The hard work and vision of a top policy and advocacy group in the America First movement helped make the difference in the 2024 presidential election, as several of its chairmen prepare to join the new Trump administration, a top official said.
America First Works executive director Ashley Hayek told Fox News in a Monday interview that her group has succeeded in focusing on popular policies from the first Trump administration and bringing those to state governments.
As the 2024 race heated up, Hayek said, America First Works turned to voter turnout as its plan to continue the prevalence of the political movement’s message.
“How do we educate people on these policies even more and mobilize voters?” she recalled asking.
“So we did a major study and analysis of the over 3,100 counties across the country, and we identified 21 key counties that we knew would be really important to be successful. And keep in mind that these are states that some were blue, some were red, some were purple, but some of the states were called in favor of Joe Biden in 2020 by only a 10,000 vote advantage,” she said.
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President-elect Trump (Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images)
The initiative, nicknamed “Project 19” after the original 19 counties it targeted, sought to bring out to the polls low- and no-propensity voters. The latter is largely unique in the campaigning realm: seeking out voters technically considered “active” on state rolls but who have not voted in the past four cycles.
It not only targeted counties in swing states or reliably conservative states, but also in blue states like New York and New Jersey. In the latter, Trump came within four points of flipping it red for the first time this century, while a majority of New York’s counties voted for the Republican but were outweighed by the five boroughs, Erie County (Buffalo) and a couple others.
“I think it’s kind of no secret when you look at any of the major media markets and the counties that those touch – look at Phoenix – that’s Maricopa County, Las Vegas, it’s Clark County, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, these are major urban areas, but they all have collar counties as well that become battlegrounds for both parties.”
“And when we were on the ground, we would see, from time to time, Kamala Harris door-knockers, not as often as we thought we would,” Hayek said.
The group’s election integrity work led them to target voters in places like Bucks County, Pennsylvania – where the RNC had launched a lawsuit after early voters were turned away from the Doylestown elections office.
“We were able to message directly to voters saying, ‘Hey, stay in line, don’t get out of line,'” she said.
“We would call ahead to find out how long the line was for some of our elderly folks who couldn’t wait in line that long.”
“Those are the types of tactics just making it more accessible to vote. That’s what conservatives want to do. We want to make it easier to vote, harder to cheat. That’s been our mantra the entire time.”
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President-elect Trump tapped AFPI’s Brooke Rollins as agriculture secretary. (Fox News)
Through its voter outreach operations, Hayek said her group’s canvassers noticed a shift in pro-Harris activity from the Sun Belt to the Rust Belt – noting the latter had been President Biden’s strategy.
Hayek suggested Harris shifted to shoring up areas that had been in Biden’s pocket because her lack of “strategic messaging” was not resonating in those places as his once did.
A California native, Hayek said her group is also very involved in the Golden State despite its blue bent.
“I do think you’re seeing more of a cultural shift. I do think that we’re going to have to do things at a more local level in the state of California, and we’re going to have to start working together in a lot better ways,” she said.
With crime and taxation continuing to plague the elector-rich state, Hayek said she hopes to see America First Works’ work there continue to make inroads, similar to how former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., got relatively close to unseating Gov. Kathy Hochul in New York by focusing on issues and eschewing hyper-partisanship.
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President-elect Trump shakes hands with former Congressman Lee Zeldin. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
America First Works’ partner group, America First Policy Institute, has since seen at least four of its leaders tapped for roles in the new administration, including Zeldin.
Co-founders Brooke Rollins and Linda McMahon are agriculture and education secretary-designates, respectively, while Zeldin and fellow co-chairman ex-Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., are also primed for White House roles in 2025.
“I think this is a really exciting time not just for America First Works, but for all Americans,” Hayek said.
“And one of the things that was really important to us was having conversations with voters… so we made sure to collect information about what policies people cared about the most: is it the economy, is it the border, is it education? So to be able to continue those conversations throughout 2025, 2026 and beyond is going to be really important for this movement.”
Fox News Digital’s Emma Woodhead contributed to this report.
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