Behind closed doors, top strategists for Donald Trump’s campaign told donors that they believe they can flip the Democratic strongholds Minnesota and Virginia red.
Trump’s team presented their plan to the former president’s financial backers at a Republican National Committee retreat on Saturday.
Availing themselves of internal surveys, pollster Tony Fabrizio – one of Trump’s favorites – and senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles made their pitch to the donors.
According to two witnesses who were present at the meeting, which took place at the Four Seasons resort in Palm Beach, the presentation was centered around finances, messaging, and the political map.
Trump’s top strategists told donors on Saturday that they believe the former president could eke out narrow victories in the Democratic strongholds of Minnesota and Virginia
Using internal polls, Trump’s strategists demonstrated how tight the election is in the two states
The upshot of Fabrizio’s polls showed Trump eking out narrow victories in critical swing states from 2020, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
But the politician’s top strategists didn’t stop there. They also discussed an ambitious plan to make further inroads into Democratic territory.
Trump’s team argued that the former president could defeat Biden in the Democratic strongholds of Minnesota and Virginia.
Meanwhile, President Biden’s strategists harbor similar hopes, aspiring to flip North Carolina, where Republicans have won for the past three presidential elections.
Biden’s team also hopes to prevail in Florida, where Republicans have emerged victorious in the previous two presidential elections.
In 2020, Biden nabbed the presidency by a margin of 74 electoral votes. Wins in critical states like Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia helped propel him to victory.
‘I think that the Biden campaign is deliberately playing a faux game by talking about [how] they’re going to expand the map in Florida and North Carolina,’ Trump adviser Chris LaCivita told NBC.
‘But we have a real, real opportunity in expanding the map in Virginia and Minnesota.’
‘We have a real, real opportunity in expanding the map in Virginia and Minnesota,’ said Chris LaCivita (pictured0, a senior adviser for Trump
In a head-to-head matchup in Minnesota, Trump’s team found that the former president would win with 49 percent to Biden’s 46 percent
The internal polling conducted by Trump’s team is fairly consistent with the few public surveys that depict Biden with a narrow lead in Virginia.
However, the strategists’ polling that evinces a Trump win in Minnesota is at variance with the limited surveys that have been completed in that state.
But both the state polls and the polls conducted by Trump’s campaign fall within their margins of error.
This means one thing: A tight race in Minnesota and Virginia.
LaCivita explained that they tested Trump’s success in three different scenarios: in a head-to-head matchup with Biden, and in four-way and six-way races.
In a six-way competition in Minnesota, the strategists found that Trump and Biden were locked at 40 percent each, while Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the Independent ticket, scored 9 percent.
When the parameters were narrowed, and it became a race between four candidates, Trump beat Biden 46 percent to 41 percent.
In a head-to-head election, Trump still defeated Biden 49 percent to 46 percent.
In 2020, Biden won the presidency with the help of key victories in critical states like Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia
Biden’s team is also eyeing Republican territory, hoping to flip GOP bastions like North Carolina and Florida in November
In 2020, Biden prevailed in Minnesota by about seven percentage points. The state has not gone to Republicans since Richard Nixon trounced George McGovern in 1972.
In Virginia, Trump’s top officials found that Biden pipped out a narrow victory over Trump in a six-way competition- Biden finished with 40 percent, Trump with 37 percent, and Kennedy with 8 percent.
In a four-candidate race, that margin narrowed even further, with Biden at 42 percent and Trump at 41 percent.
In a head-to-head matchup, Trump fared worse, finishing with 44 percent, while Biden scooped up 48 percent.
Trump’s strategists have not yet made their full surveys, as well as their methodology, available to the public.
Campaigns traditionally make sweeping promises to donors- including winning in enemy territory- as an inducement for contributing larger sums of money.
Biden’s team issued a scathing statement in response to the meeting conducted by Trump’s pollster and top advisers.
In Virginia, Trump’s advisers found that Trump would currently finish with 44 percent to Biden’s 48 percent- a gap that they hope to narrow before November
‘Trump’s team has so little campaign or infrastructure to speak of they’re resorting to leaking memos that say ”the polls we paid for show us winning, don’t ask us to show you the whole poll though,”’ Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said.
‘While we have 150 offices open with hundreds of staff across key battlegrounds, the RNC is closing offices and hemorrhaging money on legal fees,’ Hitt continued.
‘Joe Biden has hit every battleground at least once, while Trump’s in the courtroom or on the golf course.’
‘We’ll see how that translates in November.’