Donald Trump’s strategy just failed miserably
While Joe Biden pulled off a surprise win in Minnesota, the winner of that state’s Republican primary was hardly surprising: Donald Trump. It was made even less surprising by the fact that he was the only candidate on the ballot. Yet, for some reason, the Republican National Committee thought this was a big deal, and tweeted on Wednesday: “Fueled by momentum for @realDonaldTrump’s agenda, our party saw historic turnout last night in several key battleground states.”
While it’s true that he did much better in Minnesota than in 2016, when he finished in third place behind Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, he only received 137,225 votes on Tuesday, over 150,000 fewer votes than Joe Biden received in the Democratic primary despite only minimal campaigning efforts in Minnesota, where Amy Klobuchar initially had the lead in votes and Biden wasn’t even expected to win. In addition to that, there were another 3,302 Republicans who actually showed up to the polls just so they could write in the name of another candidate.
Minnesota is a state that Trump narrowly lost in the general election last time and is now targeting in his re-election bid. It’s no wonder they want to emphasize Minnesota and energize Republicans there to turn out. The only problem is that it’s not quite working out that way so far.
Only a fraction of Republicans actually showed up, suggesting that winning the state this time could be even more difficult than before. Whether the RNC was simply trying to cheer up Donald Trump or boost voter momentum for 2020, they only succeeded in showing how pathetic their own numbers are – another sign that they could be in deep trouble come November.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making