WASHINGTON — Waves of campaign staffers are being dispatched to battleground states. Advisers are starting to consider locations for a splashy convention rally in Philadelphia. An army of lawyers is scrutinizing more than two dozen possible vice presidential picks.

Though she has yet to clinch the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton and her team are taking early steps into a general election campaign. Aides are working under the assumption that Republican front-runner Donald Trump will be her opponent.

Six months before the presidential election, they’re looking beyond primary rival Bernie Sanders and preparing their candidate and party for what may be a hard-fought — and ugly — fall campaign.

Starting this week, Clinton campaign employees are being sent to battleground states across the country, among them Ohio, Florida and Colorado. Democrats are also eyeing the possibility of making a run at Republican-leaning states such as Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona, calculating that Trump’s penchant for controversy could put minority and female voters in play.

“Everybody’s got their game face on,” said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, who was going to South Dakota on the weekend to campaign for Clinton.

Aides from the primary are getting general election marching orders. Simone Ward, political director of the campaign committee for Senate Democratic races, will run Clinton’s Florida operation. Emmy Ruiz, who led a crucial Nevada primary win for Clinton, will handle Colorado.

“The sooner you can get up and running the better,” said Dan Pfeiffer, who advised President Barack Obama. “On the Republican side, Trump has not built anything resembling the sort of field operation it takes to win.”

Plans are also beginning to take shape for a convention that will prominently feature Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton and the vice presidential nominee.

Taking a page from Obama’s 2008 convention address at Mile High Stadium in Denver, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a close Clinton ally, is urging the campaign to hold a major speech outside Independence Hall, where the Constitution was signed.