Former President Donald Trump is stepping away from the battlegrounds this week to host rallies in New Mexico and Virginia — states that haven’t voted for a GOP candidate in two decades and lost by double digits in 2020 — and he’s flirting with a woman. A trip to New Hampshire.
Trump heads to Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday, confident that he is in such a good position to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail that he can take his attention away from the seven key battlegrounds that have been the focus of the two parties. the entire race.
A Trump campaign official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the strategy, said last week’s warehouse raid was part of a strategy to expand the map and take advantage of what the campaign says is Trump’s diverse coalition and favorable position on the map. claims to see broader momentum with voters.
“Trump has built a broad and diverse coalition by uniting the GOP, attracting independents and appealing to disaffected Democrats with his message,” the official said.
The source added that “the backlash includes states that have been trending for Democrats lately.” “All Americans understand that Kamala has broken our border, our economy and our ability to lead the world.”
The question about Trump’s Thursday speech in a city a mile above sea level is whether his campaign is basing its own supply on a reality that public polls have missed. In the vast majority of independent surveys New Mexico, Virginia and New Hampshire In recent weeks, Trump has lost more than 5 points.
New Hampshire was the closest, with a side query The New Hampshire Journal suggests the race is tied. But Trump and his team are seeing signs that he could be entering unpredictable territory with tailwinds in the election’s closing week.
A Trump campaign official said Trump is focused on boosting turnout in the countdown to Election Day, and part of the strategy is to dial in his closing message to contrast with Harris. columns from his closing argument: immigration, inflation, and foreign wars.
A second Trump campaign official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely, said that if he goes to a state, it’s because the campaign sees action there.
The Harris campaign had no comment.
There is no indication that Trump has all or any of the big seven states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina — in his bag. Trump lost in 2020 by less than 44 thousand votes spread over Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. To reach the Electoral College threshold of 270 votes and take back the White House, he will have to overcome several battlegrounds.
The decision to campaign outside of these locations, including a Madison Square Garden A rally in deep blue New York on Wednesday and a news conference in GOP-leaning Florida — led some Republicans to conclude that Trump was undermining political supporters on his own team.
“There’s no way someone who’s focused on 270 electoral votes is going to go to Virginia and New Mexico,” said a senior official who served on Trump’s 2020 campaign team. “So Donald Trump is running his campaign at this point. Period. Full stop.”
But current campaign officials say Trump and his team understand the relative value of each state visit and would not have planned rallies in Albuquerque and Salem, Virginia, if they did not believe he had a chance to win those states. .
Trump’s political director, James Blair, speaking on Fox News on Tuesday he said that surveys are undercounted Trump has historical support and indications that this could happen again. Blair said that since 2020, states like Arizona have moved to the right, potentially boding well for Trump. According to him, Trump also brought new people to the Republican Party, which could lead to an increase in the number of polls.
A second campaign official said Trump has no time to lose at this stage of the race. Races in those states could narrow quickly in the end, and they will be in play if the poll swings in Trump’s favor, the official said, adding that his campaign continues in neighboring states – Arizona, New Mexico, Virginia and a couple upstate. Carolina – can bleed in both directions.
If Trump ends up in New Hampshire, the person said, it’s because his campaign has seen its numbers increase in the Northeast at a time when New Hampshire is the most competitive of the New England states.
In another show of confidence, the Trump campaign recently dispatched former Democrats Robert F. Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard to Omaha, Nebraska, sending them to the “blue spot” of the ruby-red state, where Joe Biden won by more than 6 percent. In 2020 and where recent public inquiries Show Harris with an even more important lead. Both spoke at Trump’s New York rally, and Gabbard joined Trump a few days ago in the swing state of North Carolina.
The campaign sounds a decidedly optimistic note.
“I won’t feel comfortable until the race is called; you always run like you’re 10 points behind,” Blair told Fox News. “But for everything that can be measured right now, it looks very, very good for President Trump.”