Trump campaign says impeachment vote was a fundraising boon

President Donald Trump’s campaign says House Democrats’ vote to formally launch an impeachment inquiry has only emboldened the President’s supporters and bolstered their campaign contributions.

“Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment resolution day turned into a MASSIVE fundraising day for ⁦‪@realDonaldTrump⁩,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted Friday morning.

According to Parscale, the campaign raised $3 million online in one day, totaling $19 million in funds raised over the course of the month.

The $3 million addition came the same day the House passed the resolution, which the campaign called a “sham.”

“Today’s vote merely proves that the entire impeachment process was a sham from the beginning and Nancy Pelosi can’t legitimize it after the fact,” Parscale said in a statement following the resolution vote. “Voters will punish Democrats who support this farce and President Trump will be easily re-elected.”

Trump’s one-day haul highlights his campaign’s heavy use of digital advertising to reach potential supporters and donors — a year ahead of the 2020 election.

The campaign’s heaviest spending isn’t in swing states, such as Michigan or Pennsylvania, but in donor-rich parts of the country, such as Texas and California, according to a CNN tally of Facebook advertising data compiled by the Democratic-leaning firm Bully Pulpit Interactive.

The Lone Star State received the biggest share of Facebook spending by the Trump campaign and its affiliated Trump Make America Great Again Committee since late March of this year — nearly 9% of its total spending on the platform, the data show.

The fundraising bump also came during the final days of the month, a period when nearly all active political campaigns rally supporters to ramp up contributions ahead of the close of the monthly report to the Federal Election Commission. The campaign push, in the final week of this month, included offers to triple and even quintuple all donations.

The Trump campaign has been positioning itself this fall to be ready to capitalize on Trump’s perceived accomplishments and political battles.

During the final game of the World Series earlier this week, the campaign launched a seven-figure ad buy, airing a video nationally which checked off the President’s accomplishments and went after his Washington rivals. It focuses on Trump’s efforts to combat ISIS and boost the economy, and it also highlights his battles with Democrats and the Russia investigation.

On Friday, a day after the House vote, Facebook ads from the Trump Make America Great Again Committee asked supporters to “add your name” to the people willing to “Stand with President Trump” in the face of the impeachment inquiry.

Supporters then are encouraged to leave their names, email addresses, ZIP codes and mobile numbers.

In a recent conference call with reporters, a Trump official called the reelection effort a “digital first campaign” that can swiftly seize on fast-moving news, such as developments in the impeachment inquiry, to target voters and test and tweak advertising messages on digital platforms.

“They are running a highly sophisticated operation,” Reid Vineis, vice president for digital at Republican ad-buying firm Majority Strategies, said of the Trump operation. “The Trump campaign has been essentially building a database for the 2020 general election.”

Of particular value: The campaign’s collection of mobile phone numbers.

“Politics is much more effective at a one-to-one level,” Vineis said. “Text messages are read almost 100% of the time. The Trump campaign’s accumulation of all this text-messaging data gives them a direct line to voters.”