Trump’s sub-par ground game is a weakness they have had for some time. During the primary season, Donald Trump had trouble winning caucus states because his ground game was not all that strong. Trump has consistently downplayed data and a ground game even during the general election season.

Republican operatives are concerned Trump’s poor ground game is going to cost him, particularly in states expected to be close. 

Republican strategists on Monday dumped all over their party’s voter turnout operation, calling it insufficient to the task and lagging behind Hillary Clinton’s machine.

Some of the criticism was directed at Donald Trump. The Republican nominee de-valued field and data activities and in unusual fashion delegated voter turnout almost entirely to the Republican National Committee.

The RNC also came under fire for its performance, however, although some of the veteran GOP political operatives that spoke to the Washington Examiner said the party did as well as could be expected under the circumstances.

Republican insiders say the RNC battleground field operation and data analytics department are not as robust as those deployed and developed by the Clinton campaign, which has built on the successes of President Obama’s campaigns.

Having spoken with people close to the RNC since the 2012 election, they have worked very hard to improve their data operations, so they’re not contacting reliable Republican voters, but instead, people who need to be prodded to get out to the polls. It appears the Trump team hasn’t made much use of that information:

The Trump campaign has made strategic decisions based on an unorthodox approach that doesn’t efficiently utilize the RNC’s data and field army, sometimes ignoring them altogether.

If Trump and his team think it’s going to be enough to just have packed rallies, they’re in for a tidal wave of disappointment.