Republican voters are heading into Tuesday less motivated than Democrats in poll after poll, nationally and in New Hampshire.
One dark money group’s answer?
According to a Republican town committee chair recruiting for it, Turning Point USA is paying $500 a person to stand outside a polling place for five hours holding signs for US senate candidate John E. Sununu, US House candidate Anthony DiLorenzo, Gov. Kelly Ayotte, and other Republican candidates.
The offer surfaced this week in a private Plaistow Facebook group as Turning Point, the conservative group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, pours what its leaders call the largest Republican ground operation in state history into New Hampshire, with the open US Senate seat at the center of its plans.
“Turning Point is offering $500 per person to hold signs for Sununu, DiLorenzo, Ayotte, & our other candidates at the polls on election day,” the post reads. “They’re looking for 5-10 ppl per poll for a 5 hour shift each.”
That is $100 an hour, nearly 14 times New Hampshire’s $7.25 minimum wage. It is also more than three times the top of the $22.50 to $30.50 hourly range Turning Point Action, the organization direct political action arm, has advertised for a full-time trainer running its voter turnout program in Manchester.
Why would Turning Point pay people to hold signs?
Because the people who usually do it for free are not showing up in the numbers Republicans need.
Gallup’s final poll before Election Day found 48% of Republicans more enthusiastic than usual about voting, down from 66% in 2018. Pew Research found voters backing Democrats 17 points more likely to describe themselves as “extremely motivated.”
Four years ago, Republicans led on that measure.
The gap shows up in New Hampshire too. The Saint Anselm College Survey Center found 98% of Democrats extremely likely to vote this month, compared with 92% of Republicans. A Republican-leaning NPA Polling survey found 92% of registered Democrats rated their motivation a 10 out of 10, compared with 81% of Republicans.
CNN reported Friday that the alarm over low enthusiasm is now coming from inside the GOP. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has called turnout in his state underwhelming, and a Republican National Committee official said the job now is to “bother the crap out of these people” until they vote. The same report described Turning Point’s effort to track down Republican voters who don’t vote regularly as a work in progress.
What does the post say?
The message was shared in the “Plaistow NH & Friends Uncensored Community Board” Facebook group by Jeff Oligny, a Republican who represented Plaistow in the New Hampshire House from 2010 to 2016.
It is signed by “Mary Beth,” identified as chair of the Atkinson/Plaistow Republican Town Committee, and includes a phone number for anyone interested. A 2022 notice in the Carriage Towne News listed Mary Beth Torosian as the committee’s chairperson.
The post says Turning Point is “targeting Raymond, Exeter, Londonderry, Derry, Bedford, Windham, Salem, and Portsmouth,” eight towns in southern New Hampshire.
“If you know anyone interested let me know,” it says.
One commenter replied: “Imagine feeding some families with that $$”
How much money is this?
Going by the post’s own numbers, five to 10 people at each of eight towns at $500 apiece comes to $20,000 to $40,000 for a single day of sign holding in those towns alone.
That range is a figurative rounding error next to what Turning Point has budgeted for New Hampshire. WIRED reported in September that the group plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on the midterms, with New Hampshire, Arizona and Nevada as its three priority states.
Its super PAC alone is on track to spend $15 million to $20 million in ads across the three states. A super PAC is a type of political action committee that can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money on races. Meanwhile, its field operation, run through a nonprofit arm that does not have to report that spending publicly, was expected to cost tens of millions more.
Tyler Bowyer, the chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, told CNN in July the group was building the “biggest ground force that’s ever been put on the ground in New Hampshire” for Republicans and already had dozens of full-time staff in the state. Former state Republican Party chair Chris Ager told CNN the group is hiring local activists who know the state. Sununu’s campaign did not respond to CNN’s questions about the operation.
Turning Point Action’s New Hampshire ground game is run by a sitting state lawmaker. Rep. Lisa Mazur, a Goffstown Republican, lists herself as the group’s Chase the Vote state director for New Hampshire, and in February she welcomed a new Chase the Vote manager to the state team. Rep. Linda McGrath, another Republican, has posted recruiting pitches for the group, CNN reported.
Mazur did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The group has advertised full-time “ballot chase representatives” positions across the state, with listings in Plaistow, Deerfield, Ossipee, Bow, and Manchester. The job involves finding people in a precinct who rarely vote and get them to cast a ballot.
Paying people to work the ground game is nothing new. Elon Musk’s pro-Trump America PAC drew attention in 2024 for offering canvassers $30 an hour. The Turning Point offer in New Hampshire is more than three times that.
Who is Turning Point trying to elect in New Hampshire?
Turning Point Action put out its New Hampshire “Freedom Ticket” in September, endorsing Ayotte for governor, Sununu for US Senate, and Lily Tang Williams for the 2nd Congressional District.
Sununu, the Trump-endorsed former senator running against Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, has spent the fall answering questions about a stock portfolio betting on data centers, a $5,000 check from the former CEO of a company that shipped nearly 150 million opioid pills into New Hampshire, a board seat at an offshore company that stopped reporting its finances, and an ad claiming he opposed the Iran war and Trump’s tariffs after he had praised both.
DiLorenzo, the Trump-backed Republican nominee in the 1st Congressional District, is running against Democrat Stefany Shaheen. Granite Post has reported that his car company paid thousands in fines days before he won the primary, and that a $19 million yacht docked in his slip does not appear on his financial disclosure.
Ayotte, seeking a second term against Democrat Cinde Warmington, won’t say whether she still owns data center stock worth nearly $1 million as of recent reporting. Warmington’s closing message is built around corruption under the governor.
Turning Point’s interest in the state extends beyond Nov. 3. Erika Kirk, who took over the group after her husband’s death, has already endorsed Vice President JD Vance for 2028, and WIRED reported the New Hampshire operation is meant to build the infrastructure a Republican ticket would need to win the state in a presidential election.
What else has Turning Point done around New Hampshire’s polls?
Two weeks ago, Granite Post reported that Turning Point USA ran ads warning that one in eight New Hampshire residents could be turned away on Election Day, without saying where the figure came from. The ads did not mention that Republicans in Concord wrote the rules that could prevent some voters from casting ballots and that then-Gov. Chris Sununu, Sununu’s brother, signed them.
Polls are open Tuesday, Nov. 3, Election Day. Granite Post’s voter guide lists what to bring, and free and discounted rides to the polls are available statewide. Sign holders, paid or not, have to stay outside the moderator’s corridor, and voters can walk past them.
