Republicans are counting on President Donald Trump to turn out their voters at a Friday rally in Democratic-leaning Syracuse, N.Y., while hoping he doesn’t do the same for Democrats, according to MS NOW.
The visit breaks from a string of rallies in deep-red states. The evening event at the Oncenter downtown will feature Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor, and Kailee Buller, the GOP candidate for New York’s 22nd Congressional District, MS NOW reported. Trump is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m., according to the Republican National Committee’s event listing. It is his first visit to Syracuse since his 2016 campaign.
Asked on Fox News earlier this week how the visit by the wildly unpopular president could help his campaign, Blakeman acknowledged the risks. “Well, listen, we need those Trump voters to get out,” he said. “They came out in really big numbers two years ago. And President Trump had a very, very good race here in New York State. So we’ve got to get those voters out.”
Blakeman faces an uphill fight. A Marist poll conducted Oct. 1-4 found Gov. Kathy Hochul leading him 53 percent to 42 percent.
Kevin Ryan, chair of the Syracuse City Republican Committee, told MS NOW he thinks there is “absolutely” a chance Buller can win. She is challenging Democratic Rep. John Mannion. Buller, a former U.S. Department of Agriculture official, has described herself as a “moderate Republican and fiscal conservative,” and has said she voted for Trump but doesn’t agree with all of his policies, according to CNY Central.
Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, told MS NOW a Republican could win the district again, but “they would have to be very moderate.”
“They would have to be able to effectively make the case that the Democrat incumbent, or if it were an open seat, the Democratic challenger was just too far to the left,” Reeher said. “It’s not a terribly liberal district. The political tradition here that goes back decades is one of more moderation.”
Reeher called Trump’s visit a “double-edged sword" for Republicans who are “banking on getting the better side of the knife.” Elections like this tend to turn more on turnout than persuasion, he told MS NOW.
“He’s coming up here to get hopefully more of his people excited than the Democrats, who he will also excite, to come out and vote the other way,” Reeher said.