The Trump campaign made a huge blunder in thinking they were a super-different, flying-below-the-radar campaign, so traditional GOTV efforts were not needed.
Lots of plugged-in, net-savvy Trump supporters agreed with this because, hey, the net and social media are so totally awesome. Therefore, on-the-ground precinct walking and phone banking is just last century and obsolete. Plus Trump was dominating mass media news and that could only be good. And then it wasn’t.
They were completely wrong. I helped organize massive anti-Iraq war protests in Los Angeles. We learned very early that the net was great for getting the word out but the real work had to be done in person. This included meetings with potential coalition partners, endless tabling, calling hundreds sometimes thousands of people. It generally took us three months to build a big protest, with a hard-core of about 30, many other volunteers, and thousands of hours of work.
The Trump campaign is missing in action in Vegas and elsewhere. The Clinton campaign is still full-bore, with precinct walking today, tomorrow, and on Election Day. Plus, there will be phone calls on Election Day to those who haven’t voted and offers of rides.
Elections cannot be won on the net and in media alone.