Pushing for new paths to re-election, President Donald Trump goes on the offensive this weekend in Nevada, which has not endorsed a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.
Trump is confronting local authorities by holding public events on Saturday and Sunday after state officials blocked his initial plans for demonstrations in Reno and Las Vegas because they would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. It’s the kind of political fight that Trump’s team enjoys and underscores Nevada’s growing importance in Trump’s pursuit of 270 electoral votes, as the race against Democrat Joe Biden seems tight in several key states.
Trump narrowly lost Nevada in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, and the state has leaned even more toward Democrats in the past decade. But the Trump campaign has invested heavily in the state, relying on its ground game to attract voters. Democrats, by contrast, have relied heavily on virtual campaigning efforts during the pandemic, save for the Culinary Union of Casino Workers, which has sent workers door-to-door.
Democrats are scared. They know that President Trump has the momentum, ”said GOP state chairman Michael McDonald.
Both candidates have spent about $ 4.5 million in Nevada, while Trump has made $ 5.5 million in future reservations in the state and Biden has allocated $ 2.5 million, according to ad tracking firm Kantar / CMAG.
Trump’s team originally planned rallies at airport hangars in Reno and Las Vegas, but state officials sank them out of concern that the campaign would not comply with Covid-19 restrictions. State Republicans blamed Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak for trying to hurt the president’s re-election chances. Sisolak has limited indoor and outdoor in-person meetings to 50 people since May, a recommendation based on the White House reopening guidelines.
Instead, Trump scheduled an event in Minden, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Reno, on Saturday night. He planned to host a “Latinos for Trump” panel discussion Sunday morning in Las Vegas, followed by an evening rally at a manufacturing plant in neighboring Henderson.
Privately, the Trump campaign welcomed the fight, believing it highlighted a reelection theme: Trump’s insistence that the nation has turned the pandemic around, while Democrats, including Biden and governors, are damaging the nation’s economy and psyche with strict restrictions. The pandemic, which has killed more than 190,000 Americans, still claims 1,000 lives a day.
“The fact that Donald Trump is even considering holding these unsafe events in the midst of a global pandemic is just the latest example of his poor judgment and utter disregard for the public health and safety of Nevadans,” said Madison Mundy of the state Democratic Party. .
The White House announced on Saturday that Trump will visit California on Monday to receive information about the devastating wildfires raging through the region. For the most part, he has been silent on the fires, which Oregon’s director of emergency management said was a possible “mass death event.”
Some Democrats fear a possible push from Trump in Nevada as the president shows increasing support from Latinos and white voters with no college education, two major constituencies in the state.
The increasingly tight race in several of the most contested states has led to a renewed effort for Trump to expand his electoral map.
The campaign has paid attention to three Great Lakes states that narrowly changed their path in 2016. Several polls earlier this summer suggested Trump might be in trouble, but a handful in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin after the nomination conventions showed a close race.
Polls in North Carolina and Florida also show a competitive race, and there is growing concern within the Trump campaign over Arizona. Once viewed fairly safely in Trump’s column, Arizona has been ravaged by the coronavirus and Trump’s team has been concerned about a slip in support among the state’s older residents.
On Monday, the president planned to return to Arizona, which he has visited several times since resuming his travels during the pandemic.
If Arizona escapes, Trump campaign officials privately acknowledge that it would complicate their path to 270 electoral votes. If he loses Arizona, winning Wisconsin, the Midwestern state Trump is most likely to retain, wouldn’t be enough, even if he gets Florida and North Carolina. It would require him to win elsewhere, which has led to a renewed focus on Minnesota, New Hampshire and the broader Congressional districts in Nebraska and Maine.
Nevada has become a particular focus, in part because Las Vegas is an attractive place for Trump to raise money. He scheduled at least one high-dollar fundraiser there over the weekend, as well as one in Washington before flying west, as he seeks to assuage mounting concerns that he could run out of cash. The couples were asked for $ 150,000 for the Las Vegas fundraiser.
The Republican National Committee said the $ 18 million expected to be raised over the weekend, including an appearance Saturday at his Washington hotel, would be shared by the Trump campaign, the committee and various state Republican committees.
Trump and the Republicans raised $ 210 million in August, a solid sum but well below the record of $ 364.5 million raised by Biden and his party that month. Although the Trump campaign has insisted it has more resources available than at this point in 2016, rumors of a financial disadvantage led Trump himself last week to suggest that he could put some of his own fortune into the race.
Nevada’s financial health depends on a well-functioning national economy because the state derives a lot of revenue from tourism. When the pandemic hit, Nevada casinos and all gambling closed for about 11 weeks, and the state is cutting about a quarter of its budget at a time of skyrocketing unemployment.
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