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Former President Donald Trump is set to focus his campaigning on the blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan as his campaign scrambles to change strategy after falling poll numbers.
Trump is backing away from three states that were a part of his target list as recently as six weeks ago, according to Axios. The former president will now campaign less in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Virginia.
Minnesota last voted for a Republican in the presidential race in 1972, when they backed Richard Nixon. New Hampshire most recently backed a Republican when they voted for George W Bush in the 2000 election and Virginia has been Democratic in presidential elections since 2004.
The change in strategy reveals how the race has shifted since the entrance of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic standard-bearer.
The Trump campaign is also set to try to regain his polling leads in North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada, which became competitive following Harris’s entrance into the race.
Earlier this summer, in late July, Trump was coming out of the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin with momentum looking like he would win the election.
His campaign held rallies in Virginia, Minnesota, and New Jersey, a state most recently won by a Republican in 1988. In memos, campaign staff wrote that both Minnesota and Virginia were “in play.”
After Biden’s departure and endorsement of Harris on July 21, things appear to have changed.
Trump is now scaling back his operations in New Hampshire, where a volunteer emailed others that the campaign “has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state,” according to The Boston Globe.
The email stated that the campaign should focus its efforts on Pennsylvania instead. But the campaign has rejected the volunteer’s claim and has said that its headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire is still open, the Boston Herald noted.
Things are also changing in Minnesota, where Trump and his running mate JD Vance campaigned after the Republican convention. The Trump campaign said at the time that it was set to open eight offices in the state, according to Axios.
But most of the offices in the state opened before Harris ascended to the top of the ticket and before she selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
The campaign has only announced two full-time members of staff in the state, but a spokesperson for the state GOP told Axios that the party has at least 14 staffers in the state.
The chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, David Hann, said that the state party and the Trump campaign have been working together with “our local organizations” to staff those offices.
Trump and Vance both rallied supporters in Virginia before Harris became the Democratic nominee. On June 28, the day after Biden’s disastrous debate performance in Atlanta, Trump visited Chesapeake in Virginia, while Vance was in Radford shortly after the Republican convention on July 22.
The Trump campaign is still arguing that it can win in Virginia, but polls have recently shown Harris building a consistent lead in the state.
“It’s a dead heat right now. I mean dead heat,” Eric Trump said last month, according to WVIR. “I think there’s a very good chance my father wins Virginia. I truly believe that we’re going to win the state.”
But Trump hasn’t rallied Virginia supporters in the last six weeks and his campaign seems to have ceased sending out memos pointing to internal polls.
The former president’s campaign is now spending large sums on ads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as in states where Trump seemed to be set to win without much effort. But in North Carolina, a Trump super PAC has spent over $16m on advertising to stave off Harris.
Trump battleground states director Rachel Reisner told Axios that “we have new staff, offices, and volunteers weekly — with more enthusiasm, energy, and support from people and states Democrats take for granted.”
