Supporters listen to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally. | ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images Trump email asks Floridians to 'Stop Hillary' while Hurricane Matthew damages state

As Hurricane Matthew’s winds arrived on Florida’s coastline Friday, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign blew into Floridians’ email boxes to ask them a 30-question “Stop Hillary Survey” to defeat his Democratic rival.

“Friend, I’ve been reading your advice and listening to your concerns,” the email begins. “Between now and Election Day, we have one shared goal: Stop Hillary Clinton.”


The email, which can lead respondents to a contribution page for Trump, arrived in the midst of a two-day bipartisan round of finger-pointing where Republicans and Democrats have bashed the other for opportunistically stumping while Floridians are grappling with the threat of the monster storm.

On Wednesday, POLITICO first reported that Clinton’s campaign planned to spend $63,000 to reach the Weather Channel’s viewers for a five-day span. When Republicans seized on the planned ads as opportunistic, the Clinton campaign backed off and ordered cable systems in Florida not to run its advertisements on the Weather Channel.

On Thursday, POLITICO Florida reported that Florida Democrats pointed out that Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign was soliciting campaign contributions via email. But the Rubio campaign fired back, saying it emailed all supporters and asked them to donate to the Red Cross for storm recovery and that the campaign fundraising email Democrats highlighted was intentionally not sent to people in Florida, Georgia or South Carolina.

Trump’s campaign, however, made no such distinction when it reached out to supporters Friday morning with an email that primarily went to Floridians and bore the subject line “I want to hear from you.” The email asks supporters to lend a “hand in crafting an actionable plan to defeat her.” It then asks recipients to immediately take the “Stop Hillary Survey.”

The survey includes questions like: “Which of Hillary Clinton’s policies is most disastrous for our country?” “Which Clinton scandal(s) should Trump focus on? (select more than one).” “Do you approve of the term “Crooked Hillary”?”

When completed, the survey steers those providing an email address to a Trump fundraising appeal website.

The fundraising pitch from the Trump campaign was sent through a list owned by SharkTank.com, a conservative Florida-based website run by blogger Javier Manjarres, who told POLITICO Florida that about 98 percent of his list consists of Floridians.

Manjarres said he was unaware of this particular email. He said the Trump campaign likely purchased the email list from a third-party vendor. He said it's available for sale to anyone who wants to purchase it.

"If the Clinton campaign wants to buy it, they know how to find me," he said.