Donald Trump seemed to "repel" the voters he needs most in the closing weeks of his re-election campaign, according to one anti-Trump conservative.
Both the former president and Vice President Kamala Harris need to win over suburban voters, and specifically women in those areas, to win the election, and panelists on "CNN News Central" agreed that Trump had prioritized young male voters, who are traditionally unlikely to participate.
"He went to North Carolina four times, that indicates that they do believe they need defense there," said host John Berman. "North Carolina is the defense for the Trump campaign. What I get from all of you is that there are two competing theories and we will find out which one is right. Is Donald Trump right, that the election is going to come down to young men or the male vote? Or is the Harris campaign right? This is the bet they made in the hundred days that she has been running, that it is suburban women and maybe disaffected Republicans."
CNN legal analyst Eliot Williams said that's reflected in Harris' decision to campaign with prominent Republicans, which has frustrated the Democratic base.
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"She went all in fairly early on and closed out with Liz Cheney for exactly that reason," Williams said. "That's somewhat risky for a Democrat. They have been disappointed by trying to get suburban women, you know, look at 2016."
However, argued political commentator Jamal Simmons, recent elections have shown that conservative-leaning women are open to Democratic positions.
"It's not as risky as it has been in the past, because what we saw after Dobbs, there was a big rush of women to the anti-MAGA position, pro-abortion rights reformation," Simmons said. "That happened in referenda in states as far as Kansas and in elections like the midterms."
Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp said Trump almost went out of his way to alienate suburban women with his strategic choices.
"Trump seemed to write off the suburban woman, disaffected Republican woman – a.k.a. S.E. Cupp," she said. "He told Nikki Haley and Nikki Haley voters we don't want you, we don't want your vote. He could have chosen Nikki Haley, he could have made specific overtures to the very voting demographic that is left that he needs, and instead he held rallies, the likes of which repel those voters."
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