Firehouse Partner Terry Sullivan Tells CBS News Trump’s Ability to Evoke Passion May Have Won Him 2016 and May Lose Him 2020
August 7, 2020
With early-voting states in mind, Trump campaign resets
“Of course Trump is playing defense,” major Republican donor Dan Eberhart tells CBS News. “He’s fighting to protect states he should be able to ignore.” An adviser to Doug Collins’ Georgia Senate bid, Eberhart calls down-ballot boosts “a side effect” of new ad spending in Georgia, “but not the campaign’s purpose.”
Republican pollsters point to changing demographics and abandoned GOP inroads with African-American voters. And the rising number of Democratic voters in North Carolina and Georgia have been a “Republican problem” for years, says GOP strategist and CBS News contributor Terry Sullivan. Recent upticks in the Black voting age population have always been an advantage in those states for Democrats.
Further Democrats are highly motivated to vote against the incumbent. “Donald Trump is one of the most gifted individuals in his ability to make himself the center of everything. For better or worse, the level of passion he invokes in both people who love him and despise him is mind boggling,” said Sullivan, who managed Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign.
Many White voters in both North Carolina and Georgia say the main reason they’re backing Biden is to oppose Mr. Trump, according to a CBS News poll released this week. Compared to 2016, Mr. Trump’s current share of the White vote is down 12 points in Georgia and 7 points in North Carolina.
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