With his approval numbers faltering in new polls and an election just around the corner, Donald Trump has dispatched Vice President Mike Pence to key midwestern states to rebuild support for the president who now faces an impeachment trial in the Senate.
According to the Guardian, Pence is spending a considerable amount of time in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- three states that hold the key to Trump's election after going for the president in 2016.
"Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is having vice-president Mike Pence put a special emphasis on a key set of states going into the election 2020 by sending him out on the road to court suburban and religious voters and shore up the president’s base," the report states. "To Republicans, Pence is an ideal liaison to key voting blocs in those three states. He’s a devout Christian and former governor of neighboring Indiana whose ties to the evangelical wing of the Republican party are famously strong. Temperamentally, he’s less bombastic than Trump but falls more toward the conservative end of the Republican party."
According to Rex Elsass, a veteran GOP consultant, those three states are critical if Trump wants to remain in office -- which could also impact the possibility of criminal charges filed against Trump once he is no longer president.
“You couldn’t have put together that list without saying, ‘Well, these are the top targeted states’ that were key to the election and key to the original election,” Elsass explained, adding that Pence is more ideally suited to rallying support for the president.
What is concerning to the president's 2020 campaign staff -- besides underwater polls numbers -- are changes in government at the state level that could impact the election.
"Unlike in 2016, all three states now have Democratic governors. In Michigan and Wisconsin, Democratic governors ousted their Republican predecessors in 2018," the Guardian reports. "Recent head-to-head matchups of Trump versus one of the frontrunners in Michigan or Pennsylvania has shown the Democrat leading the incumbent president. In Wisconsin, a few polls have shown Trump leading Elizabeth Warren or Pete Buttigieg, two of the top Democratic primary contenders, in matchups."
According to a former Democratic Michigan governor Jack Blanchard, Pence may not have as much influence in the region as Republicans believe.
“No disrespect to the vice-president. But the governor of Indiana does not necessarily play all that well in Michigan or Wisconsin or Iowa,” Blanchard advised. “I would be more concerned as to who we nominate for president than whether Pence would campaign in Michigan.”
GOP strategist Jeff Timmer agreed, adding that the electoral vote map gives the Trump campaign few options when it comes to winning in 2020.
“I think it’s going to be far less fertile ground ultimately than it was in 2016, but where else do they have to go?" he warned.
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