Pennsylvania Republicans just sent a message to former President Donald Trump: a lot of party members still need to be persuaded.
Trump got 83.5% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary in the state, but Nikki Haley, who isn’t even running, got 155,000 votes, giving her the win.
It’s a bad sign when a candidate drops out in March and gets 16.5% of the primary vote in a split state.
Yes, the most recent study from Bloomberg and Morning Consult showed that Trump was well ahead in four key states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina.
And yes, his team didn’t really work on this last election.
But that study for the general election shows that he’s just ahead in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In Michigan, President Biden has a small lead, but it’s still a long way to November.
If Trump’s team wants to be sure of a win on Election Day, they need to read the signs. He still needs to win over some traditional Republicans and independents who lean to the right. These people may not vote at all or even pick Biden.
He’s been moving in the right direction: A group of unhappy Republicans threatened to fire Speaker Mike Johnson because the House passed a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Trump defended Johnson by calling him “a good person” and saying that Republicans “have a majority of one” and “he can’t go and do whatever he wants to do.”
For all his history of being a one-man show, Trump can be a team player who knows how Washington works. This shows that he is fundamentally on the side of sanity when it comes to backing our allies.
Also, it shows that he won’t let Republican leaders flail in the wind just to poke fun at the “establishment” when the safety of the country is at stake.
Also smart were Trump’s recent comments about leaving abortion up to the states and calling the Arizona court decision against abortion “too far.” This shows that he won’t push the controversial issue if he wins the election.
But since it’s one of the main issues Biden will talk about over the next few months, he needs to keep telling suburban moms the same thing.
Yet another thing Trump can do to win over moderates is to let Biden’s mistakes make the news instead of his own explosive comments.
It’s impossible to avoid: Trump has a big personality, which usually works out well for him—unless he says something that the media can use to make him look crazy (like the “bloodbath” storm last month).
He should know: About 15% of Republican voters have said that “his mouth” is the thing they worry about the most about Trump.
His constant focus on the “stolen” 2020 election made Republicans less likely to back him. It was the Democrats’ growing “lawfare” persecutions, which were real crimes, that made him ready to march to the nomination.
People still don’t believe him, so he needs to show that he’s on the same side as regular Republicans, not the old establishment that doesn’t do anything or the pointless-posturing Matt Gaetzes and Marjorie Taylor Greenes. This will help him build an unstoppable alliance.
