GOP strategist blasts Trump with New York rally: 'waste of time'

Ahead of Donald Trump's campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday, GOP strategist Doug Heye criticized the former president for holding a rally in a state where he trails Vice President Kamala Harris by double digits, calling it ” wasted time.”

As Election Day quickly approaches, the race between Trump, the Republican nominee, and Harris, the Democratic nominee, remains extremely close, with the outcome largely dependent on swing states as both candidates continue to campaign across the country.

While New York is a reliably blue state and Democratic candidates tend to win handily statewide due to the huge majority in New York City, Trump is continuing his campaign there and has held several other campaign events, including rallies in the Bronx and Nassau County on Long Iceland.

“Whether you're talking about Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, I would say the time you spend outside of the seven key states that are the swing states and could largely influence this election is time wasted. Your time is better spent in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Nevada, Arizona, etc. than in Texas, in Washington, DC or in New York,” Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), said on Sunday an interview with CNN's Rahel Solomon.

Heye explained that while the rally would likely attract attention, it may not reach young male voters, a group Trump has recently sought to reach.

“But with this Trump event, yes, there will be a lot of coverage – although a lot of people, especially young men, who Trump wants to win by a large margin, will probably be watching football… Any political campaign that you “Oh yes, there is always an event that leaves employees scratching their heads and asking, “Why are we doing it this way?” and the answer is always to scratch the itch a candidate feels.”

Newsweek Trump's campaign emailed for comment.

New York last supported a Republican presidential candidate when it voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984. In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the state by 22 points when running against Trump, and President Joe Biden led it by 23 points against the former president in 2020.

The battleground states will play a key role in determining the outcome of this year's election, as the Electoral College allocates a certain number of electoral votes to each state based on population. A presidential candidate must secure 270 electoral votes to win, and winning the national popular vote is no guarantee of success. Polls from battleground states can be more meaningful than polls at the national level.

What the polls show

A CNBC poll conducted between Oct. 15 and Oct. 19 of 1,000 voters across the country showed Trump with a two-point lead nationally — 48 percent to Harris' 46 percent, which was within the poll's margin of error of 3.1 percentage points lies.

However, in the seven battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – Trump's lead fell to 1 point, 48 percent, to Harris' 47 percent. This part of the survey had a margin of error of 4 percentage points. Trump's lead in the poll remained unchanged from August.

In a Fox News poll conducted between Oct. 11 and Oct. 14 of 1,110 registered voters and 870 likely voters, Harris was six points ahead of Trump in the seven swing states – 52 percent to 46 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 6.5 percentage points in the battleground states.

The poll also found that Trump had overtaken Harris nationally, 50 percent to 48 percent, within the poll's general margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. That's a 4-point increase from when Harris led Trump by 2 points a month ago, also within the margin of error.

In New York, Harris is still expected to comfortably lead the state, which the Cook Political Report rates as a “Safe Democrat.” According to FiveThirtyEight's poll tracker, Harris is 14.5 points ahead of Trump in the Empire State, with 53.9 percent versus 39.4 percent as of Sunday.