JD Vance leads Trump’s push to win key ‘blue wall’ states

Donald Trump and JD Vance are set to make their campaign trail debut as the official Republican ticket by returning to one of a trio of key “blue wall” states that’s increasingly likely to decide the U.S. election.Trump and Vance will hold a rally in Michigan on Saturday, Trump’s first since the Pennsylvania campaign event a week earlier where he was shot in the ear. The two states and Wisconsin make up a group that typically leans Democratic but each backed Trump in 2016.2024 Election Latest: Growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers call for Biden to drop reelection bidBoth parties are zeroing in on the three as keys to the White House. President Joe Biden’s campaign has said the trio is their best bet for a comeback, while Vance — who hails from nearby Ohio — repeatedly aimed his Republican National Convention prime-time speech at those three in a bid to woo voters.Vance’s ascent has buoyed hopes from Republicans across the three states that the party will make breakthroughs — and cement victory for the Trump campaign. In interviews at the convention in Milwaukee, the Republican chairs of each state expressed confidence in their chances, while delegates applauded Vance as a messenger.CT Republicans hail J.D. Vance, who rose from rural poverty to Yale Law School to vice presidential candidate“He’s got a Midwestern feel, he’s got a very compelling life story,” Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Brian Schimming said, joking that he’d sell tickets to see Vance debate Vice President Kamala Harris.With polls showing Trump holding healthy leads in battlegrounds like Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, winning a single one of the Great Lakes trio would likely cement a win for the former president. Biden, meanwhile, could eke out 270 electoral college votes by winning Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — even if he loses those four other battlegrounds.“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” Vance said Wednesday in his speech accepting the vice presidential nomination.Trump leaves RNC in his strongest position yet to win Pennsylvania and the White HouseDemocrats have poured resources into the trio of states. In a campaign memo last week, the Biden campaign’s manager and chair said winning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania “is the clearest pathway” for a Biden victory.Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, downplayed age questions pummeling Biden, saying he hasn’t met a voter who thinks the president is too old to codify Roe v. Wade, expand Social Security and back NATO.“The fundamental issues in this race are about voters’ lives. And for any Democrat that is feeling waves of anxiety as they think about what it would be like to live under MAGA, they should channel that into talking to voters,” Wikler said, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan. “The only thing people could regret after this election is not giving it their all.”Schimming, the Wisconsin Republican chair, said he considers the race in his state a true toss-up. Michigan Republican Party Chair Pete Hoekstra said the same but that it felt more like 2016 — when Trump won, in part by making inroads with blue-collar and union workers.“The feeling was that Biden got some of those voters back. And I can tell you that, in 2024, it feels even more like ‘16,” said Hoekstra, who previously represented Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District and served as Trump’s ambassador to the Netherlands.“I like the position that we are in. We came out of nowhere in ‘16 and surprised everybody. This cycle, we’ve got the resources, we’ve got the commitment.”And then there’s Pennsylvania — the biggest Electoral College prize of the three. Lawrence Tabas, chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, said he thinks his party has the inside track due to malaise over the economy.“I think the momentum is now going in our direction, because in large part, it’s the economy,” Tabas said. “I do believe we will defeat him” in the state, he added. And, if so, “it’s over.”Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, predicted at an event on the sidelines of the convention Thursday that Trump can break through the blue wall in all three states. “We really are bullish on all three,” he said at the CNN-Politico event.All three states have Senate races that raise the stakes. Trump’s push to cement the victory could ultimately fuel Democrats’ efforts to swap their ticket and seek a candidate, or running mate to Harris, who can shore up support across the trio. Vance himself appealed to his home state to buoy his efforts to appeal to neighboring battlegrounds.“We’ve got to chill with the Ohio love,” Vance said Wednesday as his home-state supporters chanted loudly during his address. “We’ve got to win Michigan, too.”———(With assistance from Jennifer Jacobs.)©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Originally Published: July 20, 2024 at 3:35 p.m.

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