GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is kicking his campaign into high gear after expanding his team with several recent hires.
After hiring senior advisors Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley, Trump is taking on a busier schedule with an increased number of campaign rallies and policy speeches.
On Monday, Trump held three campaign rallies, one in Rhode Island and two in Pennsylvania. Over the weekend, the New Yorker campaigned in Delaware, Maryland, and Connecticut ahead of the five state primaries on Tuesday.
Instead of taking a day off from the campaign trail following an election night, as Trump has done in the past, he has now planned two campaign events for Wednesday.
Trump will deliver a foreign policy speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon, and then he’ll jet to Indiana where he has an evening campaign rally in Indianapolis.
Further evidence of Trump’s more rigorous campaign style comes this upcoming weekend when, according to the Washington Post, the real estate mogul will make appearances at both the California and Virginia GOP conventions where delegates are selected.
Trump also has his Pennsylvania delegate slate prepared.
Pennsylvania: Cast your vote for Trump for POTUS & ALSO vote for the TRUMP DELEGATES in your congressional district! pic.twitter.com/1utaLLMfUa
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2016
Trump’s campaign was previously criticized for lack of preparation and organization with delegate slates in Colorado and Iowa.
Trump’s campaign kicking into high gear comes as his rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, formed a coordinated plan to stop Trump in upcoming primaries to prevent him from clinching the nomination by obtaining 1,237 delegates ahead of the Republican National Convention in July.
Late Sunday night, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns announced Cruz would focus campaigning in Indiana while Kasich focuses on Oregon and New Mexico.
But on Monday, Kasich caused confusion when he told people to vote for him in Indiana.
Kasich is also reportedly missing from the Oregon Primary Election voter pamphlet, despite that being a state he’s supposed to focus on according to his deal with Cruz.
Trump leads both Cruz and Kasich in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Rhode Island. All five states vote on Tuesday.
***UPDATE***
The Virginia GOP released a statement on Tuesday correcting the Washington Post’s report, saying Trump will not attend the Virginia GOP convention on Saturday:
The Republican Party of Virginia has confirmed that Donald J. Trump will NOT be attending the 2016 RPV Convention in Harrisonburg this weekend. Despite media reports to the contrary, Trump was never scheduled to speak at the convention.
We are honored any time any of our candidates visit the Commonwealth. Donald Trump has already visited Virginia on many occasions, and will no doubt return again in the near future.
RPV looks forward to working with our Presidential nominee to secure Virginia’s 13 Electoral Votes and ensuring that Hillary Clinton returns to the private sector. We hope this clarifies the situation.
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