Republican Insiders Reportedly Urging Donald Trump Campaign To Change Course As Joe Biden Surges Ahead
According to a Saturday report from The Washington Examiner, some Republican Party insiders are concerned about the 2020 presidential election and believe that President Donald Trump’s campaign needs to change course.
According to the report, some associated with the Trump campaign and prominent Republican strategists have privately warned that the attacks that worked to neutralize former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s candidacy four years ago may not be as effective when deployed against Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee in the 2020 election.
Insiders reportedly fear that the Trump campaign is “being stretched thin,” since it has been forced to defend a number of traditionally Republican states. Even Texas, Georgia and Ohio — which Trump won in 2016 — now, apparently, have to be defended.
Some were willing to share their concerns publicly.
Republican donor Dan Eberhart warned Trump allies against looking back to the 2016 election.
“It is true we can lose by a point or two in the national polls and still win, but the campaign needs to take the polls seriously and recalibrate the strategy because it is not working.”
In recent weeks, Biden has managed to increase his lead. In the latest Quinnipiac University poll, the former Delaware senator opened up his biggest national lead over Trump since becoming the Democratic nominee, leaving him 15 percentage points behind.
A CNBC/Change Research survey released this week put Trump behind his opponent in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Across the six states, Biden led by 6 percentage points.
Both Trump and members of his team have dismissed opinion polling, with campaign manager Bill Stepien stating that surveys also predicted a Clinton victory four years ago.
“It won’t work,” Stepien said.
Eberhart also noted that Trump and the GOP no longer have a significant financial advantage over Biden. In March, the commander-in-chief had a $200 million fundraising advantage over the Democrat. Now, Biden is lagging behind by only $54 million.
“The Trump RNC juggernaut has huge financial advantages in February but has nearly evaporated,” he said.
Another Republican donor acknowledged that Biden is ahead, but said that “Trump runs better when he’s behind.”
According to professor of political science at Columbia University Robert Shapiro, Trump and his allies seem to believe that “their people are underestimated” in the polls.
However, he noted that the Biden campaign is in a much stronger position, with GOP strongholds like Arizona leaning Democratic. Trump’s team, Shapiro said, “should be scared out of their minds.”
