New Hampshire Republicans baffled by Trump rallying in state he probably can't win

President Donald Trump is fixated on winning two states he narrowly lost in 2016, but other Republicans wish he would focus more on states he has a better chance of winning.

Maine and New Hampshire were once considered pickup opportunities for the president to expand his electoral map in November, but Republicans and Democrats seem to agree those prospects are growing dim, reported The Daily Beast.

“If you asked me six months ago, I think there was a real possibility of people who didn’t like Trump, but may have voted for him anyway because the economy was so good,” said political scientist Dante Scala, of the University of New Hampshire, said. “Now that chunk of voters is a real danger for him.”

Trump will appear at a rally Saturday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a state that started a series of surprising primary that propelled him to the GOP nomination.

“Why is he physically coming here?" said Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. "I’m thinking that it is a little bit more about nostalgia. They have to feed his ego. He’s had this fixation about New Hampshire. He can’t accept that maybe he just plain lost.”

“He won the New Hampshire primary and that was his first political win," Cullen added. "A man never forgets his first time."

Trump lost New Hampshire by less than half a percentage point in the general election, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has likely wiped out his chances to gain a pickup there.

“Having lived 2016 up close, people wanted a disruptor, and I don’t blame them,” said a top GOP strategist. “But when it comes down to the economy tanking as well as corona, that kind of tips the balance. People are exhausted. There is a sense of ‘enough.’”