Donald Trump’s Colorado campaign is ramping up operations in the battleground state with just three months to go before Election Day.

On Thursday, the Trump campaign hired a top Colorado Republican Party staffer to serve as political director for the presidential candidate’s state campaign, a Trump campaign official said.

The campaign has also recently opened two offices on the Front Range and will soon be operating five offices across the state.

Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, have both campaigned in Colorado in the past week, each making stops for rallies and town hall events in Denver and Colorado Springs. Both candidates also attended fundraisers in the state.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton spoke at a rally in Commerce City on Wednesday and attended two fundraisers during her visit.

Jefferson Thomas, the state GOP’s political director, won’t even have to change desks for his new job filling the same post with the Trump campaign, state director Patrick Davis told The Colorado Statesman. That’s because the campaign is running operations out of the Republican Party’s Greenwood Village headquarters, where Thomas has worked in his current position since March.

“We are pleased to hire Jefferson Thomas as our political director because he had tremendous experience with the state party in Colorado,” Davis said in a telephone interview. “We have been relying on Jefferson for the last week for the Trump events and the Pence events, he’s been a man for all seasons.”

The Colorado Trump campaign, Davis added, “is growing at a feverish pace,” opening offices in Loveland and Wheat Ridge this week and is in the process of adding office space in El Paso and Mesa counties.

Trump has some catching up to do in the battle for the state’s nine electoral votes.

The Clinton campaign is opening its 13th Colorado office, in Lakewood, on Thursday evening and is scheduled to open a 14th office on Saturday in Brighton. Offices are already up and running in north Denver, west Denver, Wheat Ridge, Aurora, Fort Collins, Greeley, Boulder, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Carbondale, Grand Junction and Durango, according to state campaign spokeswoman Meredith Thatcher.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com