In final week, Trump out to win rival’s Democratic strongholds

What you need to know:

  • On Sunday Donald Trump was in Colorado and New Mexico, both of which voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and are leaning toward Clinton.
  • If Trump holds all the states Republican Mitt Romney won in 2012, and wins Ohio and Florida, he is still short.
  • Hillary Clinton launched a final week election offensive on Wednesday to lock down the state of Florida, key to Trump’s White House dream, as polls showed their race narrowing.

EAU CLAIRE

Republican Donald Trump has spent much of the past week in enemy territory, desperate to poach a Democratic state and carve a perilously narrow path to victory in his White House race against Hillary Clinton.

Polls, history, demographics and Mr Trump’s abrasive rhetoric are not on his side, even as he seeks to capitalise on never-ending revelations about his rival’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.

But with the campaign in its final week, the braggadocious billionaire is determined to make a last-gasp play for a blue state or two that could put him over the top — if he holds on to Republican ground and seizes the crucial battleground of Florida.

On Sunday he was in Colorado and New Mexico, both of which voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and are leaning toward Clinton.

On Monday it was Michigan, then Tuesday it was Pennsylvania, also favouring Clinton. Both states have voted Democratic in presidential elections since 1992. Also on Tuesday, Trump visited Wisconsin, whose Democratic streak goes back further, to 1988.
But Trump’s team is showing some swagger in blue states.

“I feel like it’s going to happen,” Carol Robertson, a 57-year-old on disability assistance, told AFP at Trump’s rally in Eau Claire.

Polls have shown Clinton reliably ahead in Wisconsin for several months, and she is leading by 5.7 percentage points now, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.

Ms Robertson dismissed polls as unreliable, and said a silent majority will rise up in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

“People are afraid to say ‘I support Trump,’” but they’ll vote for him in the privacy of the polling booth, she said. In his quest to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to prevail on November 8, Mr Trump is aiming to snatch Rust Belt states like Ohio, a bona fide swing state which voted twice for Obama but where working-class voters feel disenfranchised with the collapse of the manufacturing sector.

If Trump holds all the states Republican Mitt Romney won in 2012, and wins Ohio and Florida, he is still short. He needs to break into Democratic states.

“If you look at the electoral map, there’s little question that Trump has to find some of these blue states to flip over,” said Geoffrey Peterson, chair of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

ELECTION OFFENSIVE

Wisconsin could be “a logical target” because of its large manufacturing base, which has shrunk in recent decades.

Its population is also considerably whiter than the national average, which means a broader potential base for Trump who draws heavily from white working class males.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton launched a final week election offensive on Wednesday to lock down the state of Florida, key to Trump’s White House dream, as polls showed their race narrowing.

The Republican had been buoyed earlier in the day by a national poll that showed him sneaking a narrow lead in national voting intentions, sending shivers through US markets.

But when the 69-year-old Democratic candidate took to the stage for a late Fort Lauderdale rally her fierce rhetoric was backed by new survey of early voters that shows her winning Florida.

“Well, I’ll tell you what!” she declared, her voice cracking but her tone triumphant. “Donald Trump has proven himself to be temperamentally unfit and unqualified to be president of the United States.”

As she spoke, pollster TargetSmart forecast that she could win Florida — and effectively bar Trump any route to the White House — by a massive eight point margin, 48 to 40 percent.

The Florida poll, conducted with the College of William and Mary, used only a small sample of voters but crucially it targeted those who had already case ballots under the state’s early voting law.

An average of earlier Florida polls by tracker RealClearPolitics gives Trump a narrow one point lead there, but TargetSmart’s survey suggests that many registered Republicans have switched camps.