Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON DC In the final hours before Election Day the race for the White House played out in states that werent on anyones radar only a week ago. And one state won twice by President Obama looks to have slipped away from the Democrats reach.
The final Pre-Election Poll by Iowa-based Selzer & Co. conducted Nov. 1-4 showed Trump with a 46-39 lead and other private polls confirm the Republicans advantage. Obama won Iowa twice with little fanfare but Trump is well-positioned to win the Hawkeye States six electoral votes Tuesday.
Donald Trump is closing his campaign strongly staying on message and keeping his impulses in check as he rides cresting momentum into Election Day.
According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls Hillary Clinton now leads Donald Trump by an average of just 1.7 nationally. Less than three weeks ago Clinton led Trump by 7 on the same model.
But the Republicans chances keep growing and he has kept himself on message as media coverage has focused on Clinton and the FBIs investigation of her private email server.
Trump remains the underdog and has only a narrow road to victory. He must hold every state Mitt Romney won in 2012 add Ohio Iowa and Florida and then flip a blue state or two.
He has done very well and I think will finish well" said Republican strategist Charlie Black a friend of Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. This is going to be very close said Black.
Its not just the FBI probe that is helping Trump either. Another major factor" Black added is all the news about ObamaCares huge premium increases."
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) campaigned this weekend in his home state with GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who has for the longest time refused to even mention Trumps name rewarded the GOP nominee with a full-throated endorsement last week as well.
Two of Trumps former GOP presidential rivals Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are now actively campaigning for his victory. On the stump Trump is inclined to boast about his rising poll numbers.
Michigan which hasnt gone for the GOP nominee since 1988 and received little attention from either campaign until recently has suddenly become the center of the political universe. Trump swung through the Detroit suburbs there on Sunday greeted by op-eds from local newspapers declaring the state to be in play for the Republican.
The momentum here and across the nation is Trumps" said the Detroit Free Press. The latest Free Press survey of the state found Clintons lead there reduced over the past two weeks from 11 points to 4 within the polls margin of error.
A victory for Trump in Michigan would open a world of new paths to the White House for him and the Clinton campaign is taking his incursion there seriously. The Democratic nominee and President Obama both stopped in the Great Lakes State on Monday seeking to blunt Trumps momentum in the industrial Midwest where the GOP nominees nationalist populism and anti-trade rhetoric has resonated with the white working-class voters who have abandoned Democrats.
Beds are damp" former Obama adviser Van Jones said on CNNs State of the Union." There is a crack in the blue wall and it has to do with trade."
And Michigan isnt the only blue state where Trump worked a surprising late push. The GOP nominee also touched down in deep blue Minnesota marking the first campaign rally for either candidate in the state this year. Polling is scarce in Minnesota but Clinton holds a 5 point lead in the RealClearPolitics average.
Do you really want a president who doesnt care enough about your vote that she doesnt show up?" Trump asked on Sunday. She never came here.
Trumps running mate Mike Pence also visited Minnesota on Monday. The North Star State last went for the Republican presidential nominee in 1972 when President Richard Nixon carried 49 states.
Indeed Trump spent all of Sunday in states that have not gone red in several presidential election cycles Virginia Pennsylvania and Iowa among them.
Virginia is likely in Clintons column but the polls have tightened in Pennsylvania which along with Michigan represents Trumps best hope at picking up a blue Rust Belt state.
His trip to Iowa another traditionally blue battleground that Trump must win was to shore up his leaky support there. Trump once led handily but polls now count the Hawkeye State as a toss-up
As election forecasters have adjusted their models to reflect a closer race Clinton played defense. Yet Democrats express confidence that their get-out-the-vote operation and a favorable battleground map would deliver Election Day victory.
Shes got it" one close friend of Clinton said predicting the former secretary of State would win between 310 and 320 Electoral College votes. The number required to win the presidency is 270.
In Florida where nearly 6 million people had voted as of Sunday with ballots evenly split between the two parties more Hispanics have already voted than did in all of 2012.
In Nevada some experts believe Hispanic turnout may clinch the state for Clinton even though shes the underdog in the RealClearPolitics average of polls.
And while theres been a decline in black voters casting ballots early in North Carolina Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook has said that Hispanic turnout has more than made up for that deficit. The GOP nominee must win the Tarheel State if hes going to win the White House.
President Obama perhaps the campaigns most effective surrogate hit Florida on Sunday and was in Michigan and New Hampshire on Monday.
Clinton appeared in Cleveland for a star-studded concert headlined by Jay Z and Beyonc over the weekend and again on Sunday with basketball star LeBron James.
When theyre concentrating on Cleveland two days before Tuesday theyre not expanding the map in Ohio I can assure you" Republican National Chairman Rince Priebus said on ABCs This Week."
On Monday Clinton Obama first lady Michelle Obama former President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton will appear together for a get-out-the-vote concert in Pennsylvania where Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen will perform.
Hell be doing twice the stops that Clinton will be doing in the last few days" Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) boasted on Fox News Sunday."
After five rallies in five states on Sunday Trump makes stops Monday in Florida North Carolina Pennsylvania Michigan and New Hampshire.
All of those states except North Carolina went for President Obama in 2012.
