MILWAUKEE—Former president Donald Trump’s senior campaign adviser projected confidence about the state of the race on Tuesday and said he sees "nearly 20 paths" to victory, in contrast to just "one, maybe two" for President Joe Biden.
"We’re very much on the offense in Michigan, we’re very much on the offense here in Wisconsin, we’re very much on offense in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," Chris LaCivita said at a brunch hosted by Georgetown University roughly a mile from the Republican National Convention. "We’re dictating the map and we’re dictating the issues."
LaCivita’s remarks come as Democrats panic about their party’s prospects in November and as the former president maintains his polling lead over Biden. Shortly before LaCivita spoke, reports broke that congressional Democrats circulated a letter pleading for their party to delay Biden’s official re-nomination.
The contrast between a unified GOP in the wake of the failed assassination attempt on Trump and the chaos brewing within the Democratic Party over who, exactly, should be their nominee is one reason why LaCivita believes they hold the upper hand. Trump’s strength as a candidate, LaCivita said, is responsible for what he believes is an expanding electoral map.
"All data we’ve seen shows the race [in Virginia], we’re either: up a full 2 or 3, tied, or down 1 or 2," he said. "Minnesota, that’s consistently plus 2, New Mexico’s coming online, New Jersey, what? Last time I saw it was a 2-point race."
"We have nearly 20 paths to get what we need to get, and they have one, maybe two."
LaCivita noted these sorts of results are coming as the Trump campaign has spent zero dollars on advertising, although he noted that some ads have been aired that were funded by affiliated political action committees. The Biden campaign, in contrast, has spent "$156 million."
Although Biden’s age is one of his largest electoral liabilities, LaCivita hardly gave it a mention. Instead, he explained that the theory of Trump’s reelection strategy is issue-driven.
"Inflation versus non inflation, five and a half bucks a gallon gas to two and half bucks a gallon of gas," he said. "We’re going to continue to see, I think, a prosecution of a campaign that represents that."
That the Trump campaign believes it is more aligned with the public on issues ranging from the economy to the southern border, LaCivita said, is why they are not concerned about any potential changes at the top of the Democratic ticket.
"We’re prepared for whatever, because the policies are the policies. Inflation is because of Biden-Harris, where we are in the world, the border, please," he said. "So I think that fundamentally there won’t be a huge change in terms of the messaging, in terms of the positioning."