Byron York assessed what states former President Donald Trump ought to prioritize to win the 2024 presidential election, suggesting there are two in particular that need special focus.
With just one week left before the election, York was presented with polling data indicating that Republican turnout in states like Nevada and Pennsylvania had been very strong for the party before Election Day. York, the Washington Examiner’s chief political correspondent, assessed that if this data holds up, it would mean the former president will win the presidency against Vice President Kamala Harris next week.
“We know that Trump needs to win all the states that he won in 2020, needs to start there,” York said on The Hugh Hewitt Show. “That includes North Carolina, which he won. And then he needs to win Georgia and probably Arizona, and then if he could do that, he could win either any one of Pennsylvania, Michigan, or Wisconsin, and he would win. Because Harris, if Trump can win Georgia and Arizona, Harris is going to have to win all three of the Rust Belt states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.”
One point of caution that the Trump campaign needs to be wary of, York noted, is that polling data is not always accurate, as “we don’t know if they’re right.” York pointed to how polling data in both the 2016 and 2020 elections underestimated the turnout of Trump voters, and it is unclear if this is still going to be the same for 2024.
York was then asked about “the vibes” the Trump campaign is experiencing in the twilight hours of this election cycle, including the “pretty epic event” the campaign held in Madison Square Garden on Sunday. While attending the event, York spoke to two Hispanic men and learned why they were supporting Trump. York later checked on these men after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage.”
“And one of them said, the one whose family had come from Puerto Rico, said ‘look, I don’t like it, but this is insult comedy, it kind of works on insulting everybody, and it’s just not going to matter in terms of people deciding their votes,’” York said. “And then the other one said, ‘Well, listen, I actually have heard Hinchcliffe before. I know his thing, this is the kind of stuff he does, and it’s not going to have any effect on anything in the Hispanic community.’”
York also assessed how both Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), have made “very, very good use” of podcast interviews to reach out to younger male voters, noting how this tactic has allowed Trump to grow his male voter base to “pretty much the same size” the Harris campaign has among female voters. Trump most recently appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience for a near-three-hour interview, and Vance is set to appear on the same podcast before the election.
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When host Hugh Hewitt suggested that Harris is “the worst” presidential candidate to win a party’s nomination, York agreed, noting how the vice president not winning the nomination “the regular way” has contributed to this. York recalled how Harris’s 2020 presidential bid did not go well at all and argued Harris being President Joe Biden’s vice president gave her “an unbeatable advantage” in succeeding him as the Democratic Party’s nominee.
Ahead of the election, Trump stated on Tuesday that Harris’s economic and immigration policies have “caused such harm and such pain” for voters, warning that this would continue should she become president in 2025. Trump also previewed a new campaign promise to seize the assets of the criminal gangs and drug cartels, which he would use to “create a compensation fund to provide restitution for the victims of migrant crime.”