For some Republicans, the end of 2016 can’t come soon enough. To some Democrats, that means 2020 is just getting started.

Democratic operatives primarily focused on taking down Donald Trump are simultaneously mapping out — and in some cases kicking off — attacks on Republicans likely to challenge Hillary Clinton four years from now. The closing days of 2016, these Democrats say, offer obvious opportunities to hurt Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and, perhaps most specifically, Indiana Governor-turned-Trump-running-mate Mike Pence.


“We started the 2016 cycle the day after the 2012 election, and that was a successful model,” said David Brock, founder of American Bridge, the main Democratic opposition research group, which is helping to lead these efforts. "So while we’re focused on getting Hillary Clinton elected, we’re willing to use every moment in this cycle for the Democrats’ advantage ahead of 2020."

The preliminary efforts are a sensitive task not associated with Clinton's campaign or party leadership. Yet they’re far enough along that three lanes are taking shape as Democratic groups track footage of the trio, prep ads and push lines of messaging: Their short-term goals are to make “Mike Pence” synonymous with avoiding reality, to hang Trump around Rubio’s neck like an anchor, and to drive sharp wedges between Ryan and other GOP factions.

“The Republicans have been doing this to Democrats for years — they did it to Bill Clinton, trying to divide him from Democrats, and they tried it in Obama’s first term,” said South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison. “There are folks who are thinking four years down the road on behalf of a President Clinton, who would be in position for reelection. Pence has taken one for the team [by running with Trump], Speaker Ryan clearly wants to run. There are others, and people will try to ensure they can’t."

Clinton has long spoken with friends and political allies about Democrats’ need to do a better job of long-term planning up and down the ballot, and operatives expect Trump’s base to fracture even further than it already has in the coming months, making the 2017 landscape potentially treacherous for ambitious Republicans.

The job of defining possible White House hopefuls is a delicate one, however, and not just because of the difficulty of anticipating the political climate three years in advance or the risk of unwittingly elevating this trio.

And already, the effort to wound potential 2020 challengers is generating no small amount of tension within Democratic leadership circles. One set of Democrats working to win back the Senate including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, for example, was furious with the campaign wing’s recent move to take money out of the effort to unseat Rubio, arguing that defeating the senator now would end his second White House bid before it could begin. And the White House will need Ryan’s cooperation to pass legislation, so it’s in Clinton’s interest for the Wisconsinite to remain an effective conference leader even if others would prefer to make him a political pariah among Trump supporters.

Nonetheless, the preliminary playbook is coming together, beginning at American Bridge. Beyond one-off maneuvers like rolling a digital billboard truck touting Rubio’s Trump support past a campaign event and producing a video branding Pence as Trump’s “clean up man,” the group is now focused on constructing a post-election site that will house hours of video of Republicans — prominently including the 2020 contenders — praising Trump, for use by other liberal organizations. That project is similar to smaller scale ones at state parties and campaign groups, which have tracked down-ballot candidates to tie them to Trump.

And Democrats have also used unified public attack lines for the potential contenders. In the case of Pence, it’s meant seizing upon his early October debate performance to peg his name to impossible clean-up tasks: White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Friday referred to a spokesman in the Philippines attempting to explain his president’s remarks as “the Filipino Mike Pence."

(“If Hillary Clinton and the national media want to take a break from their relentless attacks on Donald Trump and waste ammo on Gov. Pence, we welcome it,” said Pence’s press secretary Marc Lotter. “It is music to my ears that they are already focused on trying to impact Mike Pence’s reelection as vice president in 2020.”)

Rubio, meanwhile, was the first Senate candidate who both President Barack Obama and Clinton mentioned by name as they harshly criticized Republicans for standing with Trump.

“I agree with the U.S. senator — a Republican — who, a while back, said that we can’t afford to give ’the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual.’ By the way, you know who said that? Marco Rubio. He also called Donald Trump a dangerous con artist who has spent a career sticking it to working people,” Obama said in Miami Gardens last week. “Now, that begs the question, since we’re in Florida. Why does Marco Rubio still plan to vote for Donald Trump? Why is he supporting Donald Trump?"

The Ryan offensive, meanwhile, has largely come from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and House Democrats as other party leaders remain wary of going after him, given they will likely need him come January if Clinton intends to get any of her policy priorities through Congress.

As Trump and his fans increasingly attack Ryan while conservative Freedom Caucus members agitate against the speaker of the House, Democrats have fanned the flames by highlighting his ties to the nominee despite his pained attempts to distance himself. The DCCC has seeded its messaging with frequent attempts to have Ryan answer for Trump’s latest provocations, tracking his public schedule, financing a cable ad buy against his CNN town hall in July featuring GOP voters criticizing Trump, and even launching a website making clear that Ryan, not Trump, is their main target.

Last week in Miami, former Rep. Joe Garcia, running again for Congress, went as far as to stage a protest against Ryan, calling him extreme and highlighting his ties to Trump as he campaigned for Garcia’s opponent.

“The story on Paul Ryan is going to be told in the next six months. He could come out of this with huge national respectability if Hillary Clinton wins, there’s a Democratic majority in the Senate, and he leads the effort with an infrastructure bill or something like that,” said former Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat. “Whether he can, I think, is the big question."

Ryan’s spokeswoman said his team isn’t shocked by the early assault. “It’s not surprising that Democrats will focus on trying to sow dysfunction, not governing, all in the name of politics,” said AshLee Strong.

Indeed, Charlie Sykes, an influential conservative radio host in Ryan’s Wisconsin, who opposes Trump, said it's the obvious play.

“This stain is going to take a very, very long time to rub off,” Sykes said. “I’m not going to enjoy watching it, but it would be political malpractice for [Democrats] not to do it."

Rachael Bade contributed to this report.