October 31, 2024 10:47 AM UTC

Local Canvassing Firm's Big Elon Musk Contract Takes Horror Show Turn

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

We wrote just over a week ago about a brewing scandal inside gazillionaire Donald Trump supporter Elon Musk’s America PAC operation, which has taken over responsibility for field campaign efforts for the Trump campaign in a number of key states. An investigation in the UK Guardian revealed that a large percentage of the campaign’s recorded voter contacts as logged through an app on the canvasser’s phone could have been faked by canvassers falsely logging doors they never knocked on. One of the principal contractors hired by America PAC to carry out this field campaign is Denver-based Blitz Canvassing, part of the family of conservative political services shops owned by former gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry and longtime partner Tim Pollard.

But in a shocking report yesterday evening from Wired Magazine’s Jake Lahut, Blitz Canvassing faces allegations far worse than cheating Elon Musk out of a few dollars for fake door knocks. Canvassers hired by Blitz to work on the America PAC field campaign allege illegal and unsafe working conditions, and absurdly high quotas backed by threats to strand workers thousands of miles from home if they didn’t meet them:

In Michigan, canvassers and paid door knockers for the former president, contracted by a firm associated with America PAC, have been subjected to poor working conditions: A number of them have been driven around in the back of a seatless U-Haul van, according to video obtained by WIRED, and threatened that their lodging at a local motel wouldn’t be paid for if they didn’t meet canvassing quotas. One door knocker alleges that they didn’t even know they were signing up for anything having to do with Musk or Trump.

The contract these door knockers signed with Blitz Canvassing, which is a subcontractor of Musk’s America PAC, says they are “expected to maintain a 17-22% engagement rate during the campaign,” which is a high target relative to the number of people who typically open their door for a stranger. A group of out-of-state America PAC canvassers were told during a recent team meeting that if they didn’t hit their targets, which the door knocker says were more than 1,000 a week on total doors knocked, the organization would stop paying for their motel rooms… [Pols emphasis]

Blitz Canvassing, which had received more than $9 million from America PAC for presidential campaign canvassing as of October 29, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The story describes campaign workers being flown into the swing state of Michigan, then put to work under threat that their hotel rooms and return flights wouldn’t be paid for if they didn’t meet very high performance targets. Instead of renting actual passenger vehicles with seats and seat belts, the canvassers were reportedly driven around in U-Haul vans, which is definitely illegal. If these stories are true, we’re basically talking about a human trafficking operation to supply low-wage workers under continuous threat of being made homeless if they don’t work like dogs.

An alleged human trafficking operation run by a former candidate for Colorado governor, who has directed Republican campaigns in Colorado for over a decade. Blitz Canvassing has done field work for Republican candidates in 2024 from presidential loser Ron DeSantis to Jeff Crank in the CO-05 race. Blitz also helped Democratic minor candidate Cornel West make the ballot in North Carolina. Through Blitz’s sister organization the 76 Group, Penry and friends have had a hand in Republican campaigns from CO-04 loser Jerry Sonnenberg to 2022’s failed but very profitable self-funded campaign by Joe O’Dea for the U.S. Senate. In short, these are some of Colorado’s best-known and connected Republican political consultants. How many local campaigns have been managed the same way?

If your door happens to be knocked by America PAC canvassers in the election’s final few days, instead of telling them to pound sand, you might check to see if they need help escaping an exploitative work arrangement. If they arrived in a U-Haul van, call the cops: not on the canvassers themselves, but to ensure they have safe transportation out of your neighborhood.

And unless you’re looking for a contractor who fakes work and dangerously exploits their workers, consider an alternative to Blitz Canvassing for your next field campaign.