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Watertown Daily Times POLITICS Sunday, April 28, 2019 A5

Trump targets 3 Rust Belt states ‘Born to be in it’

2020 STRATEGY:
President playing
O’Rourke adjusts
defense as he opens
bid for re-election
campaign style
By MARGARET TALEY, BILL ALLISON
COUNTERACTING CRITICISM: Texas Democrat
and JENNIFER JACOBS adds ‘vision,’ attack rhetoric to breezy pitch
Bloomberg
WASHINGTON — As his By JENNA JOHNSON tial hopeful Pete Buttigieg,
2020 campaign gears up, Washington Post the mayor of South Bend,
President Donald Trump is As Beto O’Rourke pre- Ind. Recently O’Rourke did
putting an early focus on the pared last month to tell the step onto a small wooden box
three Rust Belt states that sent world that he would run for while speaking to hundreds
him to the White House after president, Vanity Fair un- of University of Virginia
Republican losses in midterm veiled its April cover featur- students crowded into an
elections showed his support ing the Democrat from El atrium, but he decided mid-
in the region is fading. Paso, Texas, on a dusty road event to step back down.
Despite dominant fundrais- with his pickup truck, his dog O’Rourke has stopped jok-
ing, an established campaign and these words: “Man, I’m ing about being an absentee
organization and the power just born to be in it.” father and regularly apolo-
of incumbency, Trump risks In the six weeks since gizing for benefiting from
losing all three states in 2020: O’Rourke got in it, the former white male privilege. He has
Michigan, Pennsylvania and AL DRAGO/BLOOMBERG congressman has gone from pushed back against asser-
Wisconsin. On Saturday, he President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House on Jan. 4. the buzzy celebrity candidate tions that he’s a blank slate
was to hold a campaign rally — the one trailed by dozens who lacks experience and
lies talk optimistically about Biden’s entry Thursday into White Cloud, Mich., volun- of journalists, compared to has added a “vision” section
in Green Bay, an event timed
expanding the electoral map the field of Democratic hope- teered to staff Trump’s rally in Barack Obama and photo- to his campaign website that
to compete for cable-news
eyeballs with the White House to states he lost in 2016, such fuls highlighted the president’s Grand Rapids in March, man- graphed by Annie Leibovitz includes many of his broad
press corps’ annual charity as Minnesota and New Hamp- vulnerabilities, even as Trump ning one of four locations at — to just another Democrat goals, including establishing
dinner. shire. But his Rust Belt focus moved quickly to try to dimin- the event where supporters in a crowded field, struggling a universal health-care sys-
Trump’s interest in the re- is an acknowledgment that he ish him. On Twitter, he ques- could pick up “Make America to stand out as he adjusts his tem, increasing teacher pay,
gion is already being matched may spend much of the 2020 tioned Biden’s intelligence, Great Again” hats and other message of unity to the Dem- reducing the cost of higher
by his top Democratic rivals campaign on defense, depend- dubbed him “Sleepy Joe” and merchandise. While he was ocratic electorate’s anger education, reforming the
— former Vice President Joe ing on the strength and appeal said that if Biden could survive skeptical of the billionaire de- and demands for specifics. criminal justice system and
Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of his eventual Democratic a primary against other Demo- veloper in 2016, Skupien said With that magazine still on combating climate change.
of Vermont — who are putting challenger. crats’ “sick and demented he’s become a huge fan, do- the racks, O’Rourke is quickly O’Rourke’s handling of ma-
their own emphasis on voters In Wisconsin, for example, ideas,” then “I will see you at nating $305 to Trump’s 2020 learning that this race is not go- ny Democratic voters’ needs
in those areas. 46 percent of registered voters the Starting Gate!” campaign so far, mostly in in- ing to be easy. When he kicked for a rhetorically different ap-
The Trump campaign has surveyed in a Marquette Law Biden’s campaign respond- crements of $50 or less. off his campaign with a rally proach has developed in full
been going out of its way to School poll released earlier ed to the tweet Friday in an “President Trump is the in El Paso on March 30, more view. In his 2018 U.S. Senate
defend the territory. Senior this month said they would email to supporters, calling best thing that ever happened than 1,000 supporters in all 50 campaign, O’Rourke favored
campaign officials traveled definitely vote for someone it “beneath the office of the to this country,” Skupien said. states hosted watch parties. a sunny, optimistic pitch, only
to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, other than Trump in 2020. Presidency.” The email said “He’s not a politician. I’m so Two Saturdays later, the cam- rarely castigating his Republi-
early in the week to assure state Just 28 percent of voters said Democratic ideas aimed to sick of career politicians.” paign could get only a third of can opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz.
party officials the president has they would definitely vote for get the country back on track, Trump won Brown County, that number of hosts to orga- He has tried to stay true to
a strategy and the organiza- Trump. and said that Trump would be Wis., which includes Green nize door-knocking events. that approach, but he now
tion to again win. Trump chose As Trump rallies supporters the only person “making this Bay, by 13,828 votes over Hill- O’Rourke, 46, has sub- calls the president “racist”
Grand Rapids, Mich., for his in Green Bay, he’ll be able to campaign ‘nasty.’” The email ary Clinton. Rep. Mike Galla- tly adjusted his campaign and regularly compares him
first rally after Attorney General tout data showing faster-than- ended by asking for donations. gher, a Republican first elected style and tone in ways that to Hitler, an escalation of his
William Barr announced that expected growth in the U.S. Trump doesn’t need to win in 2016 whose district includes counteract the criticism and prior criticism of Trump and
Special Counsel Robert Mueller economy. The Commerce De- all three of the Rust Belt states Green Bay, has steered an inde- mockery he has faced. his administration.
hadn’t found evidence of a con- partment reported Friday that to win a second term — pro- pendent course since coming He has stopped jumping He specifically began to
spiracy between the president gross domestic product rose at vided he holds all other states to Washington. He criticized atop counters and chairs take aim at Education Sec-
or his associates and Russians a 3.2 percent annual rate in the he won in 2016. But he needs Trump for firing James Comey at events, as he did during retary Betsy DeVos after
who interfered in the 2016 elec- first quarter of 2019. “This is far at least one, and he won them from the top job at the Federal the early days of his cam- hearing several voters do the
tion, but referred instances of above expectations or projec- by a scant combined 77,000 Bureau of Investigation and paign, gestures that inspired same, including a frustrated
possible obstruction of justice tions,” he tweeted in response votes in 2016 out of nearly 14 voted to overturn the national the Twitter account @Be- retired educator in North
to Congress. to the figures, adding, “MAKE million cast in the three states. emergency Trump declared toOnThings and some gentle Carolina who called DeVos “a
The president and his al- AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Rex Skupien, a realtor in over border security. ribbing from fellow presiden- lunatic.”