Monday, October 21, 2024

In the final stretch, Harris and Trump are taking two different strategies

**Welcome to Inside Washington. Election day is 14 days away.**  

This weekend, former president Donald Trump made news on two occasions. First, when he went on a tangent talking about the late Arnold Palmer's penis in the golf legend's birthplace of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Second, when he tried his hand at making and serving french fries at a McDonald's. (The McDonald's trip was meant to be a dig at Vice President Kamala Harris, as he likes to publicly cast aspersions about whether Harris actually worked at McDonald's at a summer job.)

The slapstick of these photo ops and tangents aside, Trump spending the weekend in Pennsylvania somewhat makes sense, given its swing state nature. A new Washington Post/Schar School poll showed Harris slightly leads Trump in the state. But in 2016, Trump shocked much of the world when he won the presidency largely by flipping formerly "Blue Wall" states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

A look at where Trump will be campaigning this week indicates that he truly sees his path to victory through other states, however — namely North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada.

On Monday, Trump is in Asheville, North Carolina. He has frequently tried to slam President Joe Biden, and by virtue Harris, for the federal government's response to Hurricane Helene, and has regularly campaigned in Asheville, despite the fact it is a liberal college town. The surrounding counties in western North Carolina contain many of his supporters, so that's not entirely surprising.

On Tuesday, after doing a Latino roundtable in Doral, Florida, Trump will speak in Greensboro, which similarly is located in the blue island of Guilford County, surrounded by a sea of bright red counties.

Both Harris and Trump know that just like in college basketball, the path to victory runs through North Carolina. If Trump wins North Carolina, he will only need to win Georgia and either pick up Wisconsin and Michigan or win Pennsylvania to win. If Harris wins North Carolina, Trump would need to sweep Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and pick up either Pennsylvania or win Wisconsin and Michigan.

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By Eric Garcia

Reading list

Daily briefing

Inside the Harris campaign's efforts to turn Republican voters blue

Andrew Feinberg speaks to the former Trump voters who are now planning to pull the lever for Harris — and the campaign politicos who came up with an unusual strategy

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

I thought it was an unfortunate way to remember my dad

Peggy Palmer, the daughter of golfing legend Arnold Palmer, about Donald Trump's anecdote about her late father's penis.

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