The Roanoke City Republican Committee says they are on track to reach 15,000 Roanoke City voters by election day. The stated goal is to get out the vote for Roanoke City Council’s Republican Peg McGuire and Maynard Keller. The Committee says they are also helping the campaigns of Congressman Ben Cline, Senatorial candidate Dan Gade, and President Donald J. Trump.
“When the current city council moved the election from May to November, we looked at it as a gift,” said Peg McGuire, Republican candidate for Roanoke City Council. “We could tap into President Trump’s robust database and get-out-the-vote efforts.”
The Roanoke GOP launched their get-out-the-vote initiative in June with nearly 150 volunteers. They knock on doors, make phone calls, place signs in yards, transport people to early voting, and register new voters.
Earlier this summer, President Trump’s campaign announced that it would knock on one million doors per week until election day. “The collaboration of our campaigns with the Cline, Gade, and Trump campaigns has helped us canvas, phone bank, and set up small meet and greets,” McGuire said. “By sharing resources, data, and events, we are reaching Roanoke’s conservative and independent voters.”
During the 2016 presidential election, 35,000 Roanoke voters went to the polls, with nearly 15,000 voting for President Trump and 18,000 for Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte. (Goodlatte has since retired and Congressman Ben Cline (R) was elected to the seat.)
“Based on the enthusiasm we are observing for the Trump-Pence re-election, we are confident that we can exceed those numbers in 2020,” said Charlie Nave, chairman of the Roanoke City Republican Committee.
During the 2016 Presidential election, President Trump won the Preston Park, East Gate, Southeast Roanoke, Garden City, South Roanoke, and Deyerle precincts. President Trump came close to winning the Williamson Road, Hollins Road, Crystal Spring, and Grandin Court precincts.
Nave said that the Roanoke Republican Committee spent the past year recruiting volunteers and building enthusiasm for the party in Roanoke City.
“Two things are abundantly clear: Donald Trump’s support has grown since 2016, and our voters want people on city council who support the police and businesses,” Nave said. “The enthusiasm can be seen in the growth of the Roanoke Republican Committee, membership and donations to the Roanoke GOP have nearly tripled from 2019.”
