Bill Stepien, President Trump’s new campaign manager, held a conference call with reporters on Friday where he outlined the campaign’s strategy to win in November.
Highlights. . .
First up, he admitted it “will be a knock down drag out right until the end”:
In a call with reporters, Trump campaign manager says 2020 election "will will be a knock down drag out right until the very end."
— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) July 24, 2020
On must-win states:
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Trump campaign manager says this is the way they see the map: They only need to win one of MI, WI, PA to win if they keep the rest of their 2016 map (which included Florida, NC, AZ, etc). Says he invites Democrats to play and spend money in TX and GA.
— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) July 24, 2020
They feel good about Arizona. . .
On press briefing, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien says, “We feel fine about where we are in Arizona.” Says Trump is polling better among key demos in AZ than he was in 2016-up among those age 30-44, up among Latinos. Has an 84 percent chance of winning AZ’s electoral votes.
— YvonneWingettSanchez ? (@yvonnewingett) July 24, 2020
. . .and Ohio:
“There’s a reason why the leading Democratic super PAC took a pass on Ohio,” says @BillStepien
— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) July 24, 2020
On Pennsylvania:
. @BillStepien says there are 117,000 fewer Democrats in Pennsylvania today than there were in 2016. pic.twitter.com/D9RALmQjmp
— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) July 24, 2020
And he brought up how polls were wrong in 2016 (2018 polls, however, should be of concern):
Trump campaign manager said polls were wrong in 2016 and are wrong now. But he made no mention of data we saw in 2018 midterms, where suburban women flipped to Democrats. That trend is driving Biden's battleground state leads.
— Caitlin Huey-Burns (@CHueyBurns) July 24, 2020
They’re arguing that these polls are currently undersampling Republicans:
Trump campaign lists all the polls it believes is *undersampling* Republican turnout >> pic.twitter.com/avwZvZEllV
— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) July 24, 2020
“You’re still wrong,” pollsters:
In 2016, there were 31 state polls in North Carolina and Trump led in just 3, per @BillStepien continuing to relitigage how wrong we all were about last time.
That’s essentially become the Trump political argument: You’re still wrong. pic.twitter.com/GJWUjpXJi2
— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) July 24, 2020
They’re also encouraging Joe Biden to spend as much money as he wants in Texas:
"I would invite the @JoeBiden campaign to play in Texas … I'll even buy their first ad." @BillStepien said on a conf call w/ reporters, saying he's giddy at prospects of ex-VP advertising in Houston & other expensive TX media markets.
— David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) July 24, 2020
Stepien told reporters that Biden is actually underperforming Andrew Gillum from 2018 in Florida:
Two final points from @BillStepien: He said he has data showing Biden “currently underperforming @AndrewGillum, if you can believe it” in Florida.
“We’ve got some polling that we like,” he said, noting the campaign just completed 10 MILLION volunteer calls
— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) July 24, 2020
And, finally:
Overall, what the call revealed is the Trunp campaign believes 2020 is a mirror of 2016…and that not much has changed in regards to flawed poll methodology or Trump’s coalition.
Of course the biggest difference is Trump now has a record as POTUS + that Biden is not Hillary.
— Dave Catanese (@davecatanese) July 24, 2020
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