With less than five months until the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald Trump has made bold inroads into two states once considered Democratic, opening a combined 19 field offices in Virginia and Minnesota.
The Trump campaign confirmed to Fox News that it is expanding its operations in two states that were reliably won by Democrats in the recent presidential election. The Trump campaign is in the process of signing leases for eight Trump Force 47 field offices in Minnesota and 11 in Virginia, according to a Trump campaign memo obtained by Fox News on Friday.
Staff have already been hired to cover each state, and the campaign is now working to build teams to work in each field office in favor of the former president.
Trump and Biden are using fiery post-debate rallies in those states to put each other on the defensive.
Former President Donald Trump takes to the stage to deliver the keynote address at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Majority Policy Conference at the Washington Hilton on June 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
“Relevant materials will arrive in both states in early July, and we have already begun recruiting Trump Force 47 captain recruits to participate in the training,” the campaign said in the memo.
The Trump campaign sees both Minnesota and Virginia as competitive states in the upcoming election and is aiming to flip them as part of its expansion drive in 2024.
Behind Closed Doors Republican National Committee At a retreat for big donors this spring at a resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump campaign senior advisers Suzie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, along with veteran pollster Tony Fabrizio, highlighted internal polling results that suggested “Minnesota and Virginia are both clear swing states.”
“In both states, Donald Trump is in a position to flip key electoral votes in his favor,” the poll provided to Fox News emphasized.
The Republican Party Carried Virginia It was the first victory for the White House since then-President George W. Bush won the Commonwealth in his 2004 reelection bid.
But recent polls show a close race in Virginia.
Trump closing in on Biden in Democratic-leaning states: poll
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a “Go Out and Vote” rally in Richmond, Virginia on March 2, 2024. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
A Fox News poll conducted June 1-4 found the Democratic president and his Republican predecessor each had an approval rating of 48% in a head-to-head matchup.
A Republican hasn’t won Minnesota in a presidential election since President Richard Nixon’s landslide reelection in 1972, more than half a century ago. Minnesota was the only state that President Reagan lost in a landslide reelection in 1984.
But recent polls in Minnesota suggest a tight battle between Biden and Trump in a presidential rematch in 2024. A Star Tribune/MPR News/KARE11 poll conducted June 3-5 showed Biden with 45% approval among Minnesota voters, while Trump has 41% approval.
Trump narrowly lost Minnesota to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by 1.5 percentage points in the 2016 election. But four years later, Biden wins He defeated President Trump to win the White House, winning the state by seven points.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Minnesota Republican Party’s annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner on May 17, 2024 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“We’re going to win this state,” Trump predicted last month in a speech headlined by a fundraising dinner for state Republican Party leader Lincoln Reagan in St. Paul, Minnesota’s capital.
Click here to get the FOX News app
The poll showed a large gap in enthusiasm, with 63% of Trump supporters saying they were “very enthusiastic” about voting for his candidate, compared with 31% of voters who support the president.
