Por Jonathan Allen and Katherine Doyle — NBC News
Former President Donald Trump is detouring from the swing state map this week to hold rallies in New Mexico and Virginia — states that haven’t voted for a Republican candidate in two decades and where Trump lost by double digits in 2020 — while also considering a possible trip to New Hampshire.
Trump heads this Thursday to Albuquerque, New Mexico, as his campaign is confident that he will defeat Vice President Kamala Harris, and that the Republican can afford to divert his attention from the seven most contested states on which the candidates have focused their efforts. resources throughout the contest.
A Trump campaign employee who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy said the Republican is looking to expand his coalition of support across the map and take advantage of the momentum who, he says, is seeing the Trumpist movement among the electorate.
“Trump has created a broad and diverse coalition that has unified the Republican Party, attracted independents and hooked Democrats on his message,” the source said.
“The strategy includes (campaigning in) states that have recently elected Democrats,” he added. “Every American understands that Kamala has destroyed our border, our economy, and our ability to lead the world.”
The question is whether the Trump campaign has too high expectations or whether it has seen something different than what the close election polls are showing.
In the vast majority of independent surveys in New Mexico, Virginia y New Hampshire In recent weeks, Trump has trailed Harris by more than 5 points. New Hampshire has been the closest state of them: an atypical survey of the New Hampshire Journal showed a tie.
Trump and his team have been seeing indicators that suggest the Republican could see a wind in his favor during the final week of the election race.
Trump is focused on boosting turnout in the election, his campaign staffer added, and part of his strategy includes insisting with his closing argument on drawing a contrast with Harris on the issues of immigration, inflation and foreign wars.
A second Trump campaign official who was granted anonymity to speak freely said that if the Republican visits a state, it is because he sees potential there.
Harris’ campaign had no comment.
There is no indication that Trump has secured all or any of the seven big swing states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina.
Trump lost in 2020 by fewer than 44,000 votes, spread across Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. The Republican will need to win several of those key states to reach the threshold of 270 votes in the Electoral College and return to the White House.
[Trump va a Pennsylvania en la recta final de su campaña, mientras Harris habla en Washington D.C.]
The decision to campaign outside those states—including a rally in el Madison Square Garden in New York and a news conference in Florida on Wednesday — has led some Republicans to infer that Trump is ignoring the political experts on his team.
“There is no chance that someone who is focused on winning 270 electoral votes will visit Virginia and New Mexico,” said a senior official who served on Trump’s 2020 campaign. “So Donald Trump is the one who is running his own campaign at this time.”
But current campaign officials indicated that Trump and his team understand the relative value of each visit to each state and would not be scheduling rallies in Albuquerque and Salem, Virginia, if they did not believe he had a chance of winning those states.
Trump campaign political director James Blair said Tuesday in an appearance on Fox News that polls have underestimated support for Trump historically and that there are indicators that this could be happening again.
Since 2020, states like Arizona have shown a movement to the right that may bode well for Trump, Blair added. And he said Trump also brought new people to the Republican Party that the polls might not be capturing.
The campaign feels very optimistic.
“I won’t feel comfortable until the race is decided; “You always run like you’re 10 points behind,” Blair told Fox News. “But by everything that can be measured right now, things are looking very, very good for President Trump.”
