A Republican strategist added fuel to the fire Tuesday night as former President Donald Trump scrambles to contain the damage after a key volunteer said the Trump campaign no longer views New Hampshire as "a battleground state."
The campaign has vehemently denied any plans to abandon the Granite State to Democrats and kicked the volunteer out of the organization.
However, behind the scenes, Republicans in New Hampshire have seemed to reach this consensus, CNN correspondent Steve Contorno told anchor Erin Burnett on "OutFront."
"Steve, here's the reality," said Burnett. "New Hampshire, they thought they could win it. They really thought they had it at one point for the Trump campaign. How have the tides turned?"
Contorno said New Hampshire has a "bit of an independent streak" and noted that while it hasn't backed a Republican for president since 2000, Trump came within 3,000 votes in 2016.
"But a top volunteer to his campaign in the area put out an email recently that said ... it's his understanding that the campaign has all but given up on New Hampshire, noting that it has no more surrogates coming there, it doesn't have any advertising, and internal polling seems to suggest that Trump could actually lose the state by more than he did in 2020."
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He noted that the Trump campaign maintains the now-former volunteer spoke out of turn, and it insists it has a "robust operation" in the state, as they plan to fight there.
But other Republican insiders believe that isn't the case.
"When I talked to other Republican operatives in the state, they said that this volunteer is painting a pretty clear picture that's really illustrative of what's happening there."
That includes longtime GOP strategist Mike Dennehy, who Contorno said told him: "If the election were held today, Trump would lose by six to eight points. He's got to win the race. So you have to shift resources and I can absolutely understand that point of view. It's just hard to make the case for him to spend his resources there."
"Now, Mike and others have said that there's still two months left in this race that has already had a lot of twists and turns," added Contorno. "So the momentum could shift again. But Erin, he's running out of time. And I will point out that the he has no advertising reserved for the fall."
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