Could New York and New Jersey Really be in Play for Trump?

townhall.com

There’s been some chatter over social media that Virginia could be in play for the 2024 presidential election, despite how it’s gone for the Democratic presidential candidate every year since 2008. That being said, it’s only regarded as “Likely Democratic.” But, the campaign for former and potentially future President Donald Trump looks to be hopeful about every state, even and including the bright blue ones. On Monday, RealClearPolitics featured a conversation between reporter Phil Wegmann and co-founder Tom Bevan from Friday, with Wegmann discussing some of those hopes from the Trump campaign as it pertains to New York and New Jersey, specifically when it comes to reactions to antisemitic protests on college campuses.

As Bevan pointed out, especially since President Joe Biden had been in Wisconsin that week and Trump had been in Michigan and Wisconsin, it looks like the race could come down to those two states, as well as other key battlegrounds. Polling released before and since then has shown that the race is particularly close and competitive in those two states as well as overall. Trump is leading Biden by +0.6 in Wisconsin and by +0.8 in Michigan, per RCP’s averages.

“It does seem that in this ‘Blue Wall’ of the upper Midwest, Trump’s leading, but not by very, very much. And that’s where they’re gonna spend the majority of their time and effort and money,” Bevan offered, as he also wondered “is that where the Trump folks think this race is going to be decided, in one of those two states,” when speaking to Wegmann about Wisconsin and Michigan.

Wegmann confirmed that “ground zero is going to be the Sun Belt and the Upper Midwest.” Trump has an especially strong lead in states such as Nevada and Arizona. “They’re going to try and compete in those seven states. But we’re at that point in the race where both of these campaigns are making head fakes to different states perhaps to try and psych out the competition, get them to spend a lot of money there or actually to try and win it,” he continued…