By Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch
Former President Trump will campaign in blue states during the final weeks of an election that will be won or lost in swing states. The question this week has been why the Republican nominee wants to eat up valuable time in terrain where Vice President Harris is widely expected to defeat him.
Trump is scheduled to appear Saturday in the vice president’s home state of California, and be in Colorado today. He’ll be in Chicago, Ill., on Tuesday and he plans a rally at the end of the month at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Colorado hasn’t voted for a GOP presidential nominee since George W. Bush in 2004. A Republican White House contender hasn’t captured New York since Ronald Reagan’s landslide in 1984.
So what’s Trump’s reasoning? Answers: gain some coast-to-coast media attention, expand the MAGA base, try to hold down support for Harris, curry favor with donors, lend downballot support to some GOP House candidates, and appear ultra-confident ahead of Nov. 5.
“The national media’s attention on these large-scale, outside-the-norm settings increases the reach of his message across the country and penetrates in every battleground state,” an unnamed senior Trump campaign adviser told NBC News.
The unorthodox strategy could pay off.
“In 2016, Trump realigned the party to be much more rural and working class. Now in 2024, he is trying to expand his voting base along certain cultural lines that may eat away at traditional Democratic voting blocs,” Republican operative Matthew Bartlett said.
Trump’s team feels increasingly optimistic about his chances of victory, which, in the campaign’s estimation, allows for some risk, another Trump adviser added.