NEW BERLIN, Wis. — As she prepared to knock on her first door of the day, Alysia McMillan switched her red MAGA hat for a white one that read simply: AMERICA. It was part of the uniform issued by the America PAC, a political action committee formed by billionaire Elon Musk to campaign for former president Donald Trump.
McMillan, one of hundreds of canvassers working on behalf of the America PAC to turn out Trump voters in battleground states, was setting out for a full day’s work in this Wisconsin suburb. But three hours and about 30 doors later on a warm October afternoon, the 31-year-old was getting discouraged.
The mobile app she used to map her route and know which homes she should visit kept glitching. Several times it directed her to knock on the door of a house with blue lawn signs endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. Most of her knocks so far that day had received no response, and the few voters who answered were either undecided, or uninterested in talking.
“That’s none of your business,” one woman said after McMillan asked if she was planning to vote for Trump. “I’m on the fence,” said another, who refused to elaborate when McMillan gently asked why. “I’m not voting for Trump!” exclaimed a third as she slammed the door.
America PAC has emerged as a significant player in Trump’s bid for a second term, running perhaps the most ambitious independent get-out-the-vote operation for the Republican candidate in the campaign’s final weeks. In addition to Wisconsin, the group is focused on other battleground states, including Pennsylvania, where it is planning a canvasser hiring surge before Election Day, according to two people familiar with the effort and Musk’s thinking. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional repercussions from describing its strategy.
At the same time, Musk’s characteristically erratic leadership style, including towering demands and sudden firings, has at times impeded his political project, potentially limiting its effectiveness in the final stretch of the presidential race. A spokesperson for the America PAC declined to comment. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk, one of the world’s richest people, started the committee this spring with grand visions of triggering a “red wave” by sending canvassers across the country to reach hundreds of thousands of swing-state voters who were disengaged from politics or not registered to vote, according to people familiar with the PAC’s origins. He is fully engaged in the PAC and supporting Trump’s campaign, the two people familiar with the effort said.
Determined Trump supporters like McMillan, paid about $20 to $40 an hour, are the backbone of Musk’s plan to elect Trump. America PAC reported spending $87 million on the presidential race as of Oct. 9, with 61 percent committed to field operations, according to filings from the Federal Election Commission. More information on the PAC’s finances will become available after the next quarterly filing deadline this week.
Musk’s focus on the PAC’s door-knocking operations fits with his disdain for conventional advertising such as TV ads at his automaker Tesla. He largely grew the company into an electric vehicle behemoth with word-of-mouth referrals and his own attention-grabbing persona.
Some of his early advisers on the PAC warned Musk he was trying to move too fast for such an ambitious political project, cautioning that it would require months more to properly hire and train the necessary staff, according to a person familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions.
Musk declined to dilute his ambitions, the person said, appearing to believe that “if we just run out there with clipboards and tell people what’s at stake, they will be convinced.”
In July, the PAC fired two of its initial vendors as they were ramping up their work, leading the committee to start over just months before the election. A few weeks later, the committee fired another vendor that had been brought on to lead canvassing efforts in Arizona and Nevada after the initial round of firings, said another person familiar with the decisions.
The chopping and changing at the top has made it more difficult to hire foot soldiers like McMillan needed for the exhausting work of knocking on dozens of doors a day. Finding recruits willing to do that at this stage in the campaign is a tall order. In Arizona and Nevada for example, where summer and fall temperatures have been searing, retention has been difficult, according to a person familiar with operations in those states.
“How many people do you know that can just take time off to go knock doors,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the PAC’s plans. “Who are those people? And then they get out there and it sounds good and then you go out and work in summer heat and realize it’s not for me.”
America PAC has also invested heavily in direct mail, including materials that focus on getting voters to check their voter registration or cast ballots. The group is the single largest sender of those mail pieces in the country this year, surpassing all of the GOP state parties combined, according to Mintt, a firm that surveys homes to track political mail.
“They’ll do anything to stop him,” reads one mailer, over a picture of Trump with a bloodstained face raising his fist after a July assassination attempt. “Scan here to apply for your absentee ballot.” That appeal comes despite Trump’s record of falsely claiming absentee or mail voting is often tainted by fraud.
This month, America PAC absorbed the staff of another pro-Trump committee in Wisconsin, Turning Point, with the goal of maximizing turnout in the state. A person familiar with the decision said the pairing is mutually beneficial: Turning Point can tap Musk’s deep pockets, while America PAC can obtain much-needed staff.
Musk is notorious in the tech industry for an aggressively hands-on management style and firing people or whole teams that don’t meet his goals. He laid off thousands of people at Tesla this year, including its team working on the company’s EV charging network. Musk’s takeover of Twitter saw him fire more than three-quarters of its staff.
He has been similarly tough with political vendors, expressing concerns about transparency and “grifting,” said one of the people familiar with his thinking. “Elon has high standards,” the person said. “Elon is the kind of guy, if something or someone is not working, he’s going to cut it.”
At a recent training session held by one of America PAC’s vendors in a battleground state, canvassers were told that it would be difficult to knock on the hundreds of thousands of doors assigned to them in the state before Election Day, according to a person at the training who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The canvassers were told to focus their remaining time on getting confirmed Trump supporters to vote early, instead of spending precious time trying to change the minds of undecided or Harris voters.
A short script given to canvassers in Wisconsin told them to say that the former president would lower taxes and crack down on illegal immigration. A door hanger created by the PAC said Harris is “DANGEROUSLY LIBERAL” and would hike taxes, open the border and let criminals “walk free.”
On the ground, McMillan — who unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives in 2020 — said she is thankful Musk is helping efforts to get Trump elected because of his “money, brains and clout.” But despite his technological prowess, she said, his operation is decidedly low tech.
One of the apps canvassers working for the PAC rely on requires cell service to operate, she said, causing holdups in rural areas with low connectivity. McMillan said she would sometimes abandon the planned route or pick houses to visit herself.
Last month, McMillan got into a dispute over her pay and the hours she worked with an America PAC contractor she previously worked for in North Carolina. She was fired as a result, she said, but shortly after was hired by another America PAC vendor to canvass in Wisconsin and Georgia.
A spokesperson for the America PAC declined to comment about the dispute.
After McMillan tagged the America PAC in a post on X this month about her pay dispute Musk responded in a way that appeared to acknowledge problems at the PAC. “Sorry, so many dumb things happening. Working on fixing,” he wrote.
On doorsteps in New Berlin, McMillan told the few people she came across that afternoon who said they would vote for Trump that they needed to cast their ballot ahead of Election Day.
“Why would I do that?” one man asked. “Well, you remember what happened in 2020,” said McMillan, who endorses Trump’s false claims to have won that year’s election, a position also recently adopted by Musk.
The man said that was a fair point and McMillan pulled out her phone to search for his closest early polling location. “Go Trump!” the man said, as she headed off to knock on her next door.
The next day, McMillan drove more than 10 hours to Georgia where she said she was greeted by “big ol’ Trump signs” as she crossed into the state. “I’m feeling good about Georgia,” she said.
Michael Scherer and Clara Ence Morse contributed to this report.