President Trump’s midterm political chief just laid out the battle plan for November — and it puts Trump front and center for the final sprint.
James Blair, Trump’s senior political strategist, told Breitbart News Saturday the president will ramp up campaign appearances as Republicans fight to hold the House and Senate. “You’ll see him extremely active in sort of the closing six weeks here of the election,” Blair said.
The strategy is simple: tie Democrats to their radical national party, turn out low-propensity GOP voters who love Trump but skip midterms, and make every race a binary choice.
“THEY’RE NOT A DIFFERENT KIND OF DEMOCRAT. THEY’RE THE SAME RADICAL LEFT-WING DEMOCRAT EVERYWHERE, AND THAT’S REALLY WHAT WE HAVE TO EXPOSE OVER THE NEXT 45 DAYS.”
Blair told Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle that Republicans won’t let Democratic candidates pretend they’re moderates. “Our candidates have to create a binary choice between them and their opposition,” Blair said. “They’re not a different kind of Democrat. They’re the same radical left-wing Democrat everywhere, and that’s really what we have to expose over the next 45 days.”
On the Senate map, Democrats face brutal math. They need a net gain of four seats to take control — running the table in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.
“It’s a very tall order for the Democrats to be able to sort of run the table in the way they need to to get to 51 senators,” Blair said.
Blair cautioned conservatives not to trust public polls, saying he’s seen internal numbers that tell a different story. “I’m sure that all these public pollsters — because I see internals, of course, which are better — all these public pollsters haven’t magically fixed all their polling errors over the last 10 years.”
“So I think once again, Republicans are being undercounted,” Blair added. “You have to keep that in mind in the polls.”
North Carolina is getting special attention. Trump campaigned with Republican Michael Whatley in Gastonia earlier this week as the GOP fights to hold the open Senate seat against former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Blair called Cooper “a capable candidate who’s used to winning there” — but pointed to surging Republican voter registration as the edge.
“The number one indicator of how somebody is going to vote from a party perspective is how they are registering,” Blair said. “The voter pool for Republicans has been expanding at a substantially faster clip than the voter pool for Democrats.”
Trump’s closing schedule will sync with the start of early voting across battleground states. Blair said the campaign is pushing Republicans to vote early — by mail or in person — rather than waiting until November 3.
“Vote now by mail if you want to. Vote in person early if that’s your preference. Don’t wait till Election Day,” Blair said. “But if you do wait, don’t miss Election Day.”
The real weapon? Trump himself — reaching “low- and mid-propensity” Republican voters who sat out midterms in the past.
“We have a sophisticated operation that is focused on actually turning these people out,” Blair said. “We don’t usually have that operation. We don’t usually have that strategy.”
“THE PRESIDENT IS THE NUMBER ONE MESSENGER TO THOSE PEOPLE AND THE NUMBER ONE COMMUNICATOR TO THOSE PEOPLE.”
If those voters show up, Blair said, Republicans will blow past current polls. “Our floor is higher than any public poll is picking up, and therefore our ceiling is higher,” Blair said. “The president is the number one messenger to those people and the number one communicator to those people.”
Republicans aren’t just playing defense. Blair said the GOP is going after Democratic-held seats in Georgia, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Michigan. “We like them all, and we’re playing them,” Blair said.
In Georgia, Republican Mike Collins is closing the gap on Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff. “Don’t count out Mike Collins in Georgia,” Blair said. “That race is closing.”
Blair called New Hampshire “a total slugfest” between Republican John E. Sununu and Democrat Chris Pappas, while Minnesota is “the sleeper that maybe no one was paying attention to.”
In Michigan, Republican Mike Rogers is targeting Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s record on policing and taxes. “He’s very out of step, and I think Mike Rogers stands a very good chance of winning,” Blair said.
On the House battlefield, Blair rejected the narrative that Democrats will retake control. “Republicans are absolutely in the hunt to keep the House,” Blair said. “Anybody who’s saying otherwise doesn’t understand the districts and the numbers.”
Blair said Republicans are targeting Democratic incumbents including Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, and Jared Moskowitz of Florida.
“We are not only defending Republicans, but we are coming after Democrats and coming hard,” Blair said. “That’s because we think we can win those seats.”
The spending advantage that crushed Republicans in past cycles? Gone. “We’re not getting outspent, which has never happened before,” Blair said, adding that he expects Republicans to “outspend them down the stretch.”
Blair said the GOP is “making progress and moving things in the right direction, sort of across the board for Republican candidates” — but stopped short of guaranteeing victory.
“I always say I’m cautiously optimistic on the House. I will never say bullish,” Blair said. “It’s just close. We’re cautiously optimistic, and it’s just a race-by-race fight.”
Blair ended with a call to Republican donors: keep the money flowing. “Now is not the time to pull back. Now is the time to double down — in for a penny, in for a pound,” Blair said. “Please keep sending me ammo. We need it.”
Trump remains committed to directing resources toward GOP candidates through Election Day. “The president is committed to doing everything he can to help Republicans win the midterms,” Blair said. “Down the stretch here, I think, you know, we’re going to continue to have the upper hand in terms of the resource war.”
