Donald Trump’s Massachusetts campaign volunteers “will no longer be involved” in the campaign after he warned in an email that New Hampshire “is no longer a battleground state,” according to the Boston Globe on Monday.
In an email, obtained by the Globe, Tom Mountain, a Massachusetts volunteer for Trump’s campaign, wrote to other Trump volunteers in the state that “the campaign has determined that New Hampshire is no longer a battleground state,” and is instead targeting it. supporters to focus on Pennsylvania, another warring state.
Mountain continued in the email by stating that Trump “definitely will lose by a higher margin” in New Hampshire than in 2016 and 2020, citing “campaign data/research.”
In 2020, Joe Biden won the state with 52 percent of the vote to Trump’s 45 percent, while in 2016, Hillary Clinton managed to lead the state by about 2,700 votes.
In addition, Mountain claimed that resources will be suspended and the campaign will not send Trump or high-profile central campaign figures to the country.
However, in the email response to NewsweekTrump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected Mountain’s claims and reiterated the campaign’s efforts in New Hampshire saying it “maintains a presence on the ground” in the country.
“This is not true: the campaign of President Trump maintains a presence in New Hampshire, including staff and offices, while Kamala Harris parachutes because she knows that the Granite State is playing. We hope to build on the momentum that we have grown since the primary and sent four elections New Hampshire election to President Trump’s column on November 5,” Leavitt said.
In addition, the Trump campaign described Mountain as a volunteer and had no “official role” in the campaign, adding that he was not aware of internal deliberations about campaign strategy or plans for other countries.
“It appears that this is a self-serving effort to generate enthusiasm for the deployment of volunteers to nearby primary swing states,” the Trump campaign said in an emailed statement.
Mountain, who has been one of the few deputy chairs for the former president’s efforts in Massachusetts, is also a former official with the Massachusetts GOP.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images
This is because New Hampshire has voted Democratic in all but one election since 1992, but has been considered a battleground state in many election cycles because control of the state legislature and congressional seats have gone back and forth between Republicans and Democrats.
Meanwhile, battleground states, including New Hampshire, will play a key role in determining the outcome of this year’s election because of the Electoral College, which gives each state a number of electoral votes based on population. A presidential candidate must secure 270 electoral votes for victory, and winning the national popular vote does not guarantee success. Surveys from battleground states may be more revealing than national polls.
In July, in the first public survey of New Hampshire voters since President Biden left the presidential race, Harris had a 6-point lead over the former president.
A poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire between July 23 and 25 showed Harris with a 49 percent to 43 percent lead over Trump. The poll surveyed 3,016 people and has a margin of error of 1.8 percent.
In a Saint Anselm College Survey Center (SASC) poll of 2,083 New Hampshire registered voters conducted between July 24 and 25, Harris had a 50-44 percent margin over Trump. The poll has a margin of error of 2.1 percent.
However, Harris has not previously been a leader in the country. In a poll conducted by the New Hampshire Journal and Praecones Analytica after the Republican convention but before Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 campaign when Harris was directly challenged by Trump, his Republican rival led him by one point. , at 40 percent to her 39 percent.
That’s because the Democratic presidential ticket has seen a dramatic shift in the polls since Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Harris. He has been surging in the polls — leading Trump in national polling averages and state swings, while Biden is generally behind.
According to an average FiveThirtyEight poll on Monday, the vice president is 7 points ahead of Trump in the state, 50.3 percent to 43.2 percent.
Although Harris is ahead in the polling average, recent polls in Pennsylvania also show the pair tied, including the most recent survey conducted by Wick and Emerson College between August 25 and 29.
Meanwhile, other polls show Trump in the lead, including a Trafalgar Group poll from August 30, which puts the former president 2 points ahead of Harris among voters. A SoCal Strategies poll from Aug. 23 has the former president 1 point ahead, while a Fabrizio Ward poll from Aug. 21 also has the Republican 1 point in a head-to-head matchup.
