So, could there be another 2020 surprise in a few hours? I’m not talking about Minnesota. I’m talking about New Mexico. The last time the Land of Enchantment decided to be smitten by a Republican was in 2004. After 28 years of voting for Democrats in national elections, Trump was able to carry Pennsylvania back into the GOP fold. Could he do the same in New Mexico? The state GOP chair, Steve Pearce, thinks so due to the ground game operation they’ve deployed this cycle. Also, he noted that the polls were off and that Democrats in the state were “scrambling” because they know the state is trending red, according to Pearce. He elaborated more during an interview with Matt Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday on Sirius XM last weekend (via Breitbart):
The chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party said on Saturday that Donald Trump will win the state’s five electoral college votes in the presidential election next week.
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“The polls do have the president down anywhere from six to ten [points in New Mexico], but I will tell you , we have three million total contacts, 2.1 million phone calls, 900,000 doors knocked since January of this year,” Pearce added.
A lot of those doors since August have been Democrat doors. I’ve knocked many of those places personally. They’re not usually hospitable to Republicans. So I was somewhat nervous when I would ask our door knocking teams, “How’s it going out there in this area?” “Oh fine, they’re inviting us in. They’re wanting to look at the literature. They want to know about our judges. They say they’re voting for Trump, and they’re just trying to figure out how far down the ballot to go voting Republicans.”
When you hear that from lifelong Democrats here in the state, in the numbers that our door knocking teams are hearing, I’m just telling you, the polls are not correct.
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“They’re scrambling, because they know that we’re going to turn the state red, but they’re trying to do everything including every dirty trick they can pull to stop us from winning the state,” Pearce added.
“What has to happen on the ground in New Mexico to turn the state red for President Trump?,” Boyle asked.
Pearce told Boyle three things need to happen. First, 180,000 Republicans who did not go to the polls in 2018 need to vote in 2020. Second, about 25 percent of Democrats need to vote for Trump. Third, about 35 percent to 36 percent of the Hispanic vote needs to turn out in favor of Trump.
Pearce added that all three were happening. Again, we shall see