Jonathan Lemire: Trump Campaign Has ‘All But Written Off’ Winning Michigan
AP’s Jonathan Lemire explained on Thursday that the Trump campaign is concerned about the President’s chances in swing states, with Arizona being a particularly bad sign for his reelection. Lemire spoke to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough about recent polling there and in the crucial states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
“Pennsylvania’s always been interesting,” Lemire said. “Let’s flash back to 2016, obviously Hillary Clinton did well in the big cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, though not quite at the margins, particularly with Black voters, as Barack Obama did.”
“She also did well in the suburbs but Donald Trump was able to rack up huge margins in the exurban and rural counties throughout Pennsylvania. They had an impressive ground game in voter turnout operation there and he won very narrowly.”
“In going into this race, Michigan from day one was the one the Trump camp thought they’d have the hardest time keeping, and that has proven out. They’ve all but written it off. Although they’ve started to play there again a little bit in the last couple of weeks out of desperation if nothing else.”
“But Pennsylvania was next. They felt pretty good about Wisconsin, but Pennsylvania because of Joe Biden who was a Pennsylvania native, whose message was tailored to the white working class voters, and working voters of color in the state, and obviously an effort to boost turnout among voters of color and in the cities. But so far Biden is up, but it remains stubborn.”
“I should note since 2018, there’s been a real increase in Republican voter registration in Pennsylvania. And the Trump campaign feels really good about that. They feel like there are more voters there, potentially for him, in that state, which is about a 50/50 registration.”
“This may be a moment where, Joe, we see Pennsylvania in cycles to come potentially start to tilt red but right now Joe Biden because of who he is, is gonna hang onto it for Democrats one last cycle but it’s certainly gonna be close. It’s gonna be one of the tightest battlegrounds going forward and the Trump camp is throwing resources into it because they’re having trouble in other states and you mentioned it, Arizona, for them, is a bright red warning light. They’re scared about Arizona.”
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
