Donald J. Trump’s first action as the Republican nominee for president of the United States may be to find somewhere else to host supporters and party insiders.
The Trump campaign tried to organize an Akron event with only two days notice. But a tentative agreement to rent out E.J. Thomas Hall at the University of Akron on Friday fell through after the campaign and the Secret Service, which had little time to develop a security plan for the event, visited the site Thursday.
Kathryn Wellner, a communications coordinator with the Trump campaign, reached out to UA Wednesday as Trump flew into Cleveland to hear his family and surrogates speak at the nominating convention. The plan was to rent out the 3,000-seat auditorium Friday afternoon for an undisclosed purpose.
Summit County Republicans were told by the campaign to find 53 people — three to warm up the audience with an invocation, the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem, and 50 VIPs.
Debbie Walsh, former executive director for the county party, said her team was close to finding names for the introductory speakers and was busy combing donor lists or contacting elected officials and candidates to pass out the VIP tickets.
Who would have sat in the other 2,950 seats is a mystery. The Trump campaign has not returned emails or phone calls seeking comment before or after the event was canceled around 3 p.m. Thursday.
While it’s not known if the event was a rally or a fundraiser, Trump has struggled to court donors in Ohio and elsewhere. And he may have even more trouble here after this week’s fallout with Gov. John Kasich, who has collected many loyal check-writers in his decades of public service.
Trump’s campaign had about $1.3 million cash on hand at the beginning of June. By comparison, Mitt Romney had three times as much at this point in 2012, according to federal campaign finance records.
Convention bump?
That could change, though, after this week’s convention in Cleveland.
Presidential candidates traditionally get what is called the convention bump after turning the corner on their nomination, exciting the party and heading into the one-on-one general election.
The bump will be evident in the next few days and weeks. Public polling will tick up, or down, and the donors will either open their wallets or never take them out.
“The big question is what kind of bounce will he get out of this week,” said UA political professor Dave Cohen. “Quite frankly I don’t think he’ll get a big bounce, if any.”
Last week, Trump hired Ed Crawford, a well-known Republican donor and industrialist from Mentor, to spearhead fundraising in Ohio.
This week his campaign staff called Kasich “petulant” and “embarrassing” for not endorsing his party’s nominee. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges told www.buzzfeed.com="">www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/trump-campaign-turns-toxic-for-kasich-allies-in-crucial-ohio?utm_term=.qnvqMle2x#.ga8Y3Qwkg">BuzzFeed News Thursday that Tim Biggam, a top aide to Kasich, turned down a job to drum up votes for Trump in Ohio.
Money to Clinton
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has continued to extend her campaign fundraising lead, heading into June with 33 times more than Trump had left. Trump, a lucrative real estate developer, has funded his campaign mostly on personal loans he promises not to pay back.
In all, Trump has spent significantly less than establishment opponents who fizzled out in the primary. Nonetheless, he trails Clinton by a couple points in most national polls.
And the Democratic presumptive nominee may get her own convention bump after her party’s coronation next week in Philadelphia.
“And if there’s one thing we know,” Cohen added, “it’s that Hillary Clinton is a fundraising machine. She’ll have no problem keeping the spigot open.”
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792, dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter: douglivingstonabj.