ELECTION/GOP/PENNSYLVANIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “More than two months after suffering devastating losses up and down the ballot in the midterm election, the leader of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party huddled privately with President Trump’s re-election campaign Thursday [1-17-19] to deliver his plan to stop the bleeding in 2020. The meeting, the first of its kind since the GOP lost a raft of Senate, House, gubernatorial and state legislative races in Pennsylvania, took place against the backdrop of a messy power struggle in the state party as well as a government shutdown that has dragged down Trump’s approval rating. Val DiGiorgio, chairman of Pennsylvania’s GOP, said his 2020 strategy includes ‘bringing Trump volunteers who were active in 2016 into the party proper,’ using text messaging to recruit party activists, and identifying issues that motivate the state’s swing voters. DiGiorgio also laid out a proposal Thursday to boost the state committee’s fundraising, which his internal critics have said has lagged since he took took over the party in early 2017.”
–Holly Otterbein, “Embattled GOP chief in Pennsylvania presents plan to save Trump in 2020,” Politico, January 18, 2019 10:44 am