alleviate Puerto Rico's economic woes in part by rebuilding infrastructure to create jobs and establishing a clean economy by harnessing the island's solar and wind resources. He also called for an independent audit of Puerto Rico's debt and said that if any of the debt violated the island's constitution, then it should be immediately set aside.

Sanders said he also would create a clear, binding referendum to give Puerto Ricans the chance to determine the island's political future, including whether Puerto Rico should become a sovereign country or a U.S. state, or whether it should overhaul its commonwealth agreement with the U.S.

Puerto Ricans can vote in U.S. primaries but not in presidential elections. More than 200,000 Puerto Ricans have left the island in the past five years to escape a worsening economic crisis. The majority of them have moved to the U.S. mainland.

Among those who left the island was Jose Hernandez, a 62-year-old retiree, who arrived early to set up signs supporting Sanders.

"Bernie pushed me into action," he said. "I was gone from Puerto Rico for 17 years, and when I came back everything was the same or worse. His message convinced me. It's the first time I hear a candidate speak with such humanity, dignity and respect."

Congress has stalled on approving a plan to help Puerto Rico manage a debt incurred over decades as government spending went unchecked. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he expects to introduce a revised bill in the coming days.

Sanders' visit came a day before Bill Clinton was to arrive to campaign for his wife, Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton released a statement Monday saying all U.S. citizens should have the right to vote for president regardless of where they live. She also said she supports a referendum to decide Puerto Rico's political future.

Puerto Rican Democrats will choose 67 delegates to the party's national convention. Clinton has 2,240 delegates and Sanders has 1,473 delegates. A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

In Kentucky, Clinton revived the notion of a 2-for-1 Clinton presidency, indicating that Bill Clinton will take the lead on the economy if she wins the White House.

What his work would be remains unclear; he would not fill a Cabinet post, Hillary Clinton said. But in some way, he'd be "in charge of revitalizing the economy," she said.

Bill Clinton was at the helm during a strong economy, especially in the final years of his presidency, but his economic legacy is mixed. The late 1990s were the last period to see sustained income gains for the typical American household. Middle-income wages have stagnated since then.

But his refusal to step up regulation of financial instruments known as derivatives was blamed in large measure for the collapse of the financial sector years later. The tech bubble of his time burst. And his agenda was driven by support for free-trade deals -- including one that gave China better access to the U.S. market -- that elements of both parties say are responsible for driving jobs out of the country.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton, said Monday that the former secretary of state would be getting ahead of herself to talk about "any sort of formalized role for anyone." But, he added, Bill Clinton "has a lot to offer, and it would be foolish not to use that in some capacity."

Later in the day, Clinton said it's "time people stopped listening to Republican propaganda."

She made the remark in response to a vocal critic during a rally in Hopkinsville, Ky. Clinton was praising the record of former Gov. Steven Beshear, a Democrat, noting education and employment gains, as well as his expansion of Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Clinton then said that Republican Gov. Matt Bevin is "trying to undo it all."

A woman then stood up and yelled, "Wait a minute, that's not true."

"Oh, yes it is, ma'am," Clinton shot back, amid cheers. "You are entitled to your opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts."

Clinton continued that because of Medicaid, "hundreds of thousands of working Kentuckians have health care."

In the Democratic contests today, 60 delegates are up for grabs in Kentucky and 74 are available in Oregon. Twenty-eight delegates are up for grabs in the Republican contest in Oregon.

Information for this article was contributed by Bill Barrow, Jill Colvin, Julie Pace, Thomas Beaumont, Lisa Lerer, Catherine Lucey, Danica Coto, Julie Bykowicz, Christopher S. Rugaber and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/17/2016

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